For the Love of my Friends
by Foxie-sama
Summary: NaruHina For Naruto, time was always of the essence, especially when he knew everything that would come to pass and only had a certain amount of time to change it all. WILL NOT BE CONTINUED.
1. His Last Words

Disclaimer: No rights to Naruto..

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter One: His Last Words

by Foxie

* * *

The hidden Leaf village was known for many things, the strength of its ninjas, the beautiful springs and summers, the great training faculties.. Konoha was always seen as the last village that would fall under siege. An impossible feat, some would have said.

But many impossible things can be done by ninjas. 

More than half of Konoha was occupied by the Sound, its most hated enemy. The small percentage that wasn't, still was dangerous, even to those powerful leaf ninjas.

"Come in Home Base. This is Team Omega." someone whispered. Two ninjas cautiously walked down the road, near the crossroads of Sakura and Lotus avenue. The first, a tall strange looking man with eyebrows that nearly took up his entire forehead lead the way, his dark eyes sweeping over the debris and rubble that littered the streets. His eyes were sad. Never would he have thought his proud village would be in such a state, ten years ago.

The man that shadowed his footsteps was pale and thin looking, with two red strips going down his face. He had a hand on his ear, presumably the one trying to get in contact with Home Base. A medium sized dog walked protectively by his ankles.

"Fuck. These things have horrible reception." The man with the dog hissed harshly, taking the communicator off. He shook it around, as if he was trying to intimidate it into working. His companion looked back, wordlessly asking for the communicator with a casual hand. The other man tossed it to him.

With undying patience, the thick browed man adjusted the wavelength until it was the right one. "Home Base? Over." he asked of the communicator quietly.

Someone coughed on the other end. "Just where the hell are you guys? Over." Both of the men smiled, recognizing the stern voice of the operator.

"And don't give me that bull shit excuse 'We got lost'. Naruto already used it. Over." They both laughed quietly, despite the seriousness of the situation. _Really, Naruto-kun.._ the first thought with a shake of his dark hair. How could they get lost in their own village?

"My apologies, Shikamaru-kun.. Kiba-kun and I got intercepted by sound nins. Over." the man said politely. Kiba rolled his eyes.

"How many survivors, Lee?" Shikamaru asked, his voice slightly staticy over the faulty line. Lee frowned.

"Only Kiba-kun and myself." he said somberly, exchanging a dark look with Kiba, who snarled.Shikamaru cursed over the line.

"Another fucking win for Orochimaru.." Kiba whispered angrilyto Lee. The taijutsu specialist could only nod silently, his dark eyes full of sadness.

* * *

They made it to Home Base, once the Hyuuga mansion in better days, got past the guards, and found themselves in the makeshift infirmary. The head medic, their pink haired friend, Sakura, looked over them with a critical eye. They found themselves shifting uncomfortably under her gaze.

"You really shouldn't over exert yourselves." she said scoldingly. Kiba shrugged, leaving Lee to do all the ass kissing he wanted. Lee's eyes morphed into hearts when he spoke to the pretty medic. 

"But of course, Sakura-san! How foolish of us!" he took her hands in his. "We'll follow your orders the next time, my lotus blossom!" Sakura arched an eyebrow in amusement, too used to his antics to be embarrassed.

"Hey, don't volunteer my services, Thick Brows." Kiba said rudely. He turned to Sakura. "Where's the idiot?" Sakura smiled when she thought about her blonde team mate. He was usually attached to her hip, making sure she didn't fall into a period of depression. Even now, after seven years, she still mourned Sasuke's death. Inside, she was still the little girl, so in love with the quiet boy.

"I'm not sure. Maybe with the Hokage?"

* * *

Nara Shikamaru stared at the memorial stone, brought to their hideout by Kakashi, in the last hours of his life.

"_O-Obito and I.. tried to put in his name. Sound interrupted_.." Kakashi hadmuttered, his voice slurred from the large doses of poison injected in him. "_Can you carve Iruka's name in?_"

Iruka was Kakashi's best friend. The chuunin instructor had been killed when the Hokage was attacked by several curse seal sound nins. He was the only one to see the attack that could have ended Tsunade's life, and threw himself in front of it. He was killed instantly. A noble death for a ninja, to die for one's village.

Shikamaru remembered how the Hokage broke the news to Naruto, just coming back from a dangerous mission. The slightly happy look on the blond's face had fallen, his expressive eyes had filled with tears. He hadn't believed it, had run all the way to Iruka's apartment. He ripped through the wooden door, screaming his adopted father's name. In the end, Naruto had accepted the truth. Iruka was gone. No one cared about him anymore.

The shadow user's eyes landed on a different name. Hyuuga Hinata.

She had been the one to guide Naruto out of his depression, to bring him back to them. But only to be cruelly taken away by the Grim Reaper, in a successful attempt to bring Naruto back to life after his epic battle with Kabuto.

It was a wonder that Naruto didn't snap and go crazy. Shikamaru knew of the Kyuubi, one of the few of the people his age that did. He didn't hate Naruto for it. It would take too much effort for a Nara to actually _hate_ someone. Rather, Shikamaru was in awe how the blond seemed to be oblivious of it. How the blond could walk with his head held high, in a crowd of people who hated him purely because of what the Kyuubi did so many years ago.

Two long arms wrapped around his shoulders in an embrace. He leaned back, careful not to jar his pregnant wife too much.

Yes, he was a fool enough to accidentally get her pregnant in a time of war. All the child would ever see was blood shed and the bloody fragments of their beloved village. However, to his great surprise, instead of anger from the last surviving ninjas of Konoha, the new life that Ino carried within her was a great boost in their spirit.

The almost always frowning Neji gave her some of the baby things stored in the attic, with a tiny smile. Naruto always cooed and asked to feel the baby kicking, always adding in 'She's gonna be one hellva ninja!' whenever the baby kicked particular hard. Kiba and Lee had dragged Shikamaru aside, immediately on him, not for getting her pregnant, but how a competent husband and soon to be father was supposed to act around a pregnant mom, not that either of the two had the experience.

Tsunade and Sakura acted particularly gleeful about it, as most women did, saying they'd love to see her through the pregnancy, all while scolding Shikamaru about being too rough with her. Chouji, Konohamaru, Inari, and Naruto, the biggest eaters of the Rebellion, started giving his wife great portions of their share of food, insisting she needed it more than they did.

Gaara and his siblings, the few times that they visited before the village was occupied by the Sound, gave Shikamaru a stiff congratulations. Temari, as expected, illuminated her remorse about not 'going after him when she had the chance', the most sure fire way to set his wife's temper off. After his wife had ranted at Temari for still flirting with him, the sand nin patted her shoulder, asking if she felt better. To his surprise, Ino nodded. They walked off, arm in arm, talking about baby toys and colors of baby rooms.

Gaara had lingered back, giving him that unnerving look of his. Surprisingly, the Kazekage had a bit of advice that Shikamaru, though wary of him, took to heart. "_Keep her safe_." the red head had said seriously, a frown tugging the corners of his mouth down. "_Or else_."

Shikamaru sighed heavily. "We're running out of room."he told his wife, ripping the communicator off of his ear. He tossed it away from him. Nara Ino couldn't think of anything to say, but gave him all the comfort she could, pulling thespecial jonin deeper into her embrace until he finally relaxed against her. He stared off into the distance, looking at but through the memorial stone that Kakashi had so foolishly risked his life for."This war.. It should have never started." he whispered, entwining his hand in his wife's and gently kissing the back.

The Anbu in the corner slipped out, not wanting to intrude on a personal moment. His long blond hair shadowed his expressive eyes. _He's right.. This shit has gone on far too long_. he thought.

A voice interrupted in his thoughts, a voice oozing with wisdom and power. **Maybe.. there's a way to keep it from happening?** His tenant mused, almost himself. The Anbu's temper was sparked.

"Listen, fur ball, that shit isn't funny-"

"Uzumaki Naruto.. Talking to yourself again?" The Anbu looked up, blue eyes widening in surprise. Then he grinned.

"Gaara!" he gave the Kazekage an affectionate hug. The red head looked away, an expression of either embarrassment or annoyance flitting across his pale face. Naruto pulled away, oblivious to the demon's host obvious discomfort at being touched. But Naruto was always affectionate to his friends, whether they liked it or not.

Gaara couldn't decide whether it was the fact that Naruto was his friend, or that Naruto could beat him in a demon to demon fight, was the reason why he never complained about the blond's over zealousness. He supposed it was a little bit of both.

Naruto bounced on the balls of his feet, excited by his appearance. "You're here to see the old lady right? Come one, I'll show you-" A series of massive explosions cut him off. The mansion suddenly was a hundred degrees hotter. Gaara grabbed Naruto by his arm, creating a sphere of sand around both demon hosts. It protecting them from the heat and flying debris.

After a few seconds, an eternity to Naruto, the explosions stopped. The sand fell, the two demon hosts having a bit of a hard time getting out of it. The first layer of sand had turned into solid glass. Naruto threw himself through it, not caring about the numerous wounds that appeared on his body. Sliding on the shards of glass, he ran back into the room he just left.

"Shika!" he cried. "Ino!"

The memorial stone had protected them from the worst of the blast, but not the flying debris. Shikamaru had pushed his wife down, using his body as shield against it. Blood pooled around their bodies, all his.

Ino rocked back and forth, Shikamaru's body in her arms.Even in death, the tactician had a frown.Weak kneed and slightly hysterical at the sight of one of his oldest friends' death, Naruto wondered if Shikamaru would open his eyes one last time and mumble something about how troublesome death is.

He barely registered the feeling of his knees hitting the ground as he dropped down in front of the expectant mother, watching her wide terrified eyes blink rapidly as she cried. He wanted to reach for her. He wanted to reach for him. He wanted to run away and pretend that he didn't see Shikamaru's corpse in the frail Yamanaka's arms. He wanted to run out of the house, and, with a primal roar of anger, brutally kill whoever attacked them.

But he was frozen still, captivated by the look of pain in her eyes. She stared at him in return, slowly coming to the horrifying realization that she wasn't in a dream. Slowly, Ino tore her gaze from him and looked over his shoulder at the stoic Kazekage, his lips twisted in something that could have been disgust, or sadness.

Her attention shifting between them, she started to shake, tears streaming down her pale faceas she looked at the two demon hosts. They stared back in a mix of shock, sadness, and pity. Her chapped lips parted. The scream that ripped through her throat would haunt them for months afterward.

"No!"


	2. The Stolen Jutsu

Disclaimer: I do not have rights to Naruto

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Two: The Stolen Jutsu

by Foxie

* * *

Before the beginning of the war, twenty thousand people permanently populated Konoha. 

After one year, the deaths due to the war whittled down the population by two thousand people.

Year Five of the war, the population was only eight thousand.

Year Ten.. there was seventy people.

In one day, seventy people decreased to nine.

They escaped from the Hyuuga mansion to a safe house a few blocks away. It was about the size of a closet. They all huddled together inside.

Hyuuga Neji sat against the door, eyes shut. He had been on the second floor of the mansion training when the explosions started. He had seen them a second before it hit the room and performed a Heavenly Spin. It saved him for the most part, but he had horrible burns on his arms.

Sakura and Lee sat next to him on either side. They had been sitting by the unlit fireplace. The bricks barely held. They both were cut and scratched up, but other than that, they looked fine. Sakura had her arm around a sobbing Ino. She hadn't stopped crying since they left the house.

Next Lee, looking tiny compared to the rest of them, sat Inari and Konohamaru. They had been raiding the kitchen for some food with Chouji. The first explosion had knocked the swinging doors off the hinges. Realizing something was horribly wrong, Chouji had pushed Inari and Konohamaru into one of the cabinets. They were shielded by his bulk when the second and third explosions rocked the room. The brave ninja went down only when the last bit of debris had stopped flying around.

Gaara sat next to Inari, his face impassive. Both of his siblings had been killed. Inari let out a muffled sniffle. His mother had brought him to Konoha when Orochimaru had taken over the Wave Country. She had went back to her country to help, and never came back for Inari. The boy shoved his fist in his mouth to stop crying. A light pressure on his head made him look up.

Gaara didn't look at the boy, just kept his hand lightly on Inari's head.

"It's going to be alright.." he said, no change in expression. Inari swallowed harshly, and nodded. He attempted to copy the stotic expressions of most of the ninjas around the room, but found it to be very difficult.

Konohamaru stared blankly at his hands, the only show of emotion from him was the flexing of his fingers. No one could tell what he was thinking, or if he was thinking. But Lee could only guess at what types of thoughts were running through the young chuunin's head. He kept a firm hand on the boy's elbow,making sure thathe didn't end up doing something stupid, like running out in the open and attempting to find the sound nins that attacked them.

The Hokage sat next to Ino, her face grim. She had dropped a pencil underneath the desk she had been sitting at, and had went down on her hands and knees to retrieve it. The explosion had knocked the table to the side of the wall, with her still underneath it. The floor weakened from the stress, collapsed underneath it and the Hokage. Only her ninja reflexes kept her from being squashed under the heavy slate table.

Narutosat between Gaara and the Hokage. He glared at his lap, hands tensing in his flak jacket. _It was only shit luck that saved us,_he thought angrily. _How the hell did they find us!_

Their hideout was hidden by illusions and a powerful jutsu that Naruto himself had put up. One who wished to harm anyone within in the sealed area could not find the Hyuuga mansion. Even if they had lived there before, or knew where it was, all they would see was debris and feel a strong urge to look elsewhere.

_Even if there was a spy.._ he thought, eyes flashing red at the thought. _No one should have be able to find us! _He shook, partly in anger, and partly in fear. Someone had broken his jutsu.. If that person came now, he would not be able to protect his precious people.

**You could..stop the war from even happening..** The Kyuubi mused from the back of Naruto's mind. Naruto felt his anger grow.

_That wasn't funny then, and it sure as hell isn't funny now, fox! _he shouted mentally. There was a slight shift in the demon fox's chakra, an almost mental shrug.

**Look at the blond insect.. **the fox muttered. Naruto's eyes shifted almost immediately to Ino. She had stopped crying, and was staring vacantly at the wall. Her hand was curled over her stomach, where her baby was still growing. _She needs Shikamaru.. _he thought, oddly detached. _This can't possibly be good for the baby. _

**Look at your so called 'precious people'. You refuse to listen to listen to a small amount of hope. You hypocrite.. **the Kyuubi snarled. Naruto paled. **I give you a chance to redo the wrongs.. the things that lead to the demise of your comrades**.

The Kyuubi began throwing mental images at his vessel.

Kakashi showing up three hours late, a sheepish smile hiddenon hismasked face and his perverted book in one hand, to shrill shrieks of _'you're late!'. _

Iruka ordering him to clean up his graffiti on the Hokage monument, then treating him to ramen afterwards.

The accidental kiss with Sasuke before they were genins, and the brutal beating he got from the Uchiha's fan girls.

Shikamaru visiting him in the hospital and trying to teach him how to play chess.

Gai punching Lee, then with a scary show of sparkly lights and a background of a setting sun, the two hugging each other with tears running down their faces.

Tenten and the other kunoichis giggling in front of a book store.

Kiba and Shino sparing while he and Akamaru watched.

**And you refuse to think about it! **the fox sneered. **The insect that sealed me in you cared more about his friends than you do.. You would have made a terrible Hokage..**

_Shut up!_ Naruto said to him. _I would do anything for them! I would die a thousand times for a single smile out of any one of them! _There was a surprised silence, then the fox chuckled.

**Well, you don't need to go that far. One jutsu will do. **Kyuubi said amused. He then gave his vessel all the directions needed to do the jutsu. Naruto frowned at the complexity of it.

He tried to remember the hand seals that Kyuubi showed him._ Inu, Tora, Saru, Ousu-buta.. _Kyuubi sighed in annoyance. The kitling had a horrible memory for such things.

**I'll take care of the hand seals.. **Even with the information of how the jutsu worked, the Anbu couldn't help but be a little excited.

The jutsu had been created before Kohona was even built, in a time where ninjas roamed free, without bounds to a certain village, and deaths were just a daily occurrence. A man was looking for a way to bring his son back to life, and sought his answer in the past. He created a jutsu that would take him back to a time before the death of his son. He would meld with his past self, and with the knowledge of what was to come, prevent his son's death. According to legend, he used the jutsu, and died of stamina depletion before he even reached the past. Many had tried to use it after him, but were said to have died of the same reason.

_Or they could have made it!_ he thought happily, stubbornly ignoring all of the possible horrible outcomes.

The jutsu had been forbidden by the Tsuchikage and sealed in a cave for hundreds of years. However, in the Kyuubi's reign of terror, the seal had been pulled off, and the scroll had disappeared. But when the blood thirsty fox started to attack the ninja villages, the jutsu was least of their concern.

_What do you get out of this? _Naruto wondered, not for the first time. It made sense that the Kyuubi would lend him chakra in his times of need, because if he died, so do the Kyuubi. All the Kyuubi had to do in the time of war was make sure his vessel was safe. He did not have to reveal a jutsu that could save the lives of his friends as well.

_Why are you so eager to do this?_ he asked suspiciously. The Kyuubi coughed.He sounded embarrassed.

**When one has.. paws, it is decidingly difficult to complete a jutsu using hand seals like you insects**. Kyuubi coughed again. **Think of this as a request from a.. handicapped connoisseur.**

_Yeah.. sure. Connoisseur, my ass._ Naruto thought amused. He didn't believe the fox. Though he believed that Kyuubi wouldn't purposely put him in danger if he could help it, after being with each other for so long and developing a sort of companionship, he knew that the fox wouldn't hesistate to lie.

**Fine. Don't believe me.. **The Kyuubi sounded highly offended, but Naruto got the feeling that the fox was pretending.** But get moving on those hand seals before I change my mind.**

Naruto smirked, then performed the hand seal for dog, then tiger. With the Kyuubi barking out what hand seals to perform and how to gather his chakra, he all but forgot everyone else in the closet space.

"W-what are you doing, bro?" Konohamaru asked in surprise of his almost sibling. Naruto paused before making the last seal. The Hokage leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest.

"That jutsu has a death rate of 7:1.." she murmured, her knowledge in jutsu surpassing anyone of the last leaf ninjas. Naruto nodded, not surprised that his ancient granny knew exactly what he was doing. He already knewthat she was tempted andwould have gone over to Orochimaru's side to bring back her boyfriend and her little brother. He would have figured that, in her grief, she would have researched any and all ways to bring them back, including the time travel jutsu.

"W-what is he doing, Hokage-sama!" Sakura asked, her voice leaning toward a pleading tone. She did not want to loose another comrade.

The Hokage was silent for a moment. "A.. time traveling jutsu.." Everyone tensed. Neji was the first one to relax, with a heavy sigh.

"Hmph.. As usual, he jumps in head first without preparations." was his only reply.Gaara stared at Naruto was his unnerving teal gaze.

"You... looking for a death wish, Uzumaki Naruto?" he murmured. Naruto said nothing, keeping his gaze on his knees.

"A jutsu of that kind.. is much more different than others. Aburame clan, for instance.." the Hokage said, closing her eyes. They all thought of Shino, dead for the last three years. "Offered chakra to their bugs. If the bugs were satisfied with the offering, they would stay with the offerer, and be used as their tools. If not.. the bugs would eat them alive." Lee shifted uncomfortably, and turned a round eyed gaze to his blue eyed friend. _Naruto-kun.._

She continued. "This sort of jutsu needs an offering of stamina. The very energy that we are using right now to stay awake.. to even think. Most taijutsu specialists have an abnormal amount of stamina, as taijutsu only requires the usage of that. But even so, this jutsu defies Space and Time. The offering of stamina needed to make this even half way work.. is much more than a taijutsu specialist can even offer. Thus, the high death rates."

**The big chested woman.. is quite smart. **Naruto nodded, holding the chakra in place so she could finish explaining. It would be rather rude to die on them when they were still confused about his motives.

"Naruto always had an abnormal amount of stamina in the first place. It could work!" Sakura said, a gleam of hope lighting up her dulled and defeated eyes.

"Yeah old woman, the deaths were of normal ninjas.." Naruto smiled, a gleam of something predatory in his expressive eyes. "I.. am far from normal."

"What do you mean by that, Naruto-kun?" Inari asked. Sure, he wasn't a ninja. He barely understood half of the conversation. _But it seemed like a lot of people who did what Naruto-kun wanted to do died.. But Naruto-kun always defied the laws of reality! He could do it!_

"Why, Inari you ask? Because.. I am a vessel.. like Gaara." Naruto said sadly. Kyuubi shifted in his mind, reminding him that he needed to hurry this conversation up so he could perform the jutsu. "The vessel.. of the Kyuubi."

"W-what!" was the general response of those around him.He smiled sadly to himself. He knew this would happen. His friends would fear him.. and thus hate him. Only Tsunade, Sakura, and Gaara, the ones who were already aware of the Kyuubi's presence in him,would continue to look at him the same way. It didn't matter. Soon, he would be in the past, saving them anyway, because he-

"I already knew." Low and quiet, the last Hyuuga spoke out strongly, jarring Naruto from his thoughts.

-Loved them. He looked at Neji, mouth agape.

"W-what? When.. How..?" he stuttered. The Hyuuga opened his eyes, a brief fit of amusement twisting the corners of his mouth up.

"That you are the vessel to a demon. The first Chuunin Exam we both entered in. My eyes." Neji shifted, that same calm look on his face, a darker emotion turning the pearly whites of his eyes to a somber grey.

"She knew too." he said sadly. "Hinata.. she knew long before I." he frowned, amending his answer. "Maybe not of the demon directly, but she knew something was different about you, something that made all of the adults fear you.But instead of fearing you because of it, she respected you for keeping that smile on your face. She.. loved you. And she died for you, Naruto."

Tears came to Naruto's eyes. _Hinata-chan.._

"You are.. a friend Naruto." Ino said unexpectedly. She swallowed harshly, shadowed blue eyes meeting his own."You are.. an ally. You are.. a brother. You are not an enemy."

"Orochimaru is an enemy. Even Sasuke was an enemy.." Sakura said, picking up after her friend. She smiled gently at her last team mate."But.. you seem to think that even after all this time, we would abandon you."

"Besides," Lee said, his bandaged covered hand rising to his chin. "I guess having a demon in you is like.. having a bloodline, right?" He looked at Neji. The Hyuuga nodded.

"A really really cool bloodline." Kohonamaru said, nodding to himself. He remembered clearly when his role model had suddenly sprouted claws and hadblood red eyes, and suddenly was a hundred times stronger and faster.Inari grinned.

"Demon or not, a dumb blond is still a dumb blond." Naruto glared at him for that comment,thoughthe corners of his mouth twitched up slightly despite hisattempt to look mad.Inari laughed, then covered his mouth. It wouldn't due to have the sound ninjas find them all cramped in a corner.

"I love you guys.." Naruto said, face brightening up. "That's why I'm going to save you. Even if I die in the process."

Gaara felt an odd sense of deja vu. In his mind's eye, he saw a twelve year old boy, glaring at him, his face streaked with blood and dirt. The proud blond said that if Gaara hurt anyone of his precious people, he would kill him. The boy had battled against the Sand's strongest shinobi and lived. Barely having enough strength to stand, he still was ready to fight for them. To die for them.

"Gaara.." the boy in his vision, only ten years older looked to him. He looked a little uncertain. "If.. anything goes wrong..." He bit his lip, not knowing how the others would react if they heard him say that the only one he trusted to keep them safe was Gaara himself.

"I will take care of your precious people." one demon vessel said to the other. The blond smiled, relieved beyond measure.

"Thank you..." After waiting what seemed like forever, he performed the dragon seal. Naruto watched as the people in front of him faded, the dark background changing to red. His skin became hot, as the feeling of weightlessness increased.

He was falling too fast, he realized, and started panicking. Strength was torn from his body, he started to feel weaker and weaker.

The last thing he saw before the world faded to black was something large and of a darker red, catching him, and leading him to safety.


	3. Morning Visitor

Disclaimer: Me no own, so you no sue.

AN: I have decided on a couple pairings- ShikaIno because it's hilarious to pair up such polar opposites, and KakaIru, because no one completes Kakashi better than Iruka and visa versa, NaruHina, because this pairing hasn't had much spotlight (and this is such an interesting plot to experiment on them), and NejiTen because.. just because. Do you see the Hyuuga taking to any other girl (besides Hinata) throughout the Naruto story line? Uh, no.

If you totally are obsessed with SasuNaru pairings, I apologize. And ask you to wait for my other fic. It will have a SasuNaru pairing, and be set (at least in the beginning) pre-Sound Temptation, post-Chuunin Exam. It's still in outline form, so it will be a while till it comes out. In the meantime, read Chibi Orochimaru's _The Thirteenth Hour_. It is sooo cool! Sasuke makes a good vampire!

I'm a little angry at Sasuke right now for magna chapters 230-something thru 238 (poor naru-chan!) so I don't think I can write him with making him seem like a total bastard. But I'll worry about _that_ next chapter.

Such is my opinion. Got any other ideas for pairings, my friends? Thanks for reviewing and giving me your feedback, you guys!

Extra Note: I had planned the 'goggles' thing to be a one-shot.. but it fits best in here..

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Three: Morning Visitor

by Foxie

There was one thing on his mind when Naruto woke up. No wait, a couple of things on his mind. One, the bed was comfy, despite the spring that was poking him in the side. Two, he really, really, _really _needed to go to the bathroom. And three, he had no idea how he had gotten there.

Sure, he could guess, relating to past experiences of waking up in a comfy bed. That one time when he was fourteen and training under the most perverted ninja he knew of, Jiraiya the Ero-Sanin. The toad hermit was 'researching' and tricked Naruto into going into the hot spring area while it was occupied, saying that his ramen was in there.

Naruto, like the naive idiot he was, went to go save his precious ramen and was met by women in various states of undress.

Aware that what he was seeing was not supposed to be mentioned in polite conversation, he covered his eyes, and ran the opposite way. He misjudged the distance from the door to where he was, and ended up running smack dab into it, knocking himself unconscious.

He had woken up in the hospital. Apparently, the women didn't think he was unconscious, so preceded to beat the daylights out of him.

But, the perverted hermit had died rather peacefully in Year Three of the war, of an ulcer in his stomach. So that couldn't be it.

He frowned in the pillow. Or it could have been that he had trained himself to the state of unconsciousness. He had done that before. Then Neji or Lee, who trained as much as he did, could have found him. They had done that before too. Then Ino- who always got the best sleeping arrangements because she was pregnant- or Shikamaru intercepted them, and said that he'd sleep much better on their bed. _Again._

He cursed in the pillow. He deprived a woman carrying around the burden of two people, of sleep. He was such an evil bastard. He pushed himself up. Something clung to the top of his head.

Next time he was going to tell Lee or Neji to leave him on the floor and practice around him. He got up and walked to the door.

Naruto had never been a morning person. He had perfected, however, a way to go through all of his morning routines without even opening his eyes. It had worked well.. until today.

_Stupid, caring people who think they knew everything_-

His inner rant was halted when something attacked him from in front. He jumped back, sliding into a taijutsu stance, only to have another hit his spine.

He twisted around, prepared to counter, when his opponents did something to the ground underneath his feet. Something soft twisted around his feet.

Losing balance, he fell face first. His hand fisted in something white that littered the floor. _How utterly low.. to attack me in such a state! _

He waved the white thing that was in his hand. A surrender. Even he knew when fighting was useless.

He flipped to his back, still waving the white material. His eyes widened in surprise for two reasons.

One, the great Uzumaki Naruto, Anbu class ninja, with everything in him to become an excellent Hokage, had been bested by a wall, a dresser, and some dirty clothes.

Two, he was waving around a pair of tighty whities.

He groaned and tossed it aside. He'd figure out where he was. _After_ he relieved his bladder.

Naruto washed his hands, feeling a lot better. _Just find some coffee, some of Inari's double stuffed jelly donuts... _he mentally kept track of what he needed to do. _..Find my flak jacket, my kunai and shuriken holster.. _he glanced at the mirror on his way to the door.

He had almost made it to the hallway when he froze. Then promptly backtracked to look in the mirror.

He wasn't a person obsessed with how he looked in the morning. He certainly wasn't a narcissist, and only ran the brush through his hair twice before losing interest and running off. He had gone out fighting Sound nins in nothing but a pair of boxers, once or twice.

But even Naruto would look twice at the mirror when there was some sort of marine animal trying to bit his head off.

He frowned at the cracked mirror, then pulled the oversized guppy off of his head. It's just a sleeping cap, he reassured himself. He ran his hands over the worn material, feeling in the small rips and tears.

There was something..off with his reflection. For starters, his hair was short. Well, having short hair really wasn't a bother-he had been thinking about cutting it a long time ago, ever since Kabuto grabbed him by his ponytail and tossed him through a couple buildings.- but going from shoulder blade long hair to this length.. and not remembering how it happened?

_Alright.. how drunk did I get last night?_ he asked the Kyuubi. He patiently waited for something along the lines of, **_'You got roaring ass drunk, did the tango with Lee while wearing a dress, mistook Shikamaru for a rock and started giving him advice on how to raise children, and sung 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow!' at the top of your lungs, and knocked yourself unconscious while fighting with a statue..'_ **At least.. that's what he said last time..

Instead he got.. a snore? He was surprised and stared at the younger looking version of him in the mirror. The boy just shrugged. Naruto's eyes narrowed suddenly. Wait a sec..

_Kyuubi, what the hell?! You don't need to sleep! _

**..Damn. I liked you better when you were short and stupid.. **the Kyuubi muttered. **Wait.. you're still stupid.. **

Naruto growled. The fox then chuckled sadistically. **And now, I shrimpifed you.**

Puzzled by the cryptic words, he looked at his reflection. He frowned, and bounced up and down on the balls of his feet.

His face paled when he realized what the fox had meant.

"I'm a midget!"

It took him a while to calm down. It didn't help that the Kyuubi was making jabs at him left and right. It took him even longer to remember why he was 'shrimpifed', as the Kyuubi pointed out with a snicker.

Sadist bastard.

The apartment was really just two rooms, if you thought about it. His living room, which was a small corner with a black and white television led into his laundry room -another corner- and led into his kitchen, which was the other room. The door to his room was often shut to hide the piles and piles of dirty orange jump suits he needed to clean. He instead grabbed the only clean clothes left in his room- a black zip up vest over a shirt that was a little too tight for him, and dark green shorts.

Naruto eventually got to the kitchen, without starting a fight with another innocent wall. After a quick breakfast-he was starved. It took twenty packets of instant ramen to sate his hunger-, he leaned against the refrigerator with a cup of tea- there was no coffee-, and organized his thoughts.

So. He was supposed to be the savior of Kohona, and other countless villages, and blah blah blah. More importantly, he needed to kick major snake ass. But now, he was a lot younger- at least in looks- than he had been when he could at least stand toe to toe with Orochimaru, all because he had melded with his former self. So now he was a weakling.

**Actually, both of our chakra had doubled. **

.._Huh? _The fox sighed. **Remember? You melded with your past self. _I_ melded with my past self. **

_..not following._ There was some murmured things coming from the fox in a different language. Naruto just knew that what he was saying wasn't a good thing, considering the fact that his tenant said them with such feeling.

**..One plus one equals two. Add two things together, and you get something of a greater quantity...Most of the time, but going into negatives would be going way over your head. **Ignoring the fox's insult-or maybe just not understanding it?-Naruto grinned.

_I get it! My chakra had increased! But what about my physical strength?_

**Finally, an intelligent question.. **The Kyuubi drawled.** Most of your physical strength had come from me, and my chakra, so that has increased as well.**

_Alright_, he thought to himself. _I'm in the past. I'm supposed to save the world from queens like Orochimaru.. So how much time do have left till the war? ..Or better yet, till Sasuke ditches us for the Sound and his revenge?_

The Kyuubi had no idea what the day was that he had dropped them off at. Naruto began taking information from the situation in front of him to form a clearer picture.

It was something he was good at, and something he found enjoyable.

_Okay.. I have an apartment, so that puts me between.. 7ish and 19. _Saddened, he remembered that on his nineteenth birthday, the city of Kohona was no longer in their control. He glanced around, looking for more information. On the counter, there was a pair of muddy goggles.

_My goggles!_ A good memory came with that. On his tenth birthday, he had been wishing himself a happy birthday. It had echoed throughout the small apartment, and Naruto was suddenly on the verge of tears. No one cared for him. Then the bell rang. He ran to the door, thinking it was the landlord coming to yell at him for making too much noise. Instead, lying on the mat was a small wrapped package. He lifted it up, thinking that they got the wrong address when he saw it had his name on it.

He had carefully untucked the note from under the string tied around the package, making sure it wasn't booby trapped like last year's surprise birthday cake. He opened it. It was smudged with what looked like eraser marks. Apparently, whoever put this on his porch had no idea what to say, and kept on erasing to write something else.

In small writing-he could tell it was a girl's because the paper smelled so nice- it said 'Happy Birthday, Naruto-kun.' It was unsigned.

Somehow, that simple sentence was enough to brighten his whole day. He ripped open the package, and lying neatly in the remains was a pair of shiny goggles.

"Cool!" he had muttered, then put them on his face. It needed to be adjusted, but it was the best birthday present he had ever gotten, the only one he had gotten besides Iruka's birthday ramen.

He had spent the rest of the day pretending to be a fighter pilot.

He smiled, and picked up the goggles. They were worn with use, and needed a good cleaning.

A slight shift of the demon chakra, a sort of semi-violent poke from the fox, made him remember what he was doing before hand.

"Oh yeah! I have my goggles, so that puts me between ten and.. eh, fifteen!" He had lost them during his three year training with Jiraiya. He slipped the goggle around his neck, for old times sake.

After pacing around the small apartment for an hour, slowly eliminating the ages, he lost his infamously short temper._ Dammit, fox! Can't you even **guess** where you threw us?! _He himself couldn't guess, base on his reflection.

He had stayed the same size from ten to fifteen, when he had a sudden growth spurt, easily vaulting him up to Jiraiya's height.

**Time is something humans invented. Demons live forever. Time is irrelevant. **

The bell rang before he could counter the demon. Muttering angrily, he opened the door with an annoyed "What?!"

The guilty charge jumped back a few feet in shock and in fear. Then promptly bowed.

"I a-am sorry for interrupting you, N-Naruto-kun." And she bowed again, never meeting his eyes. She turned and started to walk away.

"Wait, Hinata-chan!" With her back to her crush, her pale face blossomed into a rich pink._ -chan..? _she asked herself. Although she had rarely ever summoned up the courage to talk to the boy, he felt comfortable enough around her to call her Hinata-chan?

Her fingers twitched from in front of her, then started to poke each other in her nervous habit. But she was far from nervous. Hinata had never felt more happy in her entire life.

She turned slowly around. The Hyuuga heiress -ex-heiress, she reminded herself sadly- had snuck out of the mansion, just to see him.

She had seen him the day before, sitting on his swing, looking dejected. She had wanted to run up to him, throw her arms around him. She had wanted that look to go away.

She wanted for him to smile, not one of those fake ones that screamed out his loneliness as much as if he had screamed it out himself. She wanted to cheer him up, tell him that there was always next time. Tell him that even the best ninjas failed at least once.

But before Hinata could summon up the courage to do so, he had disappeared. And now, here she was. After not being able to sleep all night, she had put her foot down. No one was going to stop her! She was going to Naruto, and make his smile come back.

"N-Naruto-kun.." It had sounded so much more confident in her head. "I'm sorry- " No wait, Naruto wouldn't want her pity, he was too strong for that. She amended.

"N-ninjas even really p-powerful ones.. lose s-sometimes.." She could barely get out. Naruto waited for her to finish. It started like a good way to start a speech, like many he had given to Kohonamaru.

But that's all her limited courage could let her get out. She stared at the ground, her cheeks blazing. She had noticed the goggles hanging around his neck, just as she hung her forehead protector. Even after seeing it for so long, she was glad that he still wore it.

_Okay. Awkward.._ he thought.

"Uh.. Hinata-chan.." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "..What day is it?"

"Um.. the day we get divided into teams.. oops.." she covered her mouth with her hands. "I'm s-s-sorry, Naruto-kun..." The rest of her apology went unheard.

_Ah! Yes! The day I was put into Team Seven... _

**A turning point in your life.. It was the easiest place to land on.. **

_You coulda told me that before.._ was the sullen reply. He was ignored.

**The small blue haired female seems to think that you didn't pass the exit exam.**

"Oh, that's why! You silly goose!" he ruffled her hair. Ten new shades of red were invented by one Hyuuga.

"Gimme a sec! Then we can walk to the Academy together!" he bounded back into the apartment, shutting the door in her face.

_T-together?_ The Hyuuga felt light headed She smiled, a happy feeling in her heart. But one thought jumped up, waging a finger at her happiness._ Why would he want to walk with a weak and ugly girl like me, instead of someone beautiful like Ino-san or Sakura-san? _

Unaware of the girl's depression, Naruto ran back to his room, took off the goggles hanging around his neck, and pulled out his forehead protector.

He looked at it proudly, and misty eyed. Iruka had taken this from his own head, and given it to not to the vessel of the feared demon Kyuubi, but him, Uzumaki Naruto, his 'most excellent student'. Iruka was the very first to see beyond the shadow of the demon fox and see him.

_"She knew too. Long before I."_ Neji's words repeated in his head. _"Instead of fearing you because of it, like many of the adults, she respected you for keeping that smile on your face. She.. loved you. And she died for you, Naruto."_

"Maybe not the first first." He amended, but tied it around his head all the same. He ran to the door, flinging it back open.

Hinata looked back up, a little sad that he'd put his goggles away, but brightened up when she saw the leaf adorned forehead protector.

"You did pass!"

"Hehe.. Sorry for not inviting you in, Hinata-chan. I didn't want an evil dust bunny to attack you." she laughed. "No, really! I was attacked by a wall, a dresser, and some clothes! They're possessed, I tell ya!" he smiled merrily, and with an exaggerated bow, he offered his arm to her. He deepened his voice, adopting a royal accent.

"My lady Hinata. You are looking ravishing this morning. Allow me to escort such a beautiful lady to the castle?" she giggled, and placed her hand in the crook of his elbow.

"I..I would be honored, N-Naruto-kun." she murmured.

AN: Hinata, for some reason, really reminds me of Rin, of InuYasha. I have no idea why...

She's so hard to write.. Hinata, I mean.

Anyway, the work load that I had been dreading has fallen into my lap. Curse the post-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas horror. I will not be able to update daily. But, I will not stop writing this fic. The plot is too fun.

It takes me about four hours to write a chapter. First, I outline it in a sketchy story format. Then I add the more interesting parts, that make the story flow. Then I re-read it, and gasp in horror at the plot holes.

Spelling and grammar check come after and last.

I can usually do this in a day, but with so much of _real life _beating my door down and demanding payments.. I'm afraid I can update only once every business week. Maybe twice during a weekend, if the fates are smiling down on me. Tops.

And for the people who aren't planning on flaming me right now for not choosing their favorite pairing, I thank you.


	4. To See Them Again Part 1

Disclaimer: Sadly, what I own consists of a composition notebook, a pencil, and my kitty-cat. I do not own Naruto.

AN: Yay. So many positive reviews. Makes up for the horrible week I have been having. Thank you, and many blessings upon your future generations (if any).

Pairings! In between writing this and work, I've been reading lots and lots of fan fiction. Some strange ones include ShinoTenten, and GaaraSaku. I'm not saying they suck. It was pretty interesting (And the shinotenten one was hilarious.), but it got me to thinking. I've got my main pairings NaruHina, ShikaIno, KakaIru(although this is more of a sub pairing..) but what about everyone else?

I'm expanding on my outline thingy (and to the reviewer who asked-you know who you are, I am planning on having altered scenes _and_ original 'Foxie-sama created' scenes.), and I'm going to add in the pairings.

Instead of being bombarded with millions of different pairings to think of, I'm going to ask for who you think would best match up against the other in this sort of plot. But only three Naruto characters at a time.

For this chapter it will be the following people: Sakura, Sasuke, and Gaara.

Some of your favorite characters might not be paired up at all, sadly, because there aren't that many girls, and only a few of them I can squint and say 'maaaayyyybbbee he/she is gay.' coughOrochimarucough jk jk

Happy reading!

* * *

For the Love of my Friends 

Chapter Four: To See Them Again Part 1

by Foxie

* * *

One of the most important things an Anbu needs to have is their mask. Carved as the animal that most fits their nature, and painted with the colors of their rank -red as elite, all the way down to blue as rookie, they'd become one with it. It protected their identity, their health, and most of the time.. their sanity. 

The Anbu weren't the only ninjas with the need to wear a mask.

Hatake Kakashi was one, wearing a half mask to conceal his lower features. His reason for needing a mask was secret, the mystery around what he looked like underneath it all but legendary. Few had got the chance to see it off in a mere second. None he had taken it off willingly for.

Hyuuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke, two geniuses from the top two clans, also had the need to wear a mask. Although their masks were not in a physical form, they were there all the same. A mask of indifference. Of coldness. A subtle 'I am better than you. Stay out of my bubble.'

The only difference between the Uchiha's mask and the Hyuuga's was that after a while, Neji could lower his mask. He could act like a human being. He could feel. He could care.

Sasuke couldn't. After Itachi killed off his family, the mask became glued to him. It could not be removed. There was times it cracked from the stress of being used too much, but it still held.

Yet another.. was Uzumaki Naruto.

Instead of a shield of coldness to ward off evil doers, there was a bright and sunny smile. There was a prankster, looking out pleadingly toward his audience for someone to acknowledge him. There was a boy who had no choice but to carry the most infamous demon to ever roam the land. The boy who was all but ignored by the people he was supposed to protect, those who could not see past the shadow of the Kyuubi and dare hope to look in those crystal blue eyes. He was taunted. Insulted. All but the children hated him, and even they picked up that behavior from their parents.

Instead of crying or breaking into a thousand little pieces that no one could ever hope to glue back together, as they all wanted him to do, he got back up. He'd grin merrily at the person who just insulted him. Pull a prank or two. Grab some ramen and skip back to his home, humming a song underneath his breath.

After some time, even the people who hated him started to admire him for holding up such an unshakable facade, even comparing it to the Hyuuga poker face.

But Uzumaki Naruto's mask had a tenancy tocrack, and hecried when he reached his doorstep.

* * *

The dark haired boy was about an inch away from smacking the girl who was talking to him, but that would lead to so much paper work. She kept on talking, and talking, _and talking! _One would have thought so much noise would have a lethal effect on the listener. 

The Academy was just ahead. The dark haired boy quickened his pace, eager to get there before another one of the parasites could cling to his arm.

This was an utter waste of time. He should have been training, not being stalked by a girl with limited stealth skills on his way to meeting where it would be decided which jonin he would train under.

It did not matter about the team he was put on. If they all stood off to the sideline while he completed the missions and gained rank, that is.

His brother wasn't going to fall on a fork and die, after all. It was up to him to avenge his family. And nobody was going to get in his way.

She noticed the change in pace and caught up with him, latching on his arm.

Damn.

Sounds of the girl's jargon passed unnoticed by the boy, when he locked his dark gaze with someone who annoyed him even more than the girl talking at him.

His rival saw him, and stopped walking. He turned pale and his blue eyes widened. His rival's companion, the white eyed Hyuuga girl, stopped and asked him what was wrong.

He glared at his rival. His rival just looked back with haunted eyes.

Of course his rival would be wary. He had pulled a prank on the wrong person. After coming back to the laundry mat to find all of his white shorts pink, a man would be murderous.

He wanted his rival to come at him. Scream. Yell. Insult him. Challenge him to a battle of wits or a battle of fists. Anything to get him away from his fan girl.

The blonde walked forward. The dark haired boy was tense, battle-ready. Just in case the blonde didn't announce his attack. The sunlight shone from his rival's forehead protector, blinding him for a moment. Huh.. he didn't know the blonde had passed.

The dark eyed boy's clingy companion noticed his rival and sneered at him, looking down the sharp curve of her nose at the other boy. He nearly cursed when he felt her grip on his arm tighten.

The blonde got closer, then walked right past, the Hyuuga girl following his footsteps. The blue haired girl threw a sharp glare at his fan girl, a surprising reaction from the shy girl. He paid no attention to either girl, just fixed his gaze on his rival's back.

He couldn't believe it. It was as sharp and as harsh as a punch to the stomach.

He, Uchiha Sasuke, had been completely ignored by the number one most hyperactive ninja of Kohona.

* * *

"Iruka-san.." Another one of the Academy teachers, a red haired, glasses wearing chuunin, peeked her head into his classroom. He looked up from making sure that everyone of the twenty seven graduates was organized on a team and assigned to a jonin.. "Akimichi-kun wants to talk to you." Chouji peeked his head around the chuunin, his mouth still chewing on some chips. 

He smiled. It was so good to see one of his students, proudly displaying their Kohona headband.

"Come in Chouji." Iruka shifted some papers on his desk. "What is it you need?" Chouji edged around the woman, who promptly left when she realized she wasn't needed.

The plump boy looked closer at his old teacher and then reeled back.

"What happened to you!" he asked worriedly. The chuunin was covered head to toe in bandages. There was a purple bruise fading on his tan cheek. It looked like he had been in a war. Iruka rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, wincing when that brought a fresh wave of pain from the shuriken wound in his back.

"Ump.. I got in a fight." _Wasn't much of a fight.._ he thought privately to himself. _Naruto took care of Mizuki without any help from me_. His brown eyes warmed when he thought of the blonde. He had such a harsh life, being shunned by the villagers because of the fox. Yet he emerged from it all, like a phoenix rising from it's ashes. He went in without the knowledge of how to properly make a Bunshin, yet came out with the knowledge of how to perform a Kage Bunshin, the forbidden jonin jutsu.

He was so proud of Naruto. The blonde was going to go places, with that kind of raw talent.

But he had to question the Hokage's request to put Uchiha Sasuke and him together, and put them under a jonin named Hatake Kakashi, who had never passed a student. He frowned at the paper at the names listed under Team Seven. Did he want Naruto's fire to burn out so quickly?

"Uh.. Okay. I came here to talk about my Bunshin." Iruka focused on the boy in front of him.

"Your Bunshin was passable. Why do you want to talk about it?" Chouji toed the ground nervously, than performed Bunshin no Jutsu. Two Choujis stood next together when the smoke faded. The real Chouji stood back and looked at his Bunshin critically.

"I think he's too fat. What do you think?" Iruka backed up in his chair, a brief moment of panic crossing over his scarred face. There was no safe answer to that. Chouji would be offended if the teacher said it was perfect, and if he said he said it was too thin.. He did not want to face the famous Akimichi temper tantrum.

There was only one thing he could do. The trickiest and most low solution he could think of.

Distraction.

"Eh.. Oh, Chouji! They're serving breakfast in the teacher's lounge! Want to come with me?" Iruka crossed his fingers underneath the desk. The pudgy boy's face lit up.

"Like as in food! I am so there!"

And thus this is how the chuunin teacher Umino Iruka dodged another shuriken. Whooping happily, Chouji grabbed his old teacher's arm and dragged him to the teacher's lounge. The door slammed shut behind them.

A head popped up -popped down, apparently this person was upside down- in the window behind Iruka's desk. He grabbed the top of the window sill and righted himself by dropping down to the bottom. He attached chakra to his feet so he wouldn't fall down, then opened the window.

"Finally.." the boy complained. He was wearing a vest over a fishnet shirt, and wore his hair in a high ponytail. His vest had the symbol for the Nara clan on his shoulder.

The boy, for we all now know was indeed Shikamaru, spotted the paper with the teams written on it. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pen and a crumbled up piece of paper.

"Well copy away, Nara.." he grumbled to himself, then copied the paper's information on his own.

* * *

Naruto felt his heart stop when he saw Sasuke. The same old mask fixed in place. The same way his hair stuck out in the back and hung low in the front. Same old Sasuke. Naruto felt a burning sensation behind his eyes. _Sasuke.. you bastard._

_-Flashback-_

_The Atasuki and the Sound attacked Kohona from both sides, but were not allies. Apparently, Orochimaru had done something that had really pissed the group of missing nins off. But if one was weakened even in the slightest, things would look up for them. His mission was an S class one. A one Sakura called him insane for agreeing to. But hey, he was fifteen. He still thought he was invincible._

_He was supposed to gather information about the Atasuki in a town they had been frequently sighted at. The instructions were easy. Go in as Naruko, his female 'Sexy no Jutsu' counterpart. Sneak around. Don't get caught. And if he was somehow captured anyway, kill himself before they could interrogate him._

_He took off, a perfect alibi in hand, fake passports even. But when he got to the village, it was in ruins. He immediately ran to the closest inn._

_"Hey! Is everyone okay?" It was a dumb question to ask, and the empty inn seemed to think so too, the question echoing off of the walls in a whiny tone. But he didn't expect an answer._

_"No one's okay.. Naruto-kun." Naruto whipped around and stared at the man leaning against the telephone pole. He had blood red eyes, black hair, and wore a black cape with red clouds on it. His forehead protector was slashed._

_"Itachi!" Naruto hissed out, his eyes turning a vague shade of purple, barely hiding the red beneath. "It was you! You killed all these people!" _

_The missing nin did not bother to lie. It was not in his style. He merely nodded, his eyes calm._

_"Their sole purpose for being here was so that I could measure my power against them." he shook his head, wisps of black hair dancing around his pale, drawn in face. "I found them lacking."_

_"What right do you have to decide whether innocent people should live or die!" Naruto exploded. The hazy purple disappeared for a moment into a brilliant red, then died._

_Itachi watched him carefully for a moment. "Ninjas kill people. For greedy and weak people who cannot do it themselves, and to prove their existence. I would have thought you'd know that by now, Naruto-kun.."_

_"Ninjas protect people! They protect them from people like you!" Naruto flipped the Uchiha off. "And stop adding calling me 'Naruto-kun!"_

_Cold amusement washed over the man's half hidden face. "What would you like for me to call you? Kyuubi? Future Hokage?" he sneered._

_"Your executioner." The boy growled. His eyes became slitted, while the whisker like marks on his face stretched out. His nails became sharp claws._

_For once, the Kyuubi's and Naruto's thought patterns were identical. **Kill.** _

_For an hour, the missing nin and Naruto just countered each other. Taijutsu against taijutsu. Flame against flame. Illusion against illusion._

_There was a few times where it looked like Itachi's superior jutsus were going to win him the match. But Naruto jumped right back up, prepared to fight till Death had to wrestle him into the Shadow Realm._

_A normal Naruto's stamina was insane. But a Naruto fused with Kyuubi power? That was plain nuts._

_Itachi was slowing down. He was no longer playing. He aimed for critical points, points that could either kill of knock out opponents. But Naruto kept on blocking, still going at the speed he had started with in the beginning of the match._

_He saw an opening. The angry boy powered up his hand for a rasengan. The pure white orb spun around in his hand, then buried itself in the man's chest. _

_There was no change of expression on Itachi's face, but Naruto could tell the missing nin was dead by the glassy look in his eyes and the awful stench of death in his nose._

_He pulled his hand out of Itachi's chest with a squelching sound. The corpse fell, black eyes staring out listlessly. Naruto closed the missing nin's eyes with his unbloodied hand._

_"May you rot in hell for what you did to your family and countless others..." he murmured, before falling back into the ground. His eyes faded back to a hazy blue. _

_He stared up into the sky, his eyes falling shut. All he wanted to do was sleep.. But Lady Luck wasn't smiling down at him today._

_"Naruto." His name was spat out like a curse. The said chuunin stiffened. He knew that voice. He immediately jumped back up, cursing when the world spun around him a couple times. _

_He gazed at the newcomer, the blood trickling down from the wound on his forehead hindering the sight of his left eye._

_"Sasuke.." he managed to get out. Somehow, the last Uchiha's eyes got even colder._

_"You .. took away my reason for living! You selfish bastard!" Sasuke yelled, the curse seal activating, turning his chakra into a sickly purple. Naruto flinched at the harsh tone and backed up._

_"But..Sasuke.." he tried to explain. It was sudden. He hadn't planned to kill his rival's older brother! It just happened!_

_"Naruto.." Sasuke's voice was sudden calm. "I'm.. going to kill you now. And I'm not going to retreat like the time we fought at the border." His hands cupped around each other and his palms pointed down. Electric blue energy zipped around his form. "Chidori!"_

_Naruto backed up a few more paces, nearly tripping over Itachi's body, rasengan forming in his left hand by habit. _

_His once teammate ran at him, sharingan eyes flaring up. Naruto slide into a defensive position, rasegan slightly in front of him. Then Sasuke disappeared. _

_"Shit!" Naruto whipped around to see the boy right behind him. The other boy caught both of his wrists before he could do anything, the rasengan still swirling in his left hand. Any chance of kicking free would be futile. Sasuke was much better at taijutsu than he was. Naruto had very high endurance and could take any physical attack thrown at him, so attacking in that form was useless._

_But Sasuke's mind was far from fighting his ex-friend. He eyed the rasengan._

_"You've gotten better.." he said unexpectedly. "You barely have to focus to get the form right.." Then the grip on Naruto's left wrist tightened. He was jerked forward._

_For the second time that day, he smelt death and blood trickled through his fingers._

_"Sasuke!" The Sound nin had shoved the rasegan through his own stomach. Naruto was afraid to take it out, not wanting to hurt him anymore. _

_"Thank you.. Naruto." Sasuke ripped himself free, and fell to the ground. Naruto immediately dropped down to his knees, his hands trying to stop the other boy's bleeding. _

_"Sasuke! Listen to me... You'll be alright.. Just hang on!" His arms moved to grab the boy and hoist him in the air, but soft spoken words make him stop._

_"I don't want to live." Naruto stiffened. "I don't want.. this emptiness. This feeling of uselessness. And I don't want to do Orochimaru's dirty work anymore." Sasuke took a deep breath, then winced in pain. Blood coated his lips._

_"You.. You're a coward! You can't face life just because you don't have a reason to live anymore! You're.. so dumb. " Naruto said, tears running down his face. A true smile came to Sasuke's face._

_"I.. could never be as brave as you are, Naruto." He glanced over at his dead brother. "You know.. You were more of a brother to me.. than he was. I just wanted you to know that.."_

_Naruto's hand fisted over his heart. This pain of losing someone.. losing the 'precious friend'. Was this how Zabuza felt when Haku was killed? Was this what Inari felt when he lost his step father and the rest of his family? Was this how Kohonamaru felt when his grandfather died? Was this.. what Sasuke felt his entire life? More tears fell._

_"You were.. a brother to me too." Sasuke nodded. He already knew._

_"Tell Sakura.. that I'm sorry. I really did mean.. to.. come.. back.." The last Uchiha breathed his final words in the arms of his comrade, his best friend.. and most of all his brother._

_End Flashback_

Naruto had to get away from Sasuke. And now would be the best time to do so. Ignoring the cold look Sasuke's fan girl gave him, he walked past the Uchiha, and pushed open the double doors. He could tell from Hinata's steadily rising chakra that she was angry. Sighing, he veered to the left, pulling Hinata along with him.

"But.. N-Naruto-kun! We're supposed to go to room 7C!" she stuttered out. They were on the other side of the school. He found what he was looking for. An abandoned classroom. He walked in, and motioned for her to follow.

He closed the door behind her.

"W-what's wrong?" He needed to calm down, he realized numbly. He was scaring his only friend away. He took deep breathes, and willed the bloody images away. He insead focused on Hinata. Her scent, the way she kept twitching slightly, the still heightened chakra, like she wanted to push past him and knock the other girl's lights out.Naruto never knew that Hinata had atemper when it came to thingsabout him.

He turned around, a small smile on his face.

"Hinata-chan.. What am I ever going to do with you?" he murmured amused. She blushed, and started to poke her index fingers together. He caught them in the middle of the second poke.

"Don't do that." he said softly. She started to look anywhere but him.

He caught her chin in his other hand, and pulled her gaze to him. Hinata blushed even more. _I think ..I'm going to faint.._

"Don't get angry over what other people do to little ole' me. Besides, what goes around comes around. She'll end up having a bad hair day in a week's worth time, I guarantee it." he gave her a foxy grin. "Why, I'll even help it along!"

He got the reaction he wanted. The girl giggled and a wide smile took over the frown that was there before. Naruto let go of her. _What did I ever do to get a girl like Hinata to like me, I wonder?_

**Vixens choose the strongest male to have pups with.** The Kyuubi supplied helpfully.

_But what about love?_ Naruto asked. He could feel the Kyuubi frown in his mind.

**Another human invention. Demons kill. Demons mate. Demons breed. Then they do it all over again. Love is not needed.**

For some reason, that made Naruto feel sad. _Well, you guys don't know what you're missing. _The Kyuubi had no counter for that.

He smiled at the girl in front of him. "Hinata.." he began. "Whenever you feel sad, think of me. I'm sure that aught to give you a laugh or two."

"I..I.." he was so confident when he spoke! Why couldn't she be the same? "I'll think of you.. when I'm feeling weak.. " His eyes widened in surprise. Her soft voice had become very strong at that last part. Naruto had a hard time trying to connect 'weak' and 'Hinata' in the same sentence without a 'not' between them. This was the girl who died for him, after all.

"..Because when I think of you.. I'm inspired to be stronger! To be just like you! Defy all odds.. and prove that everyone's opinions of me are wrong and based on false ideas!" Hinata covered her mouth her hand. She had been so energetic about it. Now she was embarrassed. He probably thought she was being weird..

Naruto whistled. "Go Hinata-chan!" He gave her a thumbs up. "Glad you feel that way!" Her cheeks burned red, but she was so happy.

"Shit!" Naruto had looked at the clock. "We spent too much time in here!" He grabbed her hand, marveling for a moment how small and pale it was compared to his own.

"Come on!" They burst out of the classroom, and ran to the other side of the school, their hands never parting.

"Well.. I'll be damned.." A woman with red eyes murmured behind her illusion. A potted plant suddenly transformed into a tall bearded man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"Kinda cute actually.." he said, dropping the cigarette on the ground, then stepping on it. The wall next to him shimmered, and then the woman from before appeared. She smiled at her companion.

"And I thought _we_ were the only ones who wanted to hide out in an old classroom unsupervised.."

* * *

AN: My original chapter four was had a lot more than this to it, but I spent too much time on the Itachi v.s. Naruto scene. Oh well. Save that for next chapter. And I do know I spell the names of things wrong. I know I probably spelled Atasuki wrong (90 chance) and Rasengan wrong (70 chance.) 

Remember! Tell me what pairings I should consider for: Sasuke, Sakura, and Gaara.


	5. To See Them Again Part 2

Disclaimer: No rights to Naruto.. sigh it's such a sad thing.

AN: Wow. Thank you, everyone. Yes, I do know my grammar is scary, and I have trouble remembering how to spell things like 'Akatsuki' -thanks for telling me how _that_ was spelled-, but you still seem to like the story. Yay.

Everyone brought up some really good points I want to clear up. First, about Hinata being too gutsy too early. Think of it this way: She's been watching Naruto for years and admiring him from afar. In the manga story line, when Naruto just begins to pay attention to her, in the Chuunin Exam, she immediately starts to improve. She gets the courage to give him a healing salve, to tell him that he could cheat off of her test, and, when he cheered her on during her fight with Neji, she becomes strong enough to face the cousin that was scaring her just the moment before. So if she spent the entire morning with Naruto, I think it would be possible for her to be gutsy so soon.

Second, pairings. This story isn't focused on pairings, rather on Naruto and his quest to save Kohona, but they spice up the story on the sidelines. I find the suggstions I got for pairings intersting, and definatly noteworthy, but I may not have them in the story. After all, romance is just something that happens on the side. I'm going to try not to juggle a whole lot of pairings, but we'll see how this goes. If you have anymore interesting ideas, please let me know.

And side note- I can't believe how many people want Sakura and Sasuke to be bashed. XD Sorry to disappoint, but I'm only going to torture them a little, because Sakura needs to be transformed into a human being, and because Sasuke is such an angsty bastard.

------

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter 5: To See Them Again- Part 2

By Foxie

------

Nara Shikamaru hung his legs over the side of the roof, not sparing a glance to look at the crumpled piece of paper in his lap, although he was very curious who Iruka paired him up with.

Even though he copied it, he didn't remember what he had written on it.

It was supposed to be a skill. To copy something while all your other senses are completely focused on something else. Somewhere along the rank of the Sharingan.

In this case, his ears and mind had been focused on the door, while his eyes and hand copied the teams down.

To him, it was a hindrance. And troublesome.

In a battle situation, a weakness like that could be so easily taken advantage of. Just as misinformation could kill thousands of people. The knight had knowledge that the enemy rook was going to move to a area where he could be attacked, so while he waited his turn, the enemy bishop wiped out all of his pawns.

It was a matter of choice, of decision, of life and death..

"You know, if Iruka-sensei knew you knew how to walk up a wall by use of chakra, he would have passed you a long time ago.." There was a crunching sound behind him. Chouji had come back.

Maybe not life or death. Maybe life or annoyance.

"If he passed me a long time ago, I'd be doing missions and all that troublesome stuff with people that are much older than me." Shikamaru muttered, looking boredly at the village beneath his feet.

Chouji had to nod. He couldn't imagine Shikamaru actually getting up and doing a mission.

"Did you get it?" Shikamaru nodded and tossed the paper ball at Chouji. The Nara boy then lied on the roof, watching the clouds lazily float by.

Chouji had wanted to go to the meeting to see who they were on teams with. Shikamaru thought it was too troublesome. They'd find out later, probably from their own team mates. The pudgy boy had then pleaded for his friend to come with him. He didn't want to be the last person to know who he was working with. Shikamaru, while in his 'thinking pose', came up with a good plan.

Why not get the news before the press released it?

The lazy boy then instructed Chouji what exactly to say to Iruka, so the chuunin would be flustered, try to distract Chouji, and leave the room. It had worked perfectly.

Now Chouji knew what team he was on and Shikamaru didn't have to go anywhere. The perfect compromise.

"Hey, Shika! We're on the same team! With.. oh no.." Chouji looked down at his lounging friend. He looked terrified.

"Who?" Shikamaru sat up, wondering why Chouji was trembling. He whispered something.

"..Uh.. Could you repeat that?" The pudgy boy leaned forward.

"..Ino!" Well, his fear was not misplaced. Ino was the scariest girl he could think of. He had met her when he was six, because their parents were on the same team and were drinking buddies. He and Chouji had been outside, doing absolutely nothing. She had walked up to them shyly and introduced herself. Shikamaru remembered thinking she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen in his life, but that was before she decided that they needed a 'makeover'. Oh the horror..

They had kept a love/hate relationship over the past six years. She'd make fun of him, he'd insult her, she'd punch him, then he would make fun of Sasuke.. It was a cycle. A routine even.

But when she'd come to his door in tears, another rejection from the cold Uchiha, he quietly let her in and comfort her. On their best days, people would think that they were the best of friends. On the worst days, they would mistake them for archenemies.

This was not one of their best days.

Slowly, an un-Shikamaruish smile appeared on his face. He stood up, and began walking toward the door that lead down to the rest of the school.

"Come on, Chouji. We're going to be late for the meeting." Chouji ran after his friend.

"But you.. I thought you said you didn't want to go?" Shikamaru still had that strange look on his face.

"You're right. I didn't." He looked over his shoulder. "But I don't want to miss the look on Ino's face when she realizes that she's on a team with us instead of her precious 'Sasuke-kun'."

------

Hinata had not missed the look of total angst on Naruto's face when he had seen Sasuke. Nor had she missed the comfortable way that Naruto held her hand, even as they were running as fast as they could to 7C. Her Naruto-kun was different. She knew it was true, deep down in her heart of hearts.

Something had changed the wild blue of Naruto's eyes to the slightly sharper, purplish/blue hue of his present eyes. It wasn't something easily noticed. It just made his eyes look darker.

And his clothes were different. Instead of the orange jump suit she knew so well, he wore a black vest and green shorts. Like the darker color of his eyes, the clothes made him look older, wiser, and quieter. This Naruto paid a lot of attention to her, while the old Naruto only talked to her if she started the conversation.

She couldn't decide whether she like the Naruto of old, or this wiser and slightly more somber version of him. She wondered what had happened the day before to make him go through such a drastic change.

But some things just didn't change. At all. The number one most hyperactive ninja in Kohona had to keep up his reputation, after all.

During their run, Naruto had stopped to knock over a bucket of soapy water in the hallway. She tried to admonish him, but he shook it off, saying if next people who came into the hallway couldn't take a little soapy water, they needed to train a lot more.

There was an odd sense of logic in that answer, so she dropped it. Besides, he was holding her hand again.

Naruto flung open the door to 7C, and announced to the very noisy class, "I just flew in from Water Country. My arms are very tired." He cracked himself up. Everyone gave him a _'I can't believe this idiot actually passed'_ look, then went back to their own conversations. Hinata blushed, not used to being the center of attention, even if she was hiding behind Naruto. She glanced at the clock, then nudged Naruto.

"Five minutes to spare." he nodded and went for one of the seats in the middle. She hung around awkwardly, until he turned around with a _'Hurry up, Hinata, you slowpoke!'_ She went after him with a smile.

------

Seeing everyone, alive and well, free of war injuries, or the haunted look of someone who was beaten down, was refreshing. He had nearly been at the point of doing cartwheels because he was so happy.

He sat down next to Hinata, who promptly blushed. Even after so many years of varied _'Birds and the Bees'_ speeches-Jiraiya and Kakashi brought their own_ research _material, mainly dirty magazines and novels-, and the _'Talk'_, coupled with the Ino and Sakura Hell fest, which was actually a three hour movie about a sinking ship that they always made him and Shikamaru watch, he still had no idea why Hinata always turned red around him.

From the way that Ten ten had '_aw_'ed at it when she bore witness to it, he figured that it had to do with this romance.. stuff. Chicks always dug the romance.

They'd tear up, and sniffle and _'aww' _during romance movies, while guys who would watch them-he was basing this off of a time where the girls blackmailed him, Kiba, Kankuro, and Shikamaru into watching a romance movie- would yell 'He's gonna get some tonight!'.

He guessed romance was okay. As long as it wasn't unrealistic, or ended with one of the couple dying, and leaving the other hanging.

He glanced at Hinata from the corner of his eyes. She had died, in the future. All because of a stupid mistake he had made.

He looked forward, his face set. None of them were going to die. Not Hinata, not Sasuke, not Iruka, not anyone. He'd prevent this war even if it was the last thing he ever did. Even if he had to travel back into the past over and over again. His precious people would not die.

The hour hand on the clock touched ten. Iruka strolled in.

"Hello, graduates! This day is very special for you all because..." the rest of the teacher's speech was lost on Naruto. He stared at his father figure, eyes hungrily drinking in each feature. Tears threatened to rise, just as they had when he had seen Sasuke. Just as they had when he had realized that Hinata was standing on his door step and this wasn't just a dream he made to deal with his insanity.

"Alright then! Your teams!" he began reading off the first two teams when Shikamaru and Chouji walked in. The steady drip of water hitting the ground startled Naruto out of his daydream.

"You're late." the teacher said flatly. Shikamaru countered his disapproving stare with his lazy gaze. Chouji stepped up.

"Uh, sorry sensei, but there was water on the floor.." His entire back was wet. Naruto was torn between getting misty eyed about the appearance of more of his 'dead friends' and laughing his ass off. He elbowed Hinata, and gave her a foxy grin.

She stuck her chin so low that her mouth was hidden by her forehead protector tied around her neck, but he could still tell she was smiling because of the twinkle in her pale eyes.

"Can we sit down?" Shikamaru asked bored. Naruto was surprised to see that the boy was completely dry. Iruka nodded, and they took the two seats in the front.

_Hmph. Shika probably made Chouji go first._

**And it was a smart idea too. Survival of the fittest. **

"What, can't even take a little water, Nara?" a feminine voice said from the back. Naruto turned to see Ino, hand on her hip, with a smirk on her face. Next to her was Sakura. Apparently they had been having a silent battle of wills to see who was going to get the chance of sitting next to Sasuke.

Shikamaru didn't even bother to turn around. "Go suck on a lemon, Yamanaka." While Ino was busy trying to burn holes in the back of his head with her blue eyed glare, Sakura slide past her and sat down next to Sasuke.

"Hi Sasuke-kun! I hope we're on the same team!" All she got was a soft _'hn'_ in reply. Ino shook her fist at Sakura for taking advantage of her distraction, but sat in the row behind them, sulking.

Naruto turned back to the front, a small smile on his face. Everything was normal. Everything was how it was before the Sound ruined it. He loved it, but was afraid he wasn't powerful enough to preserve it.

**Then try and try again. You promised to do it. Follow your ninja way..** was the surprisingly encouraging words from the fox. Since when did the omniscient, sarcastic, and sadistic Kyuubi ever try to cheer someone up?

_You know, if you weren't such an evil bastard, I could end up liking you._

------

A half an hour later found the three members of Team Seven alone in 7C. All the other teams had been picked up by their instructors.

Hinata had shyly said good bye to Naruto before following Kiba and Shino to the door, something that made the red eyed woman, Kurenai, smile.

The last team to leave the room before them was Team 10. Ino had nearly had a heart attack when she found out that she was stuck with the laziest two ninja's in their class instead of Sasuke. It was as amusing as Shikamaru had hoped it would be.

She had followed them, muttering incoherently, when a bearded jonin, Asuma, came by to pick them up. The entire classroom was quiet. Iruka had retreated to teach his other classes. Even Sakura had stopped trying to strike up a conversation when she realized that her efforts were being ignored.

Naruto was sick and tired of being ignored _by her_.

He loved Sakura like she was his sister, but he had forgotten how mean and just plain bitchy she was at this age. The twenty two year old turned twelve decided she needed a good dose of her own medicine.

"Hey Sasuke!" Naruto jumped on the boy's desk, and looked at him eye to eye. Sasuke shifted backward slightly.

"Get off my desk, dobe." he said, glaring at the blond. First, he ignores him, now he's suddenly so talkative?

Naruto pouted childishly, but refused to move. "So Sasuke-chan doesn't want to learn a new jutsu?" Sasuke was torn between belittling his rival and wanting to know what jutsu Naruto had in mind.

He settled for a neutral _'hn'_.

"Aw, come on! Don't you like fire based jutsus?" Naruto saw the torn look in the other boy's eyes and decided to help him along. He pushed open the window and dragged the Uchiha out. "It'll be fun!"

Sakura watched them through the opened window, feeling unbelievably lonely. Naruto, of all people, had got Sasuke's attention. Dangling a jutsu above him as bait.

_In order to get Sasuke's attention... then I must be strong like Naruto?_ Normally, she laughed at the thought of Naruto being strong, but now it was clear to her that he was.

The jutsu he was teaching to Sasuke was complex, and took a lot of chakra to perform. It started with the user converting chakra to a big ball of fire, than forming it into a dragon like shape. She saw no need in it, until Naruto showed Sasuke why the nimble dragon shape was better to use instead of just a big ball of fire. If the opponent dodged, the dragon could twist around and attack once more, instead of flying it a straight line like the ball of fire would. It took a lot of concentration and skill to make the dragon focus on it's opponent.

"This guy can attack for days! Until his fire is put out, he is immortal!" Naruto yelled.

He patiently showed Sasuke how to do it over and over again, no signs of chakra depletion on his face. Sasuke could form the ball of fire, mold it into a dragon, but seemed to be having difficulties making it focus on Naruto's shadow clone, his target.. Twice his dragon started to attack a bunch of trees. Naruto put out the flames with a water jutsu.

"You're doing good, Sasuke! It took me a month to get past the chakra into fire thing."

_Where did Naruto learn such an advanced technique?_ she wondered. _What happened to the guy who couldn't even do a proper Henge? _

Naruto stopped Sasuke from forming another one. "No more. We're both almost out of chakra.." he lied. Sasuke nodded once, and they walked into the Academy back doors.

Sakura sighed and sat back in her seat. _So I'm weak. That's why he doesn't pay any attention to me. _She closed her eyes, tears threatening to fall._ Even Naruto's ignoring me.. _She didn't want to be on this team if she was just going to be ignored.

The other two members of her team walked in. Sasuke looked tired, and had soot smudged over his face. Naruto was sooty too, but did not even look half as tired.

Sasuke stared down at the ground. _Naruto did it so easily.._ he looked out of the corner of his eye at the blonde. _I will practice later, and shrink the gap between our strengths.. _

Naruto saw the sad look on Sakura's face. _Maybe I went too far..._ He sat on her desk. She looked up in surprise.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" he gave her a foxy grin. "Wanna learn a jutsu too?" The blonde reached into his kunai pouch, took out one of the blades, then slashed it down his arm. Sakura stood up fast, knocking her chair over. Sasuke moved closer to see what was happening.

"Naruto, are you insane?!" her eyes were on the blood pouring from the wound. Sasuke's gaze was directed toward it as well.

"Are you trying to prove a point?" he asked, dark eyes watching the blood drip down his rival's tan arm to fall on the desk. Naruto sighed, annoyance laced in his tone.

"I'm teaching a medic jutsu! I'm not going to bleed to death. Just chill." It was directed to both the humans in front of him, and the demon sealed in his bellybutton.

Both the Uchiha and the Kyuubi scoffed. He ignored them and turned his gaze toward Sakura. "All you have to do.." He explained the process of how a medic jutsu worked.

Sakura alternated between being disgusted by the blood pouring out of the gash, and being interested in how it worked.

"This is a straight cut, so it would be easy to heal. A jagged cut would be a lot harder to fix. Like in sewing." she said. Naruto beamed.

"Exactly! Try it!" She leaned forward. Gently touching the edges of the wound and pressing them together brought a fresh wave of blood. Sakura wrinkled her nose, then her hands were encased in a soft blue light. The future medic nin carefully used her chakra to connect the two sides together. Sweat came down the side of her face.

Then there was no wound, just tan unscarred skin.

**Success!** Inner Sakura crowed happily.** Who's the bad ass ninja chick now?! **She grinned.

"Great job, Sakura-chan! You'd make a great medic nin!" Naruto said, sliding off of her desk. He examined his arm gleefully.

_Success! Who's the bad ass teacher now! _Naruto shouted happily in his mind.

**..Spare me. **

Just then, a man walked through the doorway of the classroom. He had spiky grey hair that kinda tilted to the side, and his forehead protector was worn diagonally over one of his eyes. He wore the normal accessories of a Kohona jonin. The man looked at them with one bored eye.

In his perspective, his team was already fighting. Both boys were sooty and dirty, as if they had wrestled their way out of a chimney. One was nearly out of chakra while the other stood in front of the girl, blood staining his arm. The girl had the boy's blood all over her desk and her hands.

Neither the dark haired boy who was almost out of chakra, nor the girl with bloodied hands noticed him. But the only one who had his back to the jonin turned around. The other two, upon the blonde acknowledgement of his presence, noticed him. The blonde looked at him with sharp blue eyes. His tone was flat.

"You're late...Kakashi-sensei."

------

Ugh.. stupid line thingys aren't working. >. 

Till next chapter...


	6. The Budding Leaves of Kohona

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me..

AN: Sorry about the wait, everyone. I had planned to start, finish, and edit this by ten pm on Friday.. but conflicting activities came up. The only computer in my house with Internet access is full of viruses. I'm using my friend's computer right now, bless her for having empathy. For being so wonderful and patient, I give you- less talk, and more reading! Yay!

Thanks for the feedback.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chaper Six: The Budding Leaves of Kohona

by Foxie

* * *

She was suddenly thrown out in the cold. A cold where she was alone. No longer who he had seen and identified her as, who she wanted to be, but who everyone else saw.

Not _'Hinata and Naruto'_, but a cold and lonely prototype, '_Hyuuga Hinata'_.

Hinata, no longer in the presence of her precious person, had been reminded of her duties.

She was a representative of the Hyuuga clan, the strongest in Kohona. She was supposed to maintain a cool and indifferent personality to all, and was supposed to excel in any task thrown at her. Hinata was supposed to be powerful.

What she was really... an afraid girl cast out into the darkness, with no sign her sun, her light, her courage. If the public saw the true Hinata, it would reflect upon the clan.

The Hyuuga clan often got rid of it's weakest link.

Hinata followed the footsteps of her team mates and tried to shrink in to herself. Without the light pressure of Naruto's hand on her's, and the bright smile he would give her when she turned to him, she was afraid.

She could not copy with her Byakugan eyes the way that Shino calmly took things in perspective, a stoic mask fixed firmly on his face, the confidence that practically oozed out of Kiba, or the strength of her sensei, Kurenai.

It was impossible. She would forever be void of those qualities that she admired.

But when Naruto was around, even when he didn't acknowledge her.. a new Hinata would come forth. She was not an anti-Hinata, but she was different. She was more confident. She was brave. She felt like she could take any verbal insult her father or her cousin Neji could throw at her. Hinata felt like she was on top of the world.

Somehow, the admiration she had for the blonde turned into a crush, when she grew up enough to realize with her peers that the other sex didn't have cooties. Hinata found out she had a more than a simple hero worship of Naruto when she had over heard Sakura and Ino ending their friendship. Ino had asked why they had to spilt up, and Sakura told her how she felt about Sasuke. How he made her feel, how he inspired her..

Hinata realized she felt for the same for Naruto. But Sakura went a step further, and gave the feeling a name.

Love.

He made her strong, he made her weak. He made her confident, then made her shy. Sakura loved Sasuke. And Hinata loved Naruto.

Hinata started small. Finding out his birthday from Iruka, she started to give him gifts, starting with his tenth birthday. Watching the happiness blossom on Naruto's face when he had received it, she had vowed to next year give it to him face to face.

Next year came. She chickened out when she saw him coming to the door with her blood line, leaving her present of jutsu scrolls on his porch. Hinata had scolded herself, using the worst insults her father had thrown at her, nearly bringing herself to tears.

Then the year after that she had got him a new set of kunai and shuriken-Naruto's old ones look like they came out of the Kohona Salvation Army-, and left again when he had barely touched the doorknob.

Hinata had totally given up on herself when she had bumped into Naruto after hours in the Academy. After stammering herself into silence, she had just stared at the ground, a rosy blush on her face.

Naruto, the naive boy he was, checked to see if she had a fever. It only made blush even more.

He had backed away, feeling awkward and thinking that she was just plain weird. Watching his orange clad back grow smaller and smaller in the distance, a courage not unlike that of the Hinata she wanted to be seized her.

"N-Naruto-kun!" she had run up to him. He'd half turned, confusion written all over his face. No one had ever added _'-kun' _to his name before. Hinata was paralyzed for a moment by his blue eyes, then promptly bowed. "G-good l-luck on the test tomorrow.." she managed to get out.

The boy had considered her a moment, then gave her a foxy grin.

"I don't need luck!" he announced with a grin. Hinata felt her heart sink. _Of course he doesn't want such a weak girl to jinx him.. _she had thought. "I got skill! Luck is for weak bastards like Sasuke!" He laughed, and turned as if he was going to go, but realized there was something else he needed to say.

".. But really, thanks Hinata." He had truly smiled, a smile that made her fall in love all over again. "It's rare to find someone besides Iruka who wants me to succeed in life."

When she had found out that he didn't pass the exam, she wanted to confront him, make his confidence return. But he was no where to be found.

She went to his apartment that next morning, prepared to knock the door down, and wait till he returned. But when Naruto appeared at the door, his appearance so different, and a faintly annoyed look on his face, the lioness in her retreated.

Hinata had awkwardly stumbled through the conversation, all while feeling her day brighten up a little at the sight of the birthday gift she had given him hanging around his neck.

Somehow, Fate smiled down at her. Hinata and Naruto spent the morning together. It was the best two hours of her life.

Her thoughts were jolted to a standstill when Kurenai stopped, and turned to looked at the three soon to be genin behind her. The woman smiled faintly when Kiba gave her an annoyed look between Akamaru's paws- the dog was on his favorite perch: Kiba's head-, Shino gazed at her calmly, and when Hinata shifted until she was behind Kiba.

"This is where the heroes of our great village are remembered. This was created after the Fourth defeated the Demon Lord Kyuubi, out of the very mountain that portrays our Hokages." She ran a hand over the top of the memorial stone, smiling sadly at a familiar name. "Only the greatest of our heroes have their names carved here. See, here's the Fourth." she pointed at the fiftieth name down. Hinata edged around Kiba to look at the stone, then frowned. The Fourth's name had been eroded down, probably from harsh weather. She was a little disappointed. She wanted to know his true name...

"The writing is.. small." Shino murmured, saying his first sentence of the day. "To save room for future heroes?"

"Yes.. True peace is something that Kohona strives for, but until that day is reached, I'm afraid the men and women who die to save our village will be added long after you or I are alive." Hinata shivered at Kurenai's words. There was a dark sense of a foreshadowed event in those simple words.

"Anyway.." Kurenai started to say. "I know all of your names, but I want a little background..." She lead them away from the memorial area, her voice echoing through the silent area.

* * *

Shikamaru was no longer amused.

Ino had spent the entire time that Asuma explained the training that they were going to do the next day, and the time after he escaped, making snide comments and whining how she complimented Sasuke better in looks that Sakura. A few times Chouji and Shikamaru had to hold her down to make sure she didn't run back into Iruka's classroom to coo and flirt at Sasuke.

Shikamaru was tempted to let Sasuke have it, but manly empathy stopped that thought in it's tracks.

Chouji and Shikamaru walked to the Ichiraku Ramen stand, and to their annoyance, Ino followed. The shadow user planned to let the blonde have it when he saw someone was already sitting in Chouji's usual seat.

Before the Akimichi could get fired up about some hidden ploy to keep him from his ramen, Shikamaru walked up to the 'offender' and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

She turned around, wide pearl like eyes fixed on his face. "N-Nara-san?" Inwardly, he sighed. Hyuuga Hinata was the only girl in his year that he hadn't lost respect for because she didn't chase after Sasuke.

The probelm was, she was so shy. Whenever she happened to be in a group with other people, she'd just stare down at her lap, mouth firmly clamped shut.

He wished that Ino would take a page or two out of her book.

Speaking of which, the blonde reverted to a more cheery version of herself. She fired off rapid questions, which the smaller girl answered hesistatingly. Once past the 'how have you been's, Ino started to talk about Sasuke and how she deserved to be on Team Seven. The pale eyed girl seemed to get even more nervous.

Watching her, something in Shikamaru's mind clicked, like a light bulb appearing over a cartoon character's head.

It wasn't that Hinata was too shy to go after Sasuke.

She just didn't_ like _him the way Ino did. That single fact floated around in his head, like one of his precious clouds, before he got a firm grasp on it.

A girl not going after Sasuke.. A girl not even thinking that he was cute.. The idea was foreign to him. He had always been around Ino, and Ino had always been ogling Sasuke.

"Hoo boy..." he muttered. "Once in a lifetime, one girl out of twenty seven silly bubblebrained...."

He pulled out of his thoughts, realizing he really needed to get a girlfriend. If he had so much free time on his hands to wonder about some other guy's love life..

Chouji elbowed him.

"What are you mumbling about, Shika?" the pudgy boy rubbed his stomach. He was hungry.

"Nothing, let's just sit somewhere else." He started to move to the other side of the stand.

"No! It's the perfect spot!" Chouji said, his words catching the attention of both girls. "See, look. From this spot, I have access to three different napkin dispensers, the spice rack, and not to mention, because I'm in the middle, the chef pays more attention to me.." Shikamaru rolled his eyes. _Not again.. _

"M-my apologies.." The Hyuuga whispered, bowing twice. "I did not mean to take your spot." She lifted her bowl and was about to move to the other side of the stand. Ino, however, stopped her progress.

She turned flaming blue eyes on the two boys on her team. "Have you no respect for females?! Why should she move?!" Both boys shrunk underneath her fury.

"I-it's okay, Ino-san.." Hinata said, trying to tug her arm out of Ino's grasp. "I was a-already done.."

Shikamaru stood up straighter. With his brililant, caculating mind, he found a way out of hearing Ino gush over Sasuke. Wave the red flag in front of the bull.

In reference to females, talk about their personal matters.

"PMSing, much?" he drawled. Ino let go off Hinata to wrap her hands around Shikamaru's neck. The girl promptly escaped.

_Troublesome females.._ Shikamaru thought, his face turning a slight shade of blue.

Chouji slide into the now vacant seat, and smiled sweetly at the bewildered chef. "One extra large bowl of miso ramen." The chef looked between his customer and the two people fighting behind him.

Ino had taken off her sandal to smack Shikamaru in the head, but was finding it hard to move when Shikamaru used his shadow imitation on her.

"Tough love." Chouji told him confidentially.

A sandal came flying out of nowhere, once held by Ino, but guided by Shikamaru, and knocked him unconscious right into Hinata's unfinished ramen. The chef ducked underneath the counter, whimpering.

Where were the Anbu when you needed them?

* * *

Naruto knew he already blew it. Showed too much of his power. It put him entirely out of character.

He was supposed to be _'Uzumaki Naruto, loudest ninja of Kohona, and deadlast of his year.' _Well, at least until he was fourteen. _Then_ he could start kicking ass.

Instead, he was showing his team mates_ 'Naruto, Anbu class ninja. Right hand to the Fifth Hokage. Master of Rasengan and various other kinjutsus.'_

He had taught Sasuke a jonin level ninjutsu, and Sakura a chuunin level healing jutsu she was supposed to learn five years into the future, for kami's sake!

Naruto started to mentally hit himself on the head. _Stupid! _he yelled at himself. _You have nine months! You need to take things nice and slow, or the Hokage will think that you are a spy from another village and take you out_!

His sensei Kakashi had introduced himself the same way as did everyone else of Team Seven, even Naruto, who was trying to making up for his earlier blunder.

Kakashi had lazily told them about the survival training they were going to do the next day, to not eat breakfast, and where they were going to meet, before poofing away.

"Real conversationalist, that one.." the pink haired ninja of their group muttered.

Sasuke ignored her and got up, ready to leave.

Naruto stopped belittling his sense of tact when a sharp pain in his stomach hit him. He hissed slightly in pain and bent over. Sakura leaned over.

"Naruto?" she poked him twice. "You okay?" Sasuke came back, his dark eyes unreadable but still clearly worried.

**Get.. Away... **The Kyuubi's voice hissed in his mind. He was in pain too.

"What's wrong dobe?" Sasuke's hand hovered over Naruto's shoulder, as if he wasn't sure how to comfort another human being.

_W-where? _Another sharp pain assaulted his senses. He whimpered slightly. The pain had traveled from his stomache to his shoulders to his arms, until everything started to hurt.

"B-bad milk.." he lied, pushing past them. "See you t-tomorrow.." He ran off, attaching chakra to his feet. The pain went down a little.

**Forest..**

Sasuke and Sakura watched him go, in various levels of bewilderment. Sakura was the first to revert back.

"That Naruto.." she said, laughing lightly. "What an idiot.. not even checking the expiration date on his milk." She glanced over at Sasuke, expecting him to agree. "He's going to be holed up in his bathroom all day!"

Sasuke frowned. "Normally I'd agree.." His dark eyes squinted in the direction Naruto went off to. "But if he really did have bad milk.. Then why is he going that direction.." he asked himself. His pink haired team mate looked back and forth between her other retreating teammate and her crush, confused.

"When.. he lives on the other side of town?

* * *

Naruto and the Kyuubi had an interesting check and balance system between them. The Kyuubi would suggest a jutsu, and Naruto could either okay it, or ignore it. Naruto would request power from the Kyuubi and the fox could either give it to him, or not.

But the fox had to give him some power when in a battle situation, or the blonde most likely die, which would mean that he'd die as well, and the blonde had to okay some of the Kyuubi's jutsus, or suffer his eternal bitching. Neither knew which was worse.

When the Kyuubi stopped tormenting his vessel with nightmares of his gruesome conquering tactics, and when Naruto stopped mentally picturing him as a tiny vixen, accessorized with pink bows and big blue eyes, they entered a partnership.

The Kyuubi had to admit he respected Naruto for not backing down, and Naruto had to respect that the fox was way smarter than him.

The fox gave Naruto a great portion of his power, melding it with the blonde's chakra, making Naruto powerful, as well as bringing the fox closer to Naruto's mind.

They argued, fussed, and cursed at each other. Somewhere in between they talked seriously.

Kyuubi taught Naruto new jutsus, and Naruto taught him about humans. Kyuubi trusted Naruto to use his power wisely, and Naruto trusted Kyuubi not to put him in grave danger.

Grave danger found him easily even without the Kyuubi's help, after all.

Naruto collasped against a tree in Training Area 10. The pain was back. He gritted his teeth.

_What the hell is wrong with me?!_ he demanded of his tenant. The demon stalked back and forth in his cage.

**Train. Orbs of light.** Was the only thing that Naruto could translate between the Kyuubi's growls. The blonde pushed away from the tree, and started to summon a rasengan in both of his hands, using chakra from both himself and the Kyuubi.

The rasengan in his left hand glowed a faint blue while the other glowed a faint red.

He smashed them into one of the huge trees that covered the training area, marveling how the pain seemed to disappear for a moment.

**Again.** Naruto performed the Fourth's prized jutsu over and over again until he couldn't stand. He fell to his back, and stared up at the sky. The pain didn't come back. He was still, enjoying the feel of the grass against his sweaty body. His face turned up, illuminated by the sun sitting in the middle of the sky. His eyes closed.

_W-what was that? _he asked tiredly.

The Kyuubi shifted a few times then settled. **Chakra overload.**

Naruto blinked a couple times. Chakra _depletion_ was something he could understand.

It was a ninja's most hated way to die. It did not mean that the user had died in an epic battle with another ninja. It did not mean that the ninja had died honorable for his village.

No, it meant that the user was so _stupid_ in his use of chakra that he died of it.

But chakra overload? The body made only the amount of chakra needed, the rest of the energy being stored as stamina. How could someone overload on chakra?

The fox answered his unasked question.

**The kinjutsu. The one that brought you from the future into the past. Your twelve year old self cannot take so much chakra, from both the orinigal source and your future self. **The fox stated calmly.** The combined pressure of the chakra both stretched out your and my capability to hold a certain amount of chakra. Think of a balloon with too much air in it. **

Naruto paled. _I'm going to explode?! _There was a harsh barking sound, what Naruto knew was the Kyuubi's way of laughing.

**No, you idiot. At least not now. That's why I made you use so much chakra, so your body wouldn't be so stressed. **

_Oh._ he relaxed slightly. _Why didn't I notice this eariler? _He crossed his arms behind his head, making himself comfortable. He wasn't planning on moving anywhere soon.

**Your chakra was still melding together. And you were teaching the Uchiha boy and the pink girl jutsus.**

Naruto watched a blue jay land on one of the trees he destroyed. It chirped a cheerful song, so strange to hear in all the destruction. He had fell seven trees in the training area, trees that were hundreds of years older than he was. He felt bad for taking out his pain on them, when they had done nothing at all. It was his choice to go back in time, not their's.

_So when I regain my chakra.. This'll happen again. _The bird started to clean it's wing, it's tail feather's twitching slightly. A second one joined it on the same branch. It called out a greeting to it's friend.

**Not unless you seal up about half of your power. **The birds tensed then flew off, a sharp warning whistle coming out of the first's beak. Naruto was about to ask how, when he sensed several auras he knew were not his own.

Naruto tensed as well, and threw himself up into a crouching position.

Several Anbu surrounded him, the color of their masks telling him that they were all elites.

_What did I do? _He backed up and reached behind him for his katana, only to grasp nothing. He hadn't bought a katana to replace his old one yet. It took immense amount of control to force his body into a straighter position, his hands at his sides.

_Think.. think. You're Naruto the almighty prankster, not Naruto the war veteran_.

Naruto faked a surprised glare. "What the fuck do you losers want?"

The ram masked Anbu to his left took a step forward.

"Uzumaki Naruto, the Hokage demands your presence."

* * *

AN: And cut! Yay, sixth chapter hot off the presses. Would you believe that chapter three through six was just a half a day? XD

Pardon me while I amuse myself. Chapter seven will come out soon. Feedback is my fuel.

What _should_ happen next chapter: Naruto talks to Hokage, then heads off his merry way to go seal up his energy so he isn't a walking bomb, more Kyuubi-Naruto interaction, and finally! The test to see who becomes genin!

Uh..

Kinjutsu- Jutsus that became forbinn because of the heavy price of doing them. ex- user's death, other people's death, etc. Jutsus like the one that sealed up the Kyuubi and killed off the Fourth. Naruto can do most kinjutsus without repercussions because of the Kyuubi, but the time travel kinjutsu hit him pretty hard.


	7. Sarutobi and the White Fang's Son

Disclaimer: Me? Own Naruto and have all of that lovely cash?....No. One could dream though..

AN: My beloved computer is back. And ya want to know what? The engineer friend of mine that looked at it said with the age and incompetence of the parts in it, that it shouldn't even be running.

For all those who kinda understand computers, my CPU runs at 166 mega hertz, while the one I'm eyeing at Fry's runs at 2.8 giga hertz. Upgrades, here I come.

For all who were annoyed with last chapter, I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with you. That was a filler chapter, that only contained info that I needed to get out.

And Faceless1208- Are you a mind reader?! That's exactly what I planned for Naruto to have! XD The body flicker thing rocks!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

* * *

For the Love of my Friends 

Chapter Seven: Sarutobi, and the White Fang's Son

By Foxie

* * *

Neji wearily walked to the Hyuuga mansion, the noon sun bearing heavily down on his tired shoulders. 

Gai had been more enthusiastic about their training today. Apparently his rival, the infamous copy nin, Hatake Kakashi, had been issued a new batch of wanna be genins. Gai wanted to make sure his students were fit enough for a 'friendly' competition of sorts, his students fighting against Kakashi's.

Neji didn't see the point.

Kakashi was just going to fail them like he did last year. History repeated itself, time and time again.

He reached the gates without any hassle, meaning that Lee didn't ambush him, demanding a fight. His team mate was struggling to hold a rivalry with him such as Kakashi and Gai held, but was finding it hard. Neji beat him every time.

It was not Lee's destiny to defeat him, the genius prodigy of the Hyuuga clan.

He coldly glared at the person manning the gates. The man, upon noticing the pale eyed boy, opened it hastily, not wanting to lose his job. Neji did not spare him another glance, just moved past him, into the yard. He climbed up the steps, missing the top one in his haste to get to his room before someone noticed he was home.

The heavy oak door seemed to open of it's own accord. Neji was halted in the foyer. Another Branch member stood there.

"Neji." the man stated. He looked back at his fellow Branch member, his gaze not different from the one he had given to the gates man. "Hiashi-sama wishes to speak to you." If at all possible, his gaze got even colder, clearly not liking the way that the older Hyuuga worded it.

When the head of the Hyuuga clan wanted to see you, you immediately jump and see him. Especially if you are a Branch member.

Neji glided past the older man, taking a left in the foyer instead of the right, where he wished he was going. The hallway to Hiashi's den was much more lavishly decorated than the hallway that lead to the Branch's side of the mansion, the white marble almost lighting up the hallway on it's own.

Expensive paintings and wall scrolls with sayings like_ 'He who thinks he is strong, is invincible. He who thinks he is not, is weak.' _decorated the walls.

Neji found himself glaring at one particular wall scroll. It said, _'One half rules, while the other protects. Each is needed, neither are spared.' _It was supposed to somehow explain the division of the clan.

One half were the warriors, sworn to protect with their weapons, while the other were rulers, sworn to protect with their power. Neji found himself scoffing, a habit he picked up from Tenten.

The Branch family, warriors? Since when had the Branch family been anything but servants? And when did the Head family ever have to suffer the consequences of their actions, without the Branch taking the blame? The Head family was always spared.

He thought briefly of his father, the twin brother of Hiashi. He had always smiled at him, and kept Neji close after his mother died. To have his only father pulled away because of a stupid thing that Hiashi did..

Neji pushed open the study door, wiping all emotions from his face and mind.

Bowing, he greeted Hiashi in a polite, but distant manner.

"Neji." Hiashi stated, nodding his head. Neji stood in a slightly tensed position, ready to move if Hiashi gave him any reason to. The head of the Hyuuga clan stood by the fireplace, his hand lightly resting on the mantle. The older man did not even glance at his brother's son.

"There has been an emergancy." the Hyuuga began. "Something that threatens the safety of this village." Neji held down his curiosity. If Hiashi wasn't going to tell him what the problem was, then it was a useless to question him.

"I cannot tell you what the problem is.." Neji saw that coming. "But now it is critical to put up the best front possible. We have to act like nothing is wrong. We are the strongest in Kohona. If the others see us in fear, they will be in fear too."

Neji couldn't disagree less. The other clans couldn't care less about what the Hyuugas acted like, having written them off as stiffs a long time ago. If their was an emergancy that the other clans knew about, they would be worried about it, no matter what the Hyuugas thought.

Neji didn't voice his opinion, just bowed and murmured his agreement. Hiashi then dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

His ice cold mask didn't fall, not until he was far out of his uncle's Byakugan range, in the safety of his own room. He gazed down at the only two signs of life in his bare room.

Two pictures sat on the table beside his bed. One was a picture of his team. He was on Gai's left, his arms crossed, and his gaze on something off to the side. Lee was on Gai's right, throwing a mega watt grin identical to his mentor's and a thumbs up. Tenten knelt between them, a soft smile on her face, while their tall sensei towered above her, both of his hands on the boys' heads. He was winking in what he thought was a seductive manner.

The other only had two people in it. A younger Neji, sometime before he got the seal on his forehead that forever bonded him with his cruel fate, hung off of his father's shoulders. Both Hyuugas were grinning.

He smiled sadly at both pictures. The first picture had been something he didn't want in his room the first place, the only pleasant face on it being Tenten's. But it showed him a life that he often forgot existed outside the mansion walls. A place where family treated each other like family, instead as a master or a slave.

The second picture reminded him of his father, and how different they were compared to the other Hyuugas, outcasts even. Where his father had been encouraging and gentle with him, Hiashi had been harsh and almost cruel to Hinata, his oldest daughter, and Neji's cousin.

The other Hyuugas maintained a perfect _'look, but don't touch' _icon in Kohona, while his father often broke it in fits of temper, amusement, and happiness. His father had been the only Hyuuga with friends outside the clan.

The absence of his father's warming shadow had made Neji realize something about his clan, and himself. His bandaged hand reached out and gently touched the side of his team's picture, then touched the one with him and his father, as if the smooth texture of the glass could prove to him that these were real, a perfect moment in time captured by something as simplistic as a camera.

The only people who he cared about smiled up at him, life and happiness evident in their eyes.

The Hyuugas were empty hollows of people, mere ghosts compared to the lively people on his team and his father.

And he was becoming one.

* * *

His heart beat quickly as a prey chased by a hungry wolf. 

His eyes looked around quickly for an escape route. The boy found none. His hunters surrounded him, shepherding him into the direction they wanted to go.

He wiped his sweaty palms on his shorts and tried to calm himself down. The scent of his own fear was almost suffocating him.

A delay tactic was needed, he had to live a little longer, so many people needed him. He leaned back toward his most basic defense tactic, a low one, but very effective.

"Are we there yet?" Annoyance. How well it worked.

The Anbu in front of Naruto answered negatively. Adopting sulky look, one he had perfected over the years, he crossed his arms behind his head.

"Well I'm hungry." His eyes widened gleefully and he rubbed his hands together. "And you know you want to buy me some ramen!"

"No." the leader said once more. Naruto pouted.

"Aww.. You're not nearly as cool as Iruka-sensei. And he's a chuunin!" His jab at their 'coolness' was ignored. He sighed. Who knew Anbus were such boring people back in the day? _At least **I** was a cool Anbu.._

They reached the edge of the training area, about to cross over into the shopping district of the village. All of them jumped up to the roofs, not wanting to be stuck in the square during lunch hour.

"So.." he said, attempting to strike up another conversation with at least one of the masked ninjas around him. "Are we there now?" A collective sigh came from the Anbu group sent to fetch him.

"You guys are so boring. When I become Hokage, I'm sending you all on vacations so you can learn to be cool. Like me." There again was no response. He sighed again. So much for small talk to keep him from his morbid thoughts.

"Like talking to a wall. Except the wall would be a lot more interesting." He snickered when he thought of his 'battle' with the wall that morning.

"Finally." the Anbu to his right murmured, when the Hokage's office came in sight. The other Anbu nodded their agreement, glad to get rid of the blonde and move on to easier jobs. Like trying to hunt down the Akatsuki. Funny how they thought an impossible task was easier than escorting one blonde to the Hokage.

"Old man!" he called out, ignoring the clouds of smoke that came from the Anbu's departure. Naruto walked past the chuunins on guard duty. They both rolled their eyes.

_Every damn week, that brat gets in trouble.._ the one on the right thought.

Naruto, obvious to the ninja's thoughts, walked into the room. The Third Hokage, in all of his wrinkled glory, sat at the desk. The old man put the paper down, and looked at Naruto through his glasses. He looked a little worried.

The blonde shifted from foot to foot. He couldn't believe that he was actually feeling guilty. All he had down was relieve the pain of having too much chakra in his system, and they jump all over him! Not to mention, the Hokage looked painfully old and weary when he was worried, not at all like the lively old man he had pretended was his grandfather when he was young.

He had to say something to make that man return, even for a moment.

"Didn't know you wore glasses, old man." he said casually, squinting at the Hokage. Sarutobi gave him an annoyed look.

"That's what happens when people get old, brat. Their bodies don't have the sense to function as well as they used to." he grumbled. Naruto looked genuinely surprised by that.

"Really? I thought they just got ugly." Naruto dodged out of the way of the tea cup that was thrown at him just in time. It shattered against the wall.

"Now that's more like it!" he exclaimed. Both Naruto and Sarutobi grinned at each other, both reliving times of youth.

The Hokage sat down, and gestured at Naruto to do the same. Naruto sat down on the chair in front of the desk.

"What do you need?" Naruto asked, twitching until he found the 'sweet spot' of the worn blue chair. The old man took off his glasses, and looked Naruto in the eyes. This was no time for humor. Naruto found himself mimicking the serious look on the older man's.

"The clan heads have come to me and reported a very high rate of chakra depletion going on in one of the training areas. For every wave of chakra used, it was immediately replaced by at least three." _Ahh... That's why I had to do more than one rasengan_.. Naruto thought privately to himself. "This chakra that was being used and replaced so rapidly was extremely high and powerful, yet only two of them could give me a name for who it was."

_Shit shit SHIT!_ He couldn't tell the Hokage anything, although he was dying to let his secret out, to have someone with a good head on his shoulders help him figure out what he needed to change in order to fix the future. He had never been a tactician, rather a good solider who followed his leader's commands. It was hard for him to go solo.

**Just blame me**. The Kyuubi's solution didn't make any sense. How was he supposed to explain in his sudden gain in chakra by just pointing a finger at the fox? The Kyuubi's chakra had a much different wave length than his own. Wouldn't they be able to tell?

_Eh? _The worst part was, Naruto realized, Sarutobi needed to die. Kohona needed Tsunade as the Fifth Hokage. She was the only one, besides Jiraiya, who really had a chance against Orochimaru. Knowledge was a double edged knife without a handle to grab on. Hit your enemy where you needed it, but could wound you if you mishandled it.

**Humans cannot even hope to understand the power of a demon. Tell this one that you got the power from me.**

"And that person was you, Naruto." Sarutobi murmured, closing his eyes. "If what Iruka says is true, you learned about what really happened to the Kyuubi, right?" Naruto nodded.

"Then you must realize that whatever you are doing with the kitsune, for the heads of the Hyuuga and Inuzuka clans has indeed identified the energy as the said fox, is very dangerous. You could risk setting loose an eons old demon who would like nothing better than to destroy the world."

**I resent that. I only want to destroy my enemies' homes. Humans destroy the world well enough on their own.** Naruto, despite liking the human species better than the demon kind, had to agree.

"Letting him free would lead to too much paperwork." Naruto said frankly. "I just.. asked him to pay his rent. It's the best thing he could do after using me as a mobile home for the last twelve years without my knowledge. Damn free loader."

**Separating from you would be heaven, brat. But our souls are intertwined. If we don't separate naturally, like in death, we would risk destroying our very souls**. Naruto wondered privately how the Kyuubi knew this information.

"Nothing short of a powerful kinjutsu can eliminate what the Fourth did to me." Naruto said firmly. "Or death."

_There is no hope in reincarnation for you. Why do you look forward so much to death?_ the blonde asked of his inner demon.

Naruto stood, and smiled at the Hokage. "If we are done with our little chat, I'd like to leave. The genin test is tomorrow, you know. I've got those evil bastards and Sakura-chan on my team. I have to do my best!"

**You forget, one gets reincarnated until they are one with the earth's spirit. Or Kami or whatever other title you humans have such a fancy for creating for it. Even demons.** the fox said calmly.

Sarutobi nodded. "Is there.. anything you like to tell me?"

So many things flew in his mind that were just dying to be released. How he was worried that he was going to fail, how much he wished that there was some way he could be so powerful where he could kill Orochimaru without having to worry the Hokage about it, how he was going to handle Sasuke, Haku, and later, Gaara so they wouldn't end up getting killed. How he wanted to kill Kabuto right now, but was afraid of the consequences that would bring. How cute Hinata was when she was blushing, and the feel of her hand in his..

He shook his head. The Hokage looked a little disappointed.

"Sorry, monkey breath." Naruto was stricken by an idea. The old man shouldn't know about the kinjutsu that Naruto used, but he should be warned of his own demise.

"Snail beats snake, snake beats toad, toad beats snail.." he murmured. The Hokage looked up, surprised. "Monkey.. can probably defeat toad and snail, but there's no way that the monkey's brute strength can compare to the snake's bite." Sarutobi listened intently. It didn't make much sense to him now, but his instincts told him this was the most important thing that Naruto could ever tell him. "The snake can be defeated.. if the toad and the monkey work together to defeat the snake. Or the snail can get off her gambling ass to help." Naruto turned to the door. "See ya, old man."

_There.. _he thought to himself. _That's the best I can do. He has to see it through himself. _

Naruto re winded the conversation in his mind, then replied to the fox.

_Shika mentioned something like that. The worse the life lived by the person, the more horrible their next life starts out. I think it's a.. Buddhist thing? Karma and all that?_ Naruto wondered how bad his own reincarnation into a new form was going to be, but then remembered the Kyuubi. He mentally laughed, coming up with the worst way that the fox could start out his next life. _I'd bet you'd be soooo pissed off if you were reincarnated as a human girl._ The Kyuubi shrugged.

**Gender doesn't bother me. It's the human part. Uck**. Naruto snickered at the fox for acting so .. human. He started to add more details to the girl Kyuubi was going to be, such as size, weight, and looks.

_And you'll be a awkward red head who is always whistled at and groped_. he finished proudly. He glanced back at the door to the Hokage's office, sighing softly. Despite the glee he felt at torturing the kitsune, he couldn't keep the dark thought out of the back of his head, that maybe there was more he could have said, more he could have done, just short of telling the old man that he knew what was to come.

He crossed his arms behind his head and headed back to his apartment, a frown marring his face.

**Stop trying to annoy me...** The Kyuubi muttered. There was a quiet pause.** I hope my reincarnation has the sense to learn some taijutsu... **

* * *

Naruto woke up extra early that morning, immediately leaving before having any breakfast to the training area he was at before. The pain had returned with a vengeance. He knew he should have taken care of it yesterday, but he grew so tired after the meeting with the Hokage that he went home right after to go to sleep. 

It was four in the morning, the sky still dark as night. And as cold as hell.

Naruto did a couple jumping jacks to get some blood flowing through his body.

_So.. how powerful should it be?_ he asked his internal advisor.

**At least seven point.** was the quick answer. The blonde groaned. He hated doing seven point seals.

Five point seals were easy. Focus energy into your hand, equal amounts of pressure in each finger, then touch whatever you wanted sealed. Three point seals were even easier. Connect a strand of your chakra to a strand of the thing's chakra that you wanted to seal, then guide it to the vessel. Or draw a triangle if it was already there, like his chakra.

But seven point seals had to do with blood and chakra offerings and always left him with a headache. Sealing stuff was such a bother..

There were rules, of course. Naruto hated rules though. He kept the twenty or so rules surrounding sealing and tucked them in a nice secluded part of his brain, preferring to just say that _things without chakra cannot be sealed_, to make it simple. Of course, it went more like _'a being with chakra could be sealed into another being with chakra, or in an object without chakra, but an object without chakra could not be sealed in a being of chakra or another object without chakra by use of chakra...' _and so forth.

See why he condenses it to six words?

Anyway, the more points, or areas of immense chakra concentration, the seal had, the stronger it would be. The seal that bound the Kyuubi to Naruto had the grand total of ten points. The least amount of points needed to seal a demon to a human was three -Gaara had five-, but a seal would need to have more than six if the vessel didn't want to be possessed or taken over by the demon.

Which was the exact problem Gaara had until Naruto took pity and added another three points to his seal. The red head had still found it hard to sleep though, too into the habit of denying himself of that basic need.

Gaara was an _intense_ person.

Naruto whined underneath his breath, then bit his thumb. Blood flowed underneath the pressure of his sharpened canines.

**The demon way of sealing would be of much more use.** The fox said haughtily. Naruto sighed.

Although he didn't like encouraging the demon, he was right. Besides, the demon way lead to less of a head ache. But it still had to do with blood, as most demonic traditions were.

He wrote on the forest floor the seven most important demonic gods of sealing with little prompt from Kyuubi. The fox had taught him well. Connecting the signs together with a thin trail of blood-he had to bite his finger again because it healed-, he murmured a quick prayer in the language that Kyuubi was beginning to teach him.

He had no idea what the hell he was saying, only being able to translate a little, but put his whole trust in the Kyuubi.

Reaching the last step, he put his hand on top of the signs, his palm almost touching the bloody marks on the ground. Willing this to work, he sparked the reaction with a little of the Kyuubi's chakra.

He felt his head suddenly grow heavy, strength leaving his body. His heart sounded loud in his ears, his breath coming out harsh. The world started to tilt beneath him. Somewhere in the middle of that, his left hand, the one he held over the marks on the ground, started burning.

It wasn't painful, more like the weird feeling after you sit on your foot for a prolonged period of time.

After a moment, the world started to right itself. He no longer felt so heavy. He gazed at the kanji tattooed on his palm, a smaller version of what he had written on the ground.

**They accepted your offering**. The Kyuubi said lazily, as if this happened every day.

_Great. Wonderful. Just peachy. Now what was my offering again? _Naruto poked the seal. The flesh on his hand was rised a little compared to the rest of his hand, just like a swelling bruise.

**Your first born. **the fox said slyly. Naruto stiffened.

_What?!_ he yelled. The fox laughed at him, thinking that his vessel was a silly little creature.

**I'm just kidding. I wouldn't put a kit on the line for a simple seal myself. Your offering was a little of my chakra. It'll return by tomorrow. **

Naruto let out a relieved sigh, then touched his palm where the signs glowed a dark red. I hope this isn't permanent. As if they read his mind, the dark marks disappeared.

_Eh.. explain how this works later, okay? _He slumped forward, fully prepared to take a nice nap.

**If I feel like it.** The was a pause, as if the fox was debating on whether or not he should be telling Naruto what he thought. **Didn't you.. have a test or something planned for today?**

Naruto's eyes suddenly snapped open. _Shit!_

* * *

Sasuke looked up at the sun position in the sky, then back across the training area. Half of the people who were supposed to be there were absent. And the last person he wanted to be stuck with stood underneath the branch he sat on, green eyes focused on his every movement. Annoyed, he lightly tapped his fingers on the branch he was straddling. 

"Stop watching. I'm not going to do a trick." he snapped. Startled, Sakura took a step back.

"I.. uh.. just wanted.." she stuttered. Sasuke smirked, finding no reason to pay anymore attention to her. There were more important things than girls and friendships on his mind right now. Like how he was going to activate his sharingan, to shrink the gap between Itachi's and his own power. And how he would find a casual way to show Naruto that he had mastered the technique that the blond had shown him the day before.

Okay, maybe showing off wasn't as important as trying to kill Itachi, but it kept his mind out of the darker thoughts that had plagued him when he realized that Naruto, the dobe that always failed the tests back in the Academy, was a lot stronger than he looked. Maybe Bunshin no Jutsu was the blonde's weakness. Sasuke stored that information at the back of his mind.

Sakura sighed. There he went, ignoring her again. "I just wanted to know if you could see Kakashi or Naruto from there. You don't have to be such a jerk about it!" She immediately turned her back to him, a blush on her cheeks. Damn Inner Sakura for gaining control of her mouth.

Sasuke was surprised to hear her say that. When he had met her, he had categorized her as a fan girl in his mind, someone who would annoy him for all they were worth, but were handy to have around when one felt too lazy to do something. Fan girls were people who gushed over him, told him how great he was, and constantly asked him out. They were great to have around when one needed their self esteem to be boosted, but there was little use for them otherwise.

Fan girls did not call their 'beloved' Sasuke a jerk. His dark gaze shifted from the direction he thought the other two would come to her red clad back.

He wondered what he should call her now. 'Fan girl' was just not going to work. Damn people and their annoying habits of changing.

Bowing his head, he accepted his defeat humbly. He had been surprised by a mere slip of a girl. Her reward for catching him off guard was his acknowledgement.

"I can't see anything from up here." he admitted. Sasuke couldn't ignore her until he could properly fit her into a category, or he'd go nuts. He was a control freak.

He kicked his leg over the branch until he was sitting on it sideways, then just dropped. Landing smoothly beside her with his ninja grace, he merely shrugged. "They get here when they're damn good and ready."

Right then, Naruto walked into the clearing. He looked tired, a smudge of dirt decorating his forehead protector free head. He was wearing the same clothes as he had the day before. He nearly tripped over a rock, then sat in front of a tree not too far away from them.

Yawning, he said "Good. I'm not late."

Sakura immediately rounded on him. "What do you mean by, 'not late'?! You were supposed to be here three hours ago!" Naruto tried to smile, but failed when another yawn contorted his face.

"Kakashi is a real bastard about setting up meeting times." He looked away in rebellion. "I wasn't going to freeze my ass off for nothin'." Sasuke smirked, and turned around. The blonde had his moments of smarts.

"So, you know him?" the dark haired shinobi asked. Naruto stared at the Uchiha symbol on the back of the other boy's shirt, trying to focus.

"Know him? No. Know of him? Yes." the blonde said slyly. It was kind of a lie, but mostly the truth. No one really knew the copy nin that well. Having served under his leadership had only let Naruto into the outermost layer of the maze that was Kakashi.

"Um, Naruto? You have dirt on your forehead." Sakura mumbled. All that waiting for nothing, she thought. While Inner Sakura ranted on about evil teachers, Sakura glanced at the position of the sun. It was almost ten.

The blonde scowled, then rubbed the mark until the skin was pink.

"Gone?" the pink haired girl nodded distractedly. Sasuke turned slightly to look at the boy.

"What, did you sleep in the training area? Baka." he said coldly. Naruto yawned, not rising to take the bait.

"Almost." the demon vessel said truthfully. Sasuke stared at him for a moment, before turning his head back around. Damn. He'd have to re-categorize Naruto too. That was the bother of really getting to know people. They tended to surprise you right after you thought you got them all sorted out.

There was a poof of smoke, then Kakashi appeared. He sheepishly waved at them from the branch he landed on.

"Morning, everyone. I got lost on the long winding road called Life.."

"Liar!!" Both Naruto and Sakura yelled pointing a finger at the copy nin. He coughed, slightly embarrassed that they saw through him so easily, then jumped down to them.

_At least he didn't contradict us.. _Naruto thought amused. He crossed his arms behind his head and squinted at the jonin. He better hurry up. I'm hungry!

"Ah, yes. Why are we here again?" he tapped the side of his mask in thought. A not so concealed growl from not Naruto, but Sakura snapped him out of his daze. The annoyed looks on all three of the teens jogged his memory. "Right! The survival training!" Kakashi clapped his hands, then reached in his kunai holster.

All three of soon to be genins tensed, but they relaxed when they saw he pulled out two innocent looking bells. Except for Naruto.

A scowl marred his tan face. _Aw, hell.. not this test again._ The Kyuubi chuckled at him, fully amused. Naruto flipped the demon off, feeling little satisfaction as the chuckles evolved into full out laughter.

Kakashi, from what little people could see of him, looked sadistically amused as well. Naruto's scowl deepened. The fox and the jonin just had to be related.

The White Fang's son twitched his hand, making the bells jingle softly.

"The mission is.. Take these bells from me, using any method possible."

* * *

Ahem. I'll have you know that I made up the sealing thing. It may be different in the manga- I dunno, I don't recall them explaining it- but this is how it's going to be in this story. And if people are wondering what the emergency is that Hiashi talked about in the beginning, it's the worry of the villagers that the Kyuubi was set free. Which he was not. Sorry if I didn't make that clear enough. 

Till next time!


	8. Brotherly Affection and Abused Peacemake...

Disclaimer: Do I own Naruto? laughs her ass off .... oh wait, you're serious?

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Eight: Brotherly Affection and Abused Peacemakers

by Foxie

* * *

Lee was anything but a girl's dream boyfriend.

"534... 535... 536.." he panted, kicking the log in front of him with enthusiasm. "If I cannot reach 600.. 537... I will... 538.. run 800 laps around Kohona.. 539... on my hands! 540.." With a battle cry, he jumped into the air, and came down with harder force on the poor log. His foot caused a crack in wood to widen and deepen.

Sure, he had the sweet attitude that a girl would love in said boyfriend -in small doses-, but his looks just didn't make the cut. Inches thick eyebrows, his haircut, and his poor choice in clothing were enough to make the most rowdy and anti-feminist tom boy run the other way.

It had taken him a while to convince Tenten that his eyebrows were indeed not his pet caterpillars, but an actual part of his face. The only reason why she didn't run or faint was because she wanted to look good in front of her crush, Hyuuga Neji.

Lee shook his head lightly, then delivered another powerful kick to the already stressed out log. Tenten was a nice girl, but there were only so many times he could turn down a makeover before she'd take out her beloved kunai.

He was certain that he'd find the perfect girl who would look beyond his looks, and see the true him, the gentle soul who loved squirrels. But even if Lee found a soul mate in a blind person, that person would be so annoyed by his constant happy and hyper nature that they'd leave him anyway. If he'd tone it down by a mile and got an extreme makeover, he'd be lucky to go out on a date by the time he was thirty.

Such is the fate of those who worship Gai. Although the man was nearly thirty himself, somehow, he hadn't gotten the hint that he was far too passionate for his own good.

Of course nowadays, Gai was too involved in trying to make a certain woman fall in love with him. And that certain woman had a crush on Kakashi, his better looking counter part, ever since they were genin. She was the sole reason why Gai had started his rivalry with the gray haired jonin.

Said male didn't know of the female's affections, and only participated in the rivalry when he was bored. Which was often, since he never passed a genin team.

Tears pooled in Lee's eyes when he thought of his poor unfortunate mentor. To love someone no matter who she loved, or what she did.. His respect for Gai doubled.

"Gai-sensei! Love will come to you!" Breaking down, the boy sobbed joyous tears. Whether the tears came from happy visions of Gai and some unknown lady marrying and having billions of thick eyebrowed, bowl haired cut kids who called him Uncle Lee, or because he finally reached six hundred kicks, we will never know.

* * *

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, and glared hard at the gray haired man who dared to insult him with such an easy exercise. He was twenty two years old, for kami's sake! Or at least mentally. Besides, one perverted old man wasn't going to stand in his way.. 

A flashback of being tied to a log made him wince. The 'perverted old man' sure knew how to tie knots..

"Uh, sensei?" Sakura raised her hand, feeling a little foolish. With an amused look, Kakashi nodded to her. Not everyday that he saw a ninja raise her hand to ask a question.

"There's two bells.. and three of us." She smiled nervously, certain that it was just a simple miscalculation. "How is that going to work?"

"Easy." Her answer came from not her sensei, but her blond team mate. "The person who doesn't get a bell loses. Short and simple, eh scarecrow?" Sharp blue eyes fell on Kakashi. They narrowed when he smiled back.

"So." The Uchiha turned to the other two. "Instead of supporting team work, this drives a wedge between us, because we're not only fighting Kakashi, but we're also competing against each other to see who can get a bell first." Sasuke murmured, a frown on his face. "Every man.. or female," he glanced at Sakura. "For themselves."

Realization dawning, she added, "And because we haven't eaten lunch or breakfast, and probably haven't had the best of sleep last night, we are not at our best. Kakashi has the total advantage."

"But of course. He wants us to experience what a real ninja has to face." Naruto said, waving a hand like it was the easiest thing.

"..Real ninja?" Sasuke echoed, his eyes focused on Naruto. The blonde merely smiled secretively.

"A real ninja out in the battle field has limited access to food, water, and most important of all, places to take care of their personal hygiene." Sakura made a face at that.

"Why would hygiene be more important than water?" she asked. A low laugh from Sasuke made her loose her concentration. Did.. he really do what she thought he did? The faintly amused look on Sasuke's face made her reel back.

"What's the point of hiding if they can smell you from a mile away?" he murmured.

"Like signing your death warrant." Naruto said, agreeing. Both boys were grinning. They both found something hilarious in that little fact, something that Sakura couldn't understand. Boys will be boys..

It _was_ nice to see Sasuke smile instead of scowling or smirking..

Kakashi clapped his hands, looking overly pleased. "Exactly! And one last rule..." His voice lowered, and the happy shine in his eyes disappeared. They tensed at such an abrupt change in attitude, instinctively moving closer to each other. "The person who fails to get a bell from me also fails this exercise, and will be shipped back to the Academy."

He gazed at them sternly, watched as they in turn watched him. The corner of his mouth twitched up when Sakura actually took a step backward. Seeing him quietly enjoy the effect his serious side, Naruto took a step forward and smirked at Kakashi.

"Are you done talking? I wanna get this over and done with before I die of starvation." _This'll be easy_. Naruto thought confidently._ All I have to do is convince them to work with me.._

_This is going to be hard._ Sakura slide into a more tense position.. Her right hand dropped down, hovering an inch above her kunai holster.

Sure of his soon victory, Sasuke smirked. He was an Uchiha. He would surpass all others.

Kakashi looked at the three of them, silently shook his head. _These wanna be ninjas.._ he thought. _All I can sense is determination and confidence. _He tilted his head slightly to the side. _They have no idea what they are getting themselves into._

The copy nin tied the bells to one of the loop holes on his pants. Not bothering to look up, he said, "You have two hours. You may begin."

As he expected, the ninjas in front of him darted off to the side, taking cover in the dense forest. However, to his surprise, Naruto was still standing in front of him. He sighed. These kids had a lot to learn.

"Lesson one: When a ninja higher than your level is on the opposite side of the battle field, it is wise to hide until one can figure out a good plan of attack." He reached into a pouch on his vest, and pulled out a orange book with a strange illustration of a man running after a woman. Of course, there was no mistaking the large red crossed out sign, signifying that it was an adult book.

Naruto rolled his eyes, a light blush coloring his cheeks. He crossed his arms over his chest, an scandalized gasp from his left the only thing that kept him from rasengan-ing the book. _Like hentai author, like hentai reader_.

Jiraiya wrote good stories, with complete and understandable plots. If the book and the man weren't equally perverted, he would have gone as far as saying that the frog hermit was a good writer.

Yes, Naruto had read one of Icha Icha Paradise series. His face didn't return to it's normal tan hue until weeks afterward. He still burned red whenever someone pulled one of them out and started reading.

"It has nothing to do with levels, pervert." he said, managing to cool the blush down slightly. "A genin could beat a jonin if that genin has an advantage over him." Naruto countered.

"That would still require planning. One can't plan while fighting." the copy nin murmured lazily, taking time to turn the page. His head was tilted slightly in the direction where he too had heard the gasp. Naruto, in horror, realized that he knew where Sakura was. Brotherly affection and protection reared it's head.

_Distraction!_

"True, good argument." Naruto said graciously. "But.. what if 'one' already has a plan?"

"You don't seem like the type of person who plans things out too well. Indulge me. Speak of this plan."

"Well, one.. I'm going to kick your ass and pass this exercise." Naruto cracked his knuckles, his foxy grin fixed in place. "And for two.. you're just going to have to wait."

The teen ran forward, his fist raised. He expected for Kakashi to dodge the punch, which the jonin followed through with, then aimed a kick where he thought his blind spot was. Kakashi, without tearing his gaze from the book, grabbed Naruto's leg with his free hand and flipped him. The impact with the ground jarred Naruto's senses.

_W-what the hell?_ The boy darted to his feet, denying the truth. He came at Kakashi again, only to be knocked back when the man blocked. He was about to have another go at the man when a stern voice assaulted his mind.

**Time traveling and extra knowledge about combat aside, you cannot defeat him unless you open one of the seals on your palm. **The Kyuubi said, annoyance coating his words. **And I refuse to waste so much energy on an ally**.

_Why the hell can't I?! He's not like Orochimaru! He's about as strong as Kabuto was..eh.. is._

**If you faced him as your older self, chakra and myself excluded, he'd still beat you. He has four more years of experience**. Kyuubi snickered.**Foolish mortals. Always thinking that they are invincible**.

Annoyance flickered in Naruto's eyes. _Damn it..._ He put his hands on his knees and panted. _Damn it to **hell**. _Well, his first goal was impossible to reach. But there was hope for the second one, as long as he figures a way to get to Sakura without Kakashi seeing.

"Out of breath already? What about your plan? My ass hasn't been kicked yet.." Kakashi said humorously.

_I don't have to defeat him.. no, that's not the point of this exercise. I have to.. out maneuver him. _A plan was beginning to take shape in Naruto's mind.

"You should have never messed with me!" he shouted. Naruto ran at Kakashi, sliding to a stop a few inches in front of him. His fist flew at the copy nin's head. The jonin shook his head at the blonde's antics.

With a poof of smoke, Kakashi was suddenly behind him. Surprised, Naruto looked back. The older man's eyes were shadowed. His gloved hands formed a tiger seal.

From the bushes, Sasuke and Sakura reeled back. _Naruto! Get out of the way!_ was Sakura's desperate but silent call.

A hidden smile appeared on Naruto's face. _Go ahead. Fall in my trap._

"Konohagakure Furui Taijutsu no Ougi: Sennen Goroshi!"

* * *

"You have_ got _to be kidding." Team Ten stared at the obstacle course in front of them. Monkey bars, ropes, and endless abysses lay between them and the finish line far, far ahead of them. 

"Welcome to Training Area 51. Otherwise known as Hell." Asuma said calmly, lighting a cigarette. "Only nine out of the twenty seven graduates become genins, the rest either give up being ninjas or go back to the Academy to retake the last year. Myself, Kurenai and Kakashi- you may meet the last two later.- are the three jonins assigned to take teams this year. I have already given this exercise twice today. Although I am far from impressed with the others, I doubt you will prove to be much competition."

"Real encouraging." was Shikamaru's sullen reply. Asuma shrugged, and turned his back to them.

"There are no rules. Just make it to the end. I will give you points on how you performed." he said.

"B-but, there's no way we can get past all of this by ourselves!" Ino had gotten past her surprise. She shook her fist at the bearded jonin's back.

"You figure it out." he said. Glancing back, he said seriously, "Be happy that you paired up with me instead of Kakashi. His exam is killer. He hasn't passed a single team, and he's been a jonin for awhile. Good luck. You'll need it." he poofed away.

The three teens were left alone to stare at the smoke until it disappeared. Shikamaru then turned around and started to walk away.

"I'm out of here." he muttered. "Stupid troublesome exams.. Didn't even want to pass in the first place.." His friend jumped in front of him, trying to stop him from leaving.

"But Shika!" Chouji whined. "It's obvious, we need to work together! If you leave, we'll have less of a chance to succeed!"

"What makes you think I'm going to work with you?!" Ino said, glaring at the both of them. "I want to be on Sasuke's team! You heard Asuma! Sasuke has Kakashi. He won't win either. I'll be there to mend his pride and be on his team next year!" Her blue eyes became sparkly as she daydreamed about Sasuke.

"That.. is the stupidest thing I have ever heard come out of your mouth and that's saying something,Ino." Shikamaru scowled at her. "You're going to make Chouji fail just because you are in love withthat ice cube?"

"It's not like you are helping him any by just leaving, you lazy bum!" she snapped, angry with him and herself for feeling guilty.

A sharp whistle made them both jump. Chouji stood between the two like a referee.

"Come on Ino, Shika. No fighting." he told them. Chouji turned to Ino.

"Sasuke's supposed to be a genius, right? He'll figure out a way to pass this stupid test, even with that Kakashi guy as his teacher."

Ino frowned. That was true. Her crush was an Uchiha after all. If she ended up failing, and he ended up passing, he'd think she was an inferior ninja. But if she passed and he failed, his pride would be wounded and he'd hate her. Oh, what to do?

Chouji then turned to his friend, his eyes pleading. "And your mom said she'd give you more space when you became chuunin, right? Becoming genin now instead of later just brings that prize even closer."

Shikamaru considered his friend, crossing his arms over his chest. His mom _was_ a pain in the ass. Always bugging him to wake up, take out the trash, and take care of the deer. Being a chuunin meant his life would be in more danger, which was very troublesome, but on the other hand, he'd have more authority. Which meant choosing which missions he wanted, and more sleep and cloud watching time. He weighed the two against each other.

Shikamaru then nodded. He was going to die on one mission or another. Such is the fate of a ninja. Either he'd die by falling on a pair of cutting shears while gardening some old lady's back yard, or he'd get killed by a higher level enemy ninja while he- he, because Shikamaru _refused_ to be defeated by a girl- tried to take over Kohona, Shikamaru's death only another notch on his belt. And because he felt some affection for his village, he'd booby trap the area before hand, blowing up the ninja who killed him before he could reach the village.

"I'll stay." he muttered.

Ino nodded as well. "Fine. But don't take any liberties with me! You're just going to have to control yourself around me." She flicked her hair, giving them a charming smile like a model posing for a picture.

Shikamaru gave her a look, not effected by her at all. "Control against what? Strangling you?"

Chouji jumped between them again to keep Ino from hurting Shikamaru. "Geez! You guys fight like an old married couple!"

The peacemaker found himself with two bumps on the head that weren't there before. "Ow!" he whined.

Ino and Shikamaru walked toward the first obstacle, feeling justice had been met.


	9. The True Meaning of Sacrifice

Disclaimer: Must I do this? Fine. sigh I don't own Naruto. pouts You happy now?

AN: Hope everyone is having a good new year! As usual, mine's annoying as hell, but not as bad as the tsunami victim's new year has started. Doesn't it piss you off when the news focuses more on the stars who got hurt instead of the millions who died? But I guess they do that because it hits closer to home. After all, a name is so much more personal than a number. Some of my friends have family over there, and are waiting on pins and needles to find out if they're okay. I guess I'm lucky to have all of my family in one area of the world, instead of multiple ones like they do.

On a lighter note..

Who else is totally depressed about the fact that the next chapter of Naruto won't come out for a month?

Eh, okay, maybe not. Anyway, this chapter is full of Team Seven goodness, without me hopping around to see how the others are doing, just for you people who are dying to see what Naruto does next.

Side note: Naruto knows how the seal works, like as in it seals up his energy, but beyond that, he is confused. This is the first time he has ever used a seal on himself, mind you. And the demonic seals are quite a bit more difficult than the human seals, more than a human that doesn't have a demon in them can handle.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Nine: The True Meaning of Sacrifice

by Foxie

* * *

"Kohonagakure Furui Taijutsu no Ougi: Sennen Goroshi!" The harsh blow connected with Kakashi's target, but instead of the scream of outraged pain he expected, the boy in front of him poofed into smoke._ Kage Bunshin? _

The sound of something bouncing on the hard ground brought his gaze downward. Several familiar looking dark colored balls rolled toward his feet, then promptly exploded into smoke, adding to the smoke from the Kage Bunshin. In mere seconds, Kakashi was shrouded in a thick cloud of non toxic gas. Kakashi, with great reluctance, placed his book back in his pocket._ Such a pity.. _he thought mournfully.

Naruto, hidden in the thick gas, grinned. There was one advantage of having knowledge of what was to come. He had spent years watching Kakashi, training and learning from him, even the occasional fight or two. He knew all of the man's weaknesses, which were actually very few.

Zabuza had been an instrument in learning one of his sensei's biggest weaknesses. The nin from the mist had shown him how vulnerable Kakashi was when his most known attribute was disabled. Kakashi, so used to using his eyes in battle, was lacking in his ability to adapt to the usage of his other senses quickly.

Unlike Naruto, who found it easier to track with his nose and his ears.

His eyes closed, all ten of Naruto's clones closed in on Kakashi, who was trying to figure out where he was.

"Gotcha!" was their battle cry. Kakashi jumped, the thought of them being so close not passing his mind before that moment. Smoke screens were normally used so the user could escape, not as a battle plan. The jonin saw the clones, who finally moved in his range of vision, and dodged when they jumped toward him.

_I have to get out of here._ he thought, starting to run toward where he thought the edge of the clearing was. But no matter how much he ran, it felt like he never moved at all._ Genjutsu! _He stopped his useless running._ I can't believe it's come it this.. _his hand trailed up to his slanted forehead protector. _And to a boy they called dead last._ Despite his wounded pride, he felt happy for Naruto. The boy reminded him so much of Obito, although they were opposites in looks.

He pulled up the head band, exposing his red sharingan eye to the air, the three comma like marks swirling around. The genjutsu dropped. The copy nin watched the silhouette of Naruto calmly as the smoke disappeared.

"Good but not good enough.." he said confidentially until Naruto coughed, and gestured for him to look down. Frowning, Kakashi looked down. A blush rose to his face.

Somehow, someway, the boy in front of him had moved undetected around him and had stolen a bell. And in his eagerness to get it away from the jonin, he had accidentally loosened the belt around Kakashi's waist, making his baggy pants fall down.

"I didn't mean to, honest!" Naruto stammered. He twiddled his thumbs and looked to the side, his bell firmly held in his right hand. A blush colored his tan cheeks. He was suddenly very glad that Kakashi wore boxers.

In the bushes, both of his team mates blushed as well. More annoyed than embarrassed, Sasuke muttered 'baka' underneath his breath. Sakura clenched the sides of her head. _Bad Sakura bad! No more wrong thoughts!_

"Well, Naruto! I didn't know you swung that way!" Kakashi said, his one visible eye curving. He pulled up his pants, gently touching the cool metal of the remaining bell.

"What?! Y-you.. you pervert! I happen to like girls!" Naruto yelled, an angry swipe at the air illustrating his anger.

"Really? Who?" Kakashi asked slyly. Just as he expected, anger loosened Naruto's mouth greatly. At least one thing about the boy was predictable.

"Hin- no no no! Not any of your business!" Naruto nearly screamed. _Breathe, Naru, breathe.._ he told himself firmly. _He's trying to get a rise out of you.._

Just as quickly as one could dawn a mask, Naruto became serious.

"I'm done with this. But this will not be the last you see of me." Naruto said ominously, then grinned. "See ya!" Kakashi blinked and the boy disappeared. For not the first time that day, and certainly not the last, Kakashi was shocked speechless.

_W-what the hell?! _He walked up to where Naruto had been standing until just the moment before. With his eyes, he examined the ground carefully. There was no chakra residue on the ground, hinting at the boy's travel through the ground. And Naruto's chakra..

He straightened, a frown settling on his hidden features. Naruto's chakra had just disappeared. Like a flash of lightening, he was there, then he was not. _Flash.. yellow flash..! _Kakashi stifled a surprised gasp._ No way he could have.. there's no one who teaches that jutsu at the Academy.. only the Fourth and his teacher know that jutsu! _Slowly, he pulled his head band back over his eye. _It couldn't have been.. Shunshin no Jutsu? _As much as he wanted to deny it, it was the only logical explaination. If it had been any other jutsu, his sharingan would have sensed it, focused, and copied it, tucking the information deep into his mind.

But Kakashi couldn't copy the Shunshin no Jutsu from his teacher, just as he couldn't copy, nor sense Naruto's jutsu.

* * *

Sakura noticed the presence behind her an instant before she was dragged up against it, one strong hand covering her mouth to muffle her reflexive scream. She wiggled, fought, and struggled but her captor's grip was like steel. She bit down on the hand covering her mouth, thinking if she could just get her mouth free and scream, three very pissed off ninjas would save her.

However, he- her captor was male, his close proximity to her assured her of that small fact.- didn't even react. Her teeth couldn't even break through his callused skin.

Tears welled up in her eyes when she saw her hiding spot become smaller and smaller in the distance. _Help! _she screamed mentally, in vain.

Meanwhile, Sasuke, oblivious of his female team mate's distress, smirked._ An opening! _He threw a wave of kunai at the unsuspecting jonin. His kunai hit their target, impacting heavily with the silver haired jonin.

Kakashi suddenly morphed into a log.

_Damn! Now he knows where I am!_ Sasuke thought.

Kakashi had disappeared into the thick shrubbery around the clearing he had chosen for their training exam, casually crouching on the ground where he had thought Sakura was. His respect for Naruto doubled when he realized that this was the second part of the fox boy's plan.

_Maybe.. just maybe he understands the point I'm trying to get across_. His hand touched the two pairs of foot prints in the dirt. They both were about the same size, but the one in back was fainter than the one in front. The heels of the first set of footprints were slightly elongated, and left a different imprint. The second person had pulled the first one back a little, with a little too much force, dragging the first's feet a little.

_Maybe.. this team has a chance... _He thought of the boy who, in looks, reminded him so much of his teacher, but when he opened his mouth, all Kakashi could hear was Obito. _If he can guide them.. maybe they'll understand what he seems to understand already_. It was strange, that the only one who had the scorn of the villagers and the heavy burden of carrying a demon, the only one who had never felt the comfort of a parent's touch, the only one who had been singled out and dubbed with the name of 'monster', was the only who knew that he was not, could not be the lone wolf, rather, one part of a whole that could not function unless all parts worked together.

_Or maybe I'm looking **too** underneath the underneath, and drawing false conclusions._ He passed a hand over his eye, then poofed behind Sasuke.

The Uchiha sensed his arrival, but did not turn around. "Heh, so you're the last one standing?" Kakashi murmured.

The dark haired boy turned slowly. The jonin stiffened when he saw his face.

Sasuke's dark eyes betrayed no emotion. Despite his training, Kakashi couldn't help but be creeped out by the vast blankness of those nearly black orbs, especially when he had known someone with eyes as endless as Sasuke's, whose eyes had always been sparking with annoyance, anger, or another emotion. To see such cold eyes coming from a boy who had not yet killed his heart to make his first kill disturbed him more than anything else could.

Such eyes on a _child_.

_We can all thank Itachi for that_. Kakashi thought bitterly.

The warmth and light he had faced while fighting Naruto had fading. Funny, how even when his career as a ninja hung in the balance, the blonde could make such humor out of it.

Instead, the air froze and became so thick that it was hard for Kakashi to draw his breath. But breath he did, lest he die from suffocation. Not a fun way to die.

Their silent staring contest was shattered by a piercing scream. Both of the ninjas look to the direction it came from.

"Sakura.." was the one word that rolled off of Sasuke's lips. Looking back, Kakashi was surprised to see emotions in those frigid eyes, something that resembled worry before it was hidden behind a mask of cool indifference.

"Must of fallen in one of my genjutsu traps." Kakashi said casually. Personally, he wondered why the pink haired girl had screamed. Sure, he did set up some genjutsu traps, but wasn't she with..

"Hmph. So she fell for an illusion. She would." A cold smirk. "And the dobe ran away." A gust of wind made his long dark bangs dance along his pale face. "However.. I'm not like them.."

Kakashi leaned against a tree, considering Sasuke with his one visible eye. Maybe there was hope for the last Uchiha... His heart wasn't completely covered in ice. "Say that after you get the bell..."

* * *

Sakura had about enough of being carted around like a piece of furniture. She tirelessly began to fight against her captor once more. She discovered that even though her biting him seemed to have no effect, her captor hated being kicked in the shin, enough to even rearrange her so that her constant flailing about couldn't put her in a position where she could kick him incessantly.

Sakura was determined to go down as a brave ninja who fought until her last breath of air! She wasn't going to go down without a fight to even an abnormally strong ninja.

Mistaking the sudden stop on a thick tree branch some fifty feet above the ground as a sign that her attempts where working, she immediately screamed when the ninja's hand left her mouth and pivoted, feeling her right fist connecting soundly with the other ninja's jaw. The force knocked the ninja off of the branch before she got a good look at him.

Adrenaline pounding in her veins, she silently congratulated herself on a job well then. Then held her wrist against her chest, her face twisted in a grimace._ But damn, that hurt!_

"Ow.." she heard not too far underneath her. In a panic, she realized her kidnapper must had landed on one of the lower branches. Sakura scampered to the edge and looked over.

What she saw was enough to rapidly change her fear into pure annoyance and anger. Her captor looked up at her sheepishly, throwing a pain filled version of his infamous grin.

"Was that _really_ necessary, Sakura-chan?" he asked, wincing when he touched the tender flesh of his cheek. He had really forgotten how hard Sakura could hit when she was worked up. His almost sharp blue eyes gazed up at her, looking slightly guilty.

"Na-ru-to!!" she yelled. "How dare you scare me like that!! And lugging me around like a sack of potatoes!!"

"But Sakura-chan.." he said, dragging out the last bit of her name into a whine. "I had to get you away from pervert-sensei! And I.." A faint blush covered his cheeks. "And I didn't.. know where.. t-to.."

Annoyance stretched her patience to the limit. "Spit it out." she snapped, her emerald eyes cold.

"To grab you! Okay?! I didn't know how to grab you! 'Cause you're a stupid frickin'.. girl." Sulking, he sat cross legged on the branch, his back to her.

All of her anger drained out of her, leaving her only with amusement over the blonde's antics and not a little sympathy. And quite a bit of guilt. Here he was, trying to 'save' her, and his reward was a violent fist in his face. Still she couldn't help herself. A giggle slipped out of her lips.

He turned around at the small sound, the small pout still on his face. At the clueless, adorable, and utterly naive look on his face, she only laughed even harder.

"..Eh.. Sakura-chan? Are you.. okay?" he asked tentively, watching with growing horror as the girl only giggled even more. They grew to the point of her rolling around. Unfortunately, the branch had to end somewhere..

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled, watching her body roll off of the branch. Before she could scream, she found herself in Naruto's arms. The blonde landed on another branch, a little unsteadily, one hand supporting her back while the other when under her knees.

"Next time you plan on going all.. weird on me like that, warn me." he muttered grumpily, gently letting her feet touch the ground.

"I'm sorry.." she whispered. "That instant, you reminded me so much of my cousin when he was in his anti-girl phase." Naruto considered her for a moment, then gave her one of his foxy grins.

"No need to apologize. After all, a laugh a day keeps the doctor away!" the smile he gave her that time was somehow different than the ones before. It reached his impossibly blue eyes. For some reason, seeing him smile like that made her feel extremely affectionate of him, not in the same way as she felt for Sasuke, but not all that different.

She remembered the day before when she had informed her parents about the team she was on. Both of her parents were merchants, she was the first in the family to be a ninja. They didn't understand most of the stuff she did, but stuck by her decision to be a shinobi. Sakura had been surprised when they didn't know of Sasuke, but knew plenty about Naruto. Her father had a negative reaction to the boy's name while her mother just clammed up and didn't say anything.

_'"That rotten boy, near my child.."' _he had muttered angrily before stalking out of the room. Sakura's mother tried to smile encouragingly, but failed.

_'"Why don't you guys like Naruto?"_ Sakura had asked. For some reason, she had felt a strong urge to stick up for the blonde, although she was rude to him almost all of the time. _'"Sure he's a little annoying and pulls a lot of pranks.. But underneath that he's a pretty good guy."'_

_'"I.. it's.."' _For once in her life, her lively mother had been speechless._ '"It's an adult thing, Sakura."'_

Naruto cleared his throat.

"Anyway, we all need to team up." he nodded sagely. Sakura shook herself out of her thoughts and waited for him to continue. Her eye twitched when there was only silence.

"That's all you've come up with, isn't it?" she asked, a sigh passing through her lips. His shoulders slumped. A nearly inaudible 'yes' reached her ears. Sakura closed her eyes and counted to ten. A little annoyed, yes. But surprised? Hell no. It was common knowledge that Naruto was driven by impulse, and rarely thought things through.

"E-eh.. Kakashi is a jonin!" he said, as if it explained everything.

"Thanks for that brilliant deduction, Sherlock." she muttered.

"No! That's not what I mean!" he sighed. "I'm not too good with words.. Bare with me, okay?" Without waiting for her response, he began pacing on the branch. "We just got out of school. He's been a jonin since before we were born. Not to mention that he's not no ordinary jonin, he's the bloody infamous CopyCat Nin of Kohona. Sharingan Kakashi, or whatever you want to call him. My point is.. we're just kids! He's a frickin' legend! We stand a much better chance against him if we had my stamina, your mind, and Sasuke's skill as one fighting force instead of us trying to go solo."

"But, you seemed to be doing just fine against him..." she said uncertainly.

"Che, yeah, only because he had half of his mind on me! He underestimated me then. He will not make that mistake again." he was counting on that fact that she had been too embarrassed by Kakashi's clothing problem to realize he had gotten a bell. When she nodded, he breathed a sigh of relief. Sakura wouldn't trust him if she knew that he, by the rules and regulations of the exercise, had passed. She would have expected some hidden ploy.

But the truth was, Naruto understood the true purpose of Kakashi's exercise. It was to build team work. If the team didn't have any foundations for team work, Kakashi would fail the lot of them, like many of those before them. But it wasn't simple. There was a variable. If the conscious decision to work together was made, one would have to sacrifice him or herself for the rest of the team. The situation happened far too many times in the ninja life style.

The Third and the Fourth sacrificed themselves fro the well being of the village.

Chouji had sacrificed himself for Inari and Kohonamaru, the unspoken symbols of innocence and purity of the Kohona rebellion.

Iruka sacrificed himself for the Hokage, and the rebellion, knowing that if she died, Orochimaru would win.

Hinata had sacrificed herself to save him, her precious person.

_The ninja who does not follow rules and regulations is called trash, but the ninja who cares not about the well being of his or her comrades is worse than trash._ A saying he had held close to his heart.

Naruto did not doubt that Kakashi modeled the very situation, the painful choice of giving up your dreams so that other people would be safe, after a situation in his life.

"But.. there are only two bells." Sakura murmured. "Only two of us can pass." she turned her gaze to him. "How can we work together with something like that hanging over our heads?" _Not to mention the difficulty of talking Sasuke in to working in a team_.. she thought grimly.

"Easy. We decide now who is going to lose." Naruto said solemnly. Sakura stiffened. She didn't want to fail. She wanted to stay with Sasuke! Although she knew she was being selfish, she could not find it in her heart to do something as .. as.. noble as that, not when her love was on the line.

Naruto smiled at the look on her face. The good thing about knowing someone as well as he knew Sakura was he knew every thought that passed through her mind by looking at her eyes. To give up one's dreams to help another.. she had been willing to do that for Sasuke, and after he left, to the many people she almost died trying to save. Because he knew her heart as well as he knew his own, he did not hold it against her.

"I'll lose." he said firmly. Sakura snapped her attention to him. Her mouth open in protest, but he cut her off. "And no arguing. Sasuke has no room to improve at the Academy, and you could practically teach the classes yourself." She blushed at the compliment. Naruto stretched his arms over his head, sighing in pleasure when he heard the satisfying pop of his spine. "Besides, I still don't understand how to do Bunshin no Jutsu. I totally cheated by learning Kage Bunshin." he said truthfully.

Naruto turned to her, a true smile lighting up his eyes. "Come on, let's go dig Sasuke out of the hole he dug for himself." He picked her up again, not noticing her incredulous look.

_Naruto...just when did you grow up? Where was I... when you changed from an annoying idiot to a mature ninja?_

* * *

Whatever higher deity watching from above had a cruel sense of irony, because even as the sentence passed the fox boy's lips, Sasuke was struggling to get out of the ground trap that Kakashi had caught him in. Only his head was visible. Muffled curses escaped the boy's mouth.

The amused jonin watched the futile movements. "You know, Sasuke.." Kakashi said conversationally. "You really shouldn't curse so much..."

"Fuck you.." was the flat reply. Kakashi chuckled light heartedly.

"What you said was true! You aren't like them at all!" he said gleefully. "Instead of running in terror from my greatness, or falling for genjustu, you fell for a simple ninjutsu!" Kakashi laughed some more, enjoying the power he held over the cold Uchiha. He crouched in front of Sasuke, pulling out his orange book. Sasuke glared at accusingly.

"You want to hear a paragraph?" Kakashi asked in mock sincerity. _"'His hands trailed over her body, memorizing the texture and feel of it in his mind. She moaned softly in his ear, arousing him even further. He knelt down to-'"_

"Shut up!" Instead of being red with anger, he was now red with embarrassment. Kakashi chuckled, happy he could get such a reaction from an ice cube. He decided it was his personal duty to piss Sasuke off as much as possible, just so that the ice mask would fall, and the boy could feel something besides the loneliness that must have plagued him ever since Itachi's betrayal. Even if it was an uncertain and deadly emotion, like anger.

He tapped the boy's dark head with his book.

"Lesson Three: Never assume anything. It only leads to false information that could mean someone's death in the long run." he said casually, flipping a page of the dirty book.

"What do you mean by that?" Sasuke asked sullenly, stopping his useless movement.

"Naruto didn't.. as you put it 'run away'. Nor did Sakura fall into one of my traps." he murmured, only half of his mind on the conversation. His eye widened a little at what the girl did on the next page, then mentally chuckled. _Where does Jiraiya get this stuff?_

"B-but.. you said.." Sasuke stammered.

"Hmm? You need it spelled out for you? Use your eyes, Sasuke. How many bells do I have?" Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw only one bell hanging from Kakashi's belt loop. But, the absence of the other could only mean.. "Naruto succeeded where very few ninja have, and I blame most of it on me, for underestimating him. But what's done is done. He passed this exercise, with flying colors, and also predicated my next target, having figured out where she was at the same time I did. Instead of parading around, flaunting his victory, or retreating to eat his lunch, he rescued her and took her out of the danger zone." Kakashi paused, then rubbed even more salt in Sasuke's wounds.

"Seems like Sakura, seeing since she isn't half under the ground, and Naruto, who was the only person to get a bell from me, are the closest to being genins, while you are dead last. Funny how the number one rookie is being upstaged by the guy who passed with the lowest scores..."

* * *

Hee hee.. Stopped right when things were getting juicy. If you want to see what happens next, give me some feedback! It's my life blood!

I'm actually surprised that I haven't been flamed yet. In fact, the only complaint is that the story is going too slow. Well, too bad. The things that are slowing this story down are the things that need to be addressed in order for the story to flow better. Besides, in the manga, did meeting Kohonamaru mean anything to the storyline? Eh, no. It was just a filler. An amusing filler.

I'm sorry if people are annoyed with my speed, but some of my favorite fanfics only get updated once every two months. Sure, maybe the qualitly is better, but I update at least once a week. So be patient!


	10. The Adventures of the Raven, Fox, and Sq...

Hi. -dodges random projectiles- I had about seventy five percent of this completed, then the idiot who let me borrow her computer formatted my cd. Ack. Anyway, I'm not making this a HinaNaruSaku triangle thingy, rather Sakura realizing that maybe she does like Naruto as a friend, instead of despising him as an idiot and an obstacle in her way of her pursuit of Sasuke. And I have also decided no KakaIru, 'cause it's just easier. If anything, they'll be friends that argue over how to properly train Naruto. Kakashi would be waaaay pissed off at Iruka's death 'cause Iruka was his best friend. Like he was waaay pissed off when Obito was killed by that rock guy. Hee hee, and Obito will have a part in this fic. Somewhere down the line... Totally unfair that he was killed off. -grumble grumble-

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Ten: The Adventures of the Raven, Fox, and Squirrel.

by Foxie

* * *

"So, you see Sakura-chan.." Naruto said importantly. "It just makes the most sense!" Sasuke gritted his teeth and seethed when he heard the approach of his two team mates. Twisting and turning, tugging and pulling, he simply couldn't free himself. _They can't.. see me like this! _he thought desperately, but it was too late.

"Sasuke-kun!" he heard Sakura cry. He stiffened and stop struggling, keeping his gaze low, not looking up when he felt Sakura start to dig around him with her kunai.

He was supposed to be Uchiha Sasuke, dammit! Not some fool who was overly cocky and got himself caught in a simple trap.

When Sakura said nothing about his predicament, and Naruto seemed to be distracted by something on the ground, he let out a breath. Maybe they wouldn't say anything... He jinxed it.

Naruto chuckled lightly, slipping something orange and square in his pocket. "Say, how's the weather down there?" he slapped his knee, cracking himself up. It wasn't everyday that his rival was only a head above ground.

Sasuke was far from pleased. After the bruising his ego received from Kakashi's barbs, he did not have the patience to handle Naruto. Especially since Kakashi had a lot more faith in Naruto, of all people, than him to become genin.

"Shut up Naruto!" Sakura snapped sternly. She had to keep her hands steady, or else she might cut into her crush's shoulder. She had no time for Naruto's jokes.

Nor did Sasuke. Muttering insults and curses underneath his breath, he accepted his pink haired comrade's help out of the hole, but nudged her away when she tried to check for any other injuries.

Too calmly he walked up to Naruto. The blond's laughter died down when he saw the serious look on Sasuke's face.

"I don't know..." Sasuke said softly. Naruto adopted his squinty eyed gaze, the one that always hinted at his confusion. "You tell me." The Uchiha punched Naruto hard in the head, making him face fault into the ground.

"Owie!" was the muffled cry. Sasuke smirked.

"Now that was satisfying..." he murmured. Sakura looked faintly amused.

"Now, Sasuke-kun.." she said admonishing. "Did you really have to take your frustration out on Naruto?" Naruto sat up and rubbed his hurt face.

"Hope that was your version of hello, bastard, or you're gonna be in a whole world of pain..." he muttered. And was ignored.

"He was there, wasn't he? Might as well make some use of him." was the smart ass reply from the dark haired boy.

* * *

Sakura explained the idea of their's to Sasuke. He could see the logic in it, having seen Kakashi's strength firsthand, and agreed to their plan after some nagging. But not without pointing out the flaws, of course. Sasuke was a stickler for detail.

Naruto sat in the background scowling and throwing in rude comments directed toward Sasuke, just because he could, and because he knew that Sasuke and Sakura were the brains of their group.

He was just the raw power.

"Naruto and I cannot be seen as a united force." Sasuke said carefully to Sakura. She nodded in understanding. "We have to be seen as enemies, at least to Kakashi's eyes."

"Yeah, so?" Naruto muttered sullenly. "What if Kakashi's watching us now? Wouldn't he see us as a united force already?" Sasuke frowned, concentrating hard.

"I don't sense him. He's not nearby." the boy genius murmured.

"Feh. Wouldn't be the first time you were wrong.." Naruto muttered, stretching his senses out as well. Sasuke and Sakura shared a look. Since when had Sasuke's senses ever been wrong? Sakura clapped her hands together, suddenly remembering something from the Academy.

"Hey! Didn't Iruka say that you had pretty good tracking and sensing capabilities when you weren't screwing around, Naruto?" Naruto winced. He remembered that day pretty clearly in his mind.

It must of been the fifth time he painted the Hokage monument. Only, that time he had given the Hokages feminine features that would have made Jiraiya proud. Iruka nearly had a heart attack. Several of the jonins of the village caught up to Naruto, yet when they came within ten feet of him, they were blown away by his famous Sexy no Jutsu, with extreme levels of blood loss due to their perverted minds. Pity all of them were guys.

In the end, he was caught by a sharp eyed, energetic, and almost sadistic female jonin, who he later learned was Anko. He had sensed her bloodthirsty aura from a mile away and had been able to lead her away for two hours, until she tricked him with a bowl of ramen.

"Yeah.." Sasuke muttered, thinking back. "That lady said you were the only ninja that had taken so long for her to capture without her killing him." Naruto laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. Anko was the one person he'd rather not cross.

Sakura snapped her fingers to regain his attention. "Yeah, so, you tell us! How far away is Kakashi?" Naruto closed his eyes, and resent out his senses. They watched him, each silently marveling how different Naruto seemed when he was quiet.

Naruto opened his eyes. "About fifty meters east. Tops." he pivoted toward the east and closed his eyes again, his nose faintly twitching. "Facing either north or south. I can't tell." Blinking, he looked toward his comrades.

"Far enough away?" they both nodded.

_Well, I guess the dobe had to be good at something.. _Sasuke thought, a little peeved.

They ran over the plan again, ironing out the weak points and finalizing everything. Naruto held up the bell.

"He's probably going to go after the bell so.." he tossed it to Sakura. "You'll be the farthest away from him, so you take it." she stared at it for a moment, caught off balance. She hadn't known that he had already had a bell.

"But.. Naruto.." Sakura looked up. "If you have a bell.. didn't you already pass?" Naruto gave her a mega watt grin.

"Just 'cause I got a bell doesn't mean I pass." he turned around, ready to go. "We decided that I'd lose, for the sake of everyone else. And that's how it's gonna be."

* * *

Kakashi leaned against one of the three logs in the clearing they started out in, glancing only once at the clock balancing on the top, his nose buried deep within his book. His eyes did not move back and forth, rather fixed on one portion of the page that the jonin didn't see. He couldn't believe what his mind was telling him.

Here he was, within reach of the perfect person to torture, three lunches not all that far away that he could eat, and his favorite volume- Volume Two, of course. The first one had very little action and the third was too racy for his tastes- of Icha Icha Paradise in his hands... and he was bored.

Unbelievably bored. To the point of wishing that Gai would make one of his random appearances and bug the hell out of him.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the newest edition to the Icha Icha Paradise that he had just bought that morning- Icha Icha Paradise IV, Rainy Day Special- had somehow disappeared.

"Ugh.." Kakashi mumbled, putting his book away, pulling a kunai out instead. He tossed the sharp weapon up into the air, and caught it by the handle on the way down. And repeated.

By his fifth throw, there was an alien presence in the clearing with roaring fighting aura. Kakashi made as if to catch his kunai, only to have it snagged by the enemy's shrike, one of the metal stars' points going in the hole at the end of the handle of his kunai. The shuriken embedded itself and the kunai in the log.

Kakashi frowned. That was his favorite kunai. He glanced sideways at his enemy, shaking his head.

"Why are you here, Naruto?" he reached up, freeing his kunai and taking the blond's shuriken as a souvenir. Naruto was stumped. Tapping the side of his face with his finger, he thought hard before throwing out the usual, "Just 'cause!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "You realize that since you are insisting on still being in this exercise, you are putting yourself and your bell in danger?"

Naruto squinted and shook his fist at Kakashi. "You don't scare me, bastard!" the boy shouted. "I still haven't kicked your ass, you know!"

The blonde darted forward, prepared to take on Kakashi single handedly. He was halted by a bluish black blur. Kakashi lazily tilted to the side, kunai whizzing by his head.

"Wha.. Sasuke-bastard! Don't interfere!" Naruto yelled, his face turning red. The Uchiha turned around and faced his rival, a glare marring his perfect features.

"Don't be such a glory hound, dobe." the boy said coldly. "You had your chance, and you fell short. Give up and get out of the way." Naruto started to flail his arms, steam pouring out of his ears.

Amused, Kakashi watched the two bicker, the Uchiha's back to him. Although their arguments were very engaging, one thing failed to slip past Kakashi's sharp eye.

Neither shinobi wore a shuriken holster around their thigh or a kunai pouch on their belt.

Kakashi frowned. What was going on here?

* * *

Sakura dug. She cut. She tied. And she did it all over again, going over every one of the simple projectile traps that Iruka had taught them inside of her head. For one of the traps, she had to sacrifice the front-bottom portion of her dress to make a pouch like holster to hold her projectiles in.

Only five meters away, she could hear her comrades bickering like there was no tomorrow, trying to buy as much time as possible for her.

Sweating, she went back to the first trap she set up and loaded it up with the kunai and shuriken from her kunai and shuriken holders, as well as Sasuke's and Naruto's that were hanging over her shoulders.

She frowned, hoping they had taken enough with them.

When she finally ran out, she filled the six or so traps up with sharp edged, small rocks that littered the ground. Realizing there was no more she could do, Sakura knelt on the ground, ready to dart forward and release the traps she had created at any moment. All she had to do.. was wait for the signal.

Meanwhile, Naruto was having the time of his life. Insulting Sasuke was one of his favorite hobbies, and tricking someone was his most favorite. Sasuke looked calm although he was spitting out some of the worst insults Naruto had ever heard in both of his lifetimes.

_Oh, gotta remember that one.. _Naruto thought gleefully when Sasuke came up with a marvelously creative one. He nearly missed the slight nod the pale boy had given him. He mentally clapped his hands together, prepared to give it his all.

"Yeah?! So what?! All you have to show for yourself is some crummy shirt that is waaaay too big for you that for some reason you think is cool!" Sasuke gave him an annoyed look for that lame barb. He liked his shirt. So did Naruto, but Sasuke didn't have to know about that.. "And your stupid clan symbol?! What the hell is that?! A drooling poke ball?!" he yelled, feeling slightly guilty for ragging on the Uchiha clan, but hell.. Sasuke did give him permission. "Do all of you Uchihas look like a bunch of wussy girls?!" Sasuke rolled his eyes, and let out a low whistle.

Kakashi, who had been relaxed and entertained by their banter, was suddenly alert. And he had every reason to be.

Kunai, shuriken, and rocks seemed to fly out of nowhere. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sasuke tackle Naruto into one of the bushes. He frowned, batting away some of the shuriken and kunai that flew in his direction.

Was it enemy ninjas? Or.. The bush that Sasuke and Naruto disappeared into suddenly started to shake. Suddenly, twenty Narutos and one Sasuke jumped out of the bush.

Kakashi watched them in surprise, not noticing when one of the last kunai that had sailed through the air sliced through the small leather strap that kept the bell connected to his pants.

With identical grins on their faces, half of the Narutos yelled, "Henge no Jutsu!" and changed into ten perfect copies of Sasuke. It was strange to see the dark haired boy have such a gleeful look on his face, even if it was only an illusion. Suddenly, the look dropped, leaving each Sasuke clone and the original one with a blank gaze on their faces.

All twenty-one of the ninjas in front of him darted forward, ready to clash against Kakashi.

_Eleven Sasukes and ten Narutos.. hm. This calls for the process of elimination_. was the gray haired jonin's lazy thought.

Three Narutos reached Kakashi first, pinning his arms to his body and his legs together. Kakashi shook one of them off, grabbed him by the wrist, and smashed him against the other two. All three exploded into smoke.

_Three down and eighteen more to go.. _

* * *

Sakura began pacing near her spent traps. _Come on, you guys! _she thought, her head turning to where she heard the sounds of battle.

"Goal one has been met.." someone said behind her in a tired voice. She turned, her eyes lighting up when she saw her two team mates. Sasuke had pulled one of Naruto's arms over his shoulder and was dragging the boy along with him.

"The dobe collected chakra wrong and it exploded right in his face." Sasuke said, annoyance coating his every word.

"Ooo, pretty colors.." Naruto mumbled, his eyes all swirly. Sasuke dropped the confused boy on the ground, ignoring Naruto's sounds of protests.

"And instead of giving himself time to recover, he bounces back up and tries it again!" Sasuke muttered, nudging the blond with his foot. "I'm surprised that his kage bunshins didn't turn out having extra ears and noses."

"Wahh.. Sasuke-chan is so mean.." Naruto muttered, gathering his wits to him. A vein throbbed in Sasuke's head.

"Don't call me that!"

"Then what do you propose I call you then?" Naruto said, bouncing to his feet.

"Sasuke-sempai." Sasuke said with a smirk. Naruto flailed his arms.

"'Sempai', my ass!" Sakura stood between the two, trying to stop them from fighting.

"Stop you two! We need to look for the bell, without drawing any of his attention." she looked at the both of them, willing for them to stop acting like children. "And Kakashi isn't giving us a lot of time." The three peered past the clump of trees that hid their position to see that there were only three Narutos and four Sasukes left.

"Shit." Naruto muttered. "Henge no Justu!" A poof of smoke and Naruto was no longer there. Instead, there was a small tan fox with huge blue eyes in his place.

Sakura's eyes morphed into huge hearts. "Kawaii!!!" she shrieked, hugging the adorable fox. The fox struggled, then gave an annoyed look at the amused Uchiha. Sasuke coughed.

"Uh, Sakura.." he said. "We need to get the bell.."

_Yeah! Stop glomping me! _Naruto thought, not being able to speak in his animal form. _Damn.. I should have changed into a frog.. _He himself was surprised that he wasn't enjoying the attention he was getting. _Now if it was Hinata-chan instead... _he started to daydream.

"Right." Sakura said, getting her bearings together. Sasuke nodded, then performed the jutsu, changing into a sleek black raven. Hopping twice, as birds weren't the best of walkers, he scratched out a crude and simple map with his talon.

Sakura almost converted from her love of furry things to birds, because Sasuke made the raven look so cool.

A peach colored squirrel joined the ranks of the fox and the raven. The raven looked up and pointed one wing at the fox, tapping on the left side of the map. The fox barked then slinked off, disappearing almost immediately in the bushes.

The raven looked at the squirrel, then tapped on the right side of the map. She nodded, but gestured to him with her paws, wondering where the raven was going to go. The raven tilted his head to the sky as the answer.

The fox was already on the prowl, his small tan body blending in just fine with the dirt. He circled the logs in the center of the clearing twice. _Where the hell is it? _

The raven took to the skies, secretly enjoying the feel of the wind through his feathers. _Focus, Uchiha_. he thought, his gaze drifting downwards. He had an eagle's eye view of the entire clearing, ready to dive down at the smallest flicker of light hitting metal.

The squirrel darted around the clearing, frowning when she couldn't find anything. She saw her fox comrade only a few meters away. She ran up to him, only to see him chasing after a grasshopper.

She picked up a small rock, one that was almost as big as her head, and threw it at the fox, chattering angrily. The fox gave her a guilty look, then resumed his search. Satisfied, the squirrel turned away... and ran into something huge and orange.

She stared at the strange thing, confused even more when she saw that it was connected to a gigantic foot.

"Isn't this the most beautiful squirrel you have ever seen, Gai-sensei?!" The effect his voice had on her ears was the same if he had taken a mega phone and talked right into her ear when she was normal.

Chittering in agony, she covered her ears with her paws and tried to run away. The mysterious ninja knelt down and picked her up. She got a good look at her captor and nearly fainted. _Ahh! Someone save me! _Her chattering became high pitched.

The strange boy with those huge eyebrows and the dorkiest haircut she had ever seen, frowned and tried to calm her down.

"Lee-kun, just put the squirrel down." a girl said. The boy, 'Lee', struck a pose.

"Never! This squirrel is in need!" he said passionately. "I cannot battle someone when I know such an innocent creature is in turmoil!" The 'innocent' creature bit down on his hand. "Ow!!"

The raven finally saw his comrade was in trouble. Shoving the mission in the back of his mind for the time being, he swooped down on the strange thick eyebrowed menace.

Pecking and cawing at the intruder, the raven willed Lee to let her go. About to swoop in once more for the kill, he was caught by another pair of hands.

"Hmph. Birds who wish to stay free should keep out of danger." A white eyed boy muttered, holding the raven out in front of him, making sure to keep his distance. The raven cawed in anger, and tried to wiggle his way free.

The Hyuuga rolled his eyes and was about to say something else when a tan blur head butted his shin. Staggering slightly, he looked to see what it was only to see that it had already started to attack Lee.

"These animals are possessed.." the girl murmured, picking the fox up and facing him away from her, as carefully as the Hyuuga. The other boy nodded.

"Neji! Tenten! Understand what my Lee does!" their sensei struck a pose. "These animals are not strange! Just misunderstood, like the youth of today!" Lee hugged the squirrel. She screeched in horror and tried to get away.

"Nope, definitely possessed." Tenten muttered underneath her breath. The Hyuuga looked over.

"Who? The animals or those two?" he said in a monotone.

Her would-be-sarcastic reply was drowned out by the sound of Gai's loud voice. "Great rival Kakashi! How dare you disrupt the sanctuary of these poor creatures homes with a battle!" Kakashi was down to one Sasuke and one Naruto, of which he was almost completely sure were the originals. The three stopped fighting, and gave bewildered looks to the four ninjas who interrupted their training.

"Hey..." 'Naruto' mumbled. He pointed a finger at Lee. "Fuzzy Eyebrows.." his attention then swerved to Gai. "Super Fuzzy Eyebrows!" he started cracking up. Lee's face turned crimson.

"Don't diss Gai-sensei!" the boy screeched. 'Sasuke' rolled his eyes.

"Gai.. why are you interfering? I'm trying to hold an exam here." Kakashi said, a sigh escaping his lips. Gai struck a pose and grinned at his befuddled audience.

"Great rival Kakashi! Youth is both sweet and sour, as my team wanted to battle yours, and yet you never pass one! So, I, like the great mastermind I am, came up with a solution. Why not let my team fight yours before you fail them?!"

"Ugh.. real encouraging.." 'Naruto' muttered.

Kakashi brought a hand up to his mask, pretending to be deep in thought. "Gai, you know what?!" the jonin mocked the green beast's attitude, his voice all light and cheerful.

Gai bounced up and down like a bunny hyped up on sugar. "Yes, rival Kakashi?" he said, voice full of childlike glee and hope.

"..No." Kakashi said bluntly, drifting back down to a more monotone drawl. "I'm trying to.." His gaze fell to the three animals that Neji, Lee, and Tenten had in their grasp. He looked at the two boys in front of him, then looked at the animals once again.

Rolling his eyes when it all started to click, he grabbed the heads of the two boys in front of him and smashed them together, not at all surprised when they exploded into smoke.

Ignoring the shock he saw in various degrees from the other team, he said "Kindly unhand my students."

* * *

Until I can fix whatever the hell is wrong with my compy, expect these long update absences. 


	11. Physical and Mental Wounds

Yay! We're back in business! No more compy problems!... Well, except the fact that I had to format my whole hard drive.. All my precious Naruto files.. lost.. Anyway, because you all are the best, this chappy's a little longer, so enjoy!

And uh, ElijahSnow.. This isn't a Ranma fic. o.0;;

Disclaimer:Me no own, so you no sue.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Eleven: Physical and Mental Wounds

by Foxie

* * *

The other four ninjas were quiet for a moment, trying to digest that little tidbit of information. Gai recovered first, and naturally assumed the wrong thing.

"Ha! The Hokage realized you didn't have it in you to train the easily impressionable youths of Kohona, so he decided you should train the village's summon animals!" he laughed in an annoying way, greatly satisfied. "That is one more win I have over you, my greatly esteemed rival!"

Both Kakashi and Tenten sweat dropped. The Hyuuga rolled his eyes, and Lee held on to the squirrel for dear life, nodding enthusiastically with Gai. _Oh brother.._ the squirrel thought, half of her face smashed against Lee's cheek.

Kakashi looked over at Neji, hoping that the 'Gai-ness' disease hadn't corrupted him. All he saw was a mixture of cold amusement and annoyance. "Hyuuga. Let go of the bird." he said. Neji was only too happy to, the raven having pecked his way through most of the bandages on his hands and leaving scratches. He gently disengaged the raven's claws from his hands and let him go.

The raven cawed in triumph, and exploded into smoke. Then there was a pale skinned, dark haired boy staring at them from a slightly crouched position several meters ahead of them. His equally dark eyes watched their every movement, not even blinking when a gust of air made his long bangs dance along his jaw.

_Wow.. he's hot._ was Tenten's first thought. The fox in her grasp yawned and stopped struggling, deciding that her shoulder was as good as place as any to take a nap. And poke fun at his team mates. Tenten watched him warily, but when he merely settled down to hang off of her shoulder, she relaxed, the slight weight on her shoulder oddly comforting.

_Hmph. An Uchiha_. Neji thought_. I wonder how the power of the last of that tragic genius clan would match up to a Hyuuga's_.

_What a pretty squirrel!_ Lee hadn't noticed, or rather didn't care that one of the 'possessed' animals had reverted into a human state, his short attention span that came with anything that did not regard fighting in any way glued on the struggling rodent in his hand._ I shall name her Squee! _

"You see, Gai, my students are very tricky indeed." Kakashi said in a bored tone. "Gai clone. Let the squirrel go."

Lee hugged the squirrel to his chest, appalled at being ordered to let his new friend go. She turned almost as green as his jumpsuit. "Never! Squee is mine!" Passionate tears shimmered in his eyes. "It was fate that brought us here together, and destiny that will keep us toget- Squee! Where are you going?!" the squirrel had wiggled out of his grasp, and with speed and agility born of terror, she made it to Sasuke's side unscathed.

Tenten and Neji watched with no little amusement as Lee mourned over the loss of his new friend. The tan fox jumped down from his perch, careful not to hurt Tenten with his claws. He spat out his reward for being such a good 'search and rescuer' and sat on his haunches, scratching at his imaginary fleas.

A cloud of smoke covered the squirrel's small form. Sliding to a crouched position beside Sasuke, Sakura watched the new team with wary eyes. _Who are these guys? _she wondered, shivering at the Hyuuga's cold pupil less eyes. _And.._ Lee winked at her, his eyes in the shape of hearts. She reeled back, her left eyebrow twitching. Inner Sakura screamed in horror, the kind that only a girl like her, someone who had the sense not to put green and orange together and parade around in, could feel.

Gai, a little off to the side, watched them with pride, enjoying the clash between his team and Kakashi's. "Isn't youth such an inspirational and lovely thing?" Gai murmured dreamily.

"Hm? What did you say?" Kakashi's nose was buried deep in his book. Gai turned red with anger at the sight of such an inappropriate book within such close range of easily corrupted minds, but composed himself.

"That was a good one, rival Kakashi! It's somewhat modern and it pisses me off.."

Lee was in love. Imagine, such a beautiful squirrel was also such a beautiful woman! He blew her a kiss.

"Eeep!" Sakura dodged the strange projectile. Breathing in and out, she tried to calm herself, tried to convince herself this was just a horrible, horrible nightmare. After all, what could possibly possess not one, but two people to run around in what looked like green and orange leotards.

"You know, Lee... Some girls shy away from such up front tactics..." a voice drawled from behind them, lacking the seriousness of Sasuke and Sakura. Tenten felt a cold chill run down her spine. _The fox..! _

Gai's team turned around to see a blonde haired ninja calmly sitting on the ground. He had three faint whisker marks on each side of his face and the brightest blue eyes any of them had ever seen. He kicked his feet a little like a child, making dust fly around. He grinned at Lee.

"Although I warn you.. You have very major competition in that area, by the name of Uchiha Sasuke." he said helpfully, nodding in the Uchiha's direction and ignoring Sakura's glares and the mouthed _'Are you trying to make me have a heart attack?!' _

Lee nodded seriously. "I'll take that into account. Thank you.." he trailed off, not knowing the boy's name.

"Naruto." the blonde said, a smile tugging the corners of his lips up.

"Right. Thank you, Naruto-kun." he turned back to Sasuke, the fires of passion burning in his eyes. "Rival!" he shouted, shaking a fist at the dark haired boy.

Sasuke, deciding that things had gone far enough and quietly diagnosing Lee as legally insane, pushed Sakura behind him. A strange feeling, like how he felt when his father acknowledged Itachi as his son but not Sasuke, like how he felt when Naruto easily wielded his chakra like a master swordsmen with a katana after years of being the dead last of their group, directed his actions. He could not put a name on what he felt, but hell was going to freeze over before this weird thick browed guy did anything with..

Sasuke realized what he was feeling with a jolt. He was jealous.

Shaking his head, he laughed at himself. Him? Uchiha Sasuke, jealous? And all over Sakura? Either someone was smoking magic mushrooms, or.. maybe he did have a heart lying underneath all that ice. Not liking either prospect, he stared Lee down, ready to attack if the guy did anything weird.

Sasuke blinked and the eyebrowed menace was no longer in front of him.

"My lovely angel! I ask but one thing of you, before I set out into the cruel world of the ninja." A dramatic voice said behind him. Sasuke whipped around. _That speed..!_ Lee held Sakura's hands in his, tears running down his cheeks. "What is the name, dare I ask, of such a lovely piece of art?"

Tenten backed up, a sweat drop forming. _Laaame.. _She looked to Neji, hoping for some relief out of this madness, to find the Hyuuga meditating with his back to a tree. _Unflappable, that one_.. she thought fondly, taking a seat next to him, careful not to invade his bubble.

Naruto popped up at Lee's elbow. "Her name is Haruno Sakura! She's twelve years old, graduated at the top of our class, lives at 564 Lotu-" Sakura started to wring his neck.

"Whose side are you on!? Stop giving out my personal information!" she cried out. Naruto turned blue.

"B-but, S-Sakura-chan.. I'm t-trying to help you get a b-boyfriend!" he gasped out. She dropped him when his face started to resemble a purple grape, a vein twitching in her -charmingly- wide forehead.

Was her love life so horrible that Naruto- of all people- was trying to help her out of it? She shivered and turned away from them, never mind that she was a twelve year old girl who was far too young to have anything resembling a love life.

The clock, balanced so precariously on one of the logs, rang. Naruto and Sakura jumped in surprise.

"Well.." Kakashi murmured lazily. "Looks like this practice is over. Since you let them distract you, you all fail."

A dead silence met that simple declaration.

Neji let out a small 'hn', his eyes still closed. Tenten gave them sympathetic looks.

Naruto felt a cold stab of panic. _No.. This.. This isn't supposed to happen! What did I do wrong?!_

Sasuke paled, then straightened, his eyes focused on the ground. In his mind, Itachi looked coldly at him. _'Weak'._ His inner Itachi spat, and walked away. _Will I.. ever become strong enough to defeat **him**..? _

"B-but Kakashi-sensei.. We got both bells from you.." Sakura said in a quivering tone. Lee nodded, not quite understanding, but still wanting to help his crush out in anyway possible. Kakashi struggled.

"Too bad. I make the rules." his eye shifted from Sakura to Naruto, a hidden meaning trying to be expressed. Naruto blinked and then Kakashi was reading his book. _What..?_ "In the ninja world, a ninja cannot be distracted from his or her goal. Not by his enemies, not by his friends. Not ever." Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets, clenching his teeth together. _Damn.. Dammit to hell! _His fingers closed over a squarish item in his pocket. _Huh..? _

"Rival! I must question your tactics.." Gai said, breaking the longest period of time he had ever been quiet and somewhat still.

"Don't. This is my exam. My rules. My choice. Back off." Kakashi said in a monotone. He couldn't help but feel disappointed. He thought for sure that this team was going to be the one.

They were okay with team work but.. there was so much more to being a team than just tolerating each other. So much more than three people who had conflicting feelings for each other uniting together for a common goal.

His exam had everything to do with sacrifice, and nearly nothing to do with team work. A harsh lesson he had learned at the end of his boyhood, a lesson he refused to let happen to anyone else.

"Kakashi.." he heard his voice whispered in an ominous tone. He blinked and looked up. Naruto had a wicked look on his face.

"You.. You are going to let.." Naruto murmured in that same calm and eerie tone. "Sakura-chan and Sasuke-bastard pass." Kakashi arched an eyebrow in amusement.

"What makes you think I'm going to do that?" he asked, genuinely curious. Naruto grinned in a parody of a feral smile.

"'Cause I have a hostage.." Cold terror gripped Kakashi for the briefest of moments. His thoughts were jumbled up and incomplete. _Kyuubi....village.. Hokage.. Naruto! _He mentally shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts._ Naruto's not the Kyuubi.. _he told himself firmly.

Outwardly, he was calm. "Oh, really? Everyone I have ever cared about is dead. Who could you possibly have that I'd care about their life?" He nearly flinched when he saw the sadness engulf those bright blue eyes for a moment, only to be chased away by hard headed mischievousness.

"Not who, what.." Naruto said with a grin. "I'll give you a hint.. the temperature at which books burn is 451 degrees Fahrenheit.." Kakashi let out a pained gasp slip out of his covered mouth.

"You wouldn't..! You.. couldn't!" the jonin said, holding his hand over his heart like he had received a mortal wound. Nearly all of the seriousness had been sapped out of the atmosphere.

"I can, and I will. If you ever want to read it, you better pass them.. or else..." Sasuke, Lee, and Sakura looked back and forth like spectators at a ping pong match.

Tenten frowned. What were they talking about? Neji scoffed. He had one good idea about what it was the blond was threatening Kakashi with. And because he was a genius, he was right.

Naruto whipped out the thing in his pocket, which was, low and behold, Icha Icha Paradise, Volume IV- Rainy Day Special! He cackled evilly. "Hm.. the summary.." Naruto opened the book. Gai started to stutter.

"Boy, don't read that! It'll corrupt your mind!" he said passionately, the self proclaimed protector of the innocent. Naruto scoffed.

"Hey, I'm the infamous creator of the Sexy no Jutsu, defeater of both Iruka-sensei in his scary mode and the Hokage. There no way I can be corrupted any further." And to prove his point, he flipped to a random page, and started to read out loud.

_"'Rumiko leaned backward, a slight blush on her face. "Are you sure we should be doing this?" she asked in her sweet siren tone. "I mean.. my sister wake up at any moment.." Taka smirked and leaned his face in. "I actually surprised that she didn't wake up the last four times...'" _Naruto looked up, a naughty look on his face. "Do you think Jiraiya is angling for a threesome?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes, annoyed at the fictional character's boast. "Taka _so_ couldn't last four times.." the copy cat nin said, shaking his head. Naruto shrugged, flipping through a couple of pages. They both ignored the glowing faces of their companions.

"Maybe.." Naruto scrunched up his nose, quietly proud of himself for not blushing. _But Volume IV is nothing like Volume X.. _he told himself firmly. "Two for her, two for him?" Thinking for a moment, Kakashi nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds a bit more like it.." Sakura clamped her hands over her ears._ I.. am not.. hearing this! _Sasuke and Neji had faint pink blushes, both showing their annoyance and embarrassment in their own quiet ways.

Tenten, having a perverted brother herself, rolled her eyes, trying to distract herself with happy thoughts.

_Bunnies.. and that new set of kunai at the weapons' shop... Neji shirtless..._ she nearly blushed at the last image. It had been a accident, she was sure of it. The Hyuuga had been cleaning off mud from his shirt in a river during a C class mission. She had happened to be assigned to collect water from that very river. Of course, she had turned around and waited for him to redress, but those five seconds she glimpsed him...

_My my my.. It wasn't a rumor after all. Hyuugas are really well built._ She glanced at Neji through her bangs. Tenten decided that he was cuter in a way because of that faint pink hue that had rested on his cheeks._ Too bad he's a stiffer stiff than Uchiha. _

Lee walked over and tugged on Kakashi's sleeve.

"Hey, what's a threesome?" the boy asked curiously. Kakashi looked delighted, clapping his hands together.

"Well, Lee, its when.." Gai had enough. He slung Lee over his shoulders, grabbed both Neji and Tenten each with one arm, bellowing, "Retreat!!" Kakashi snickered at the thick cloud of dust that was Gai running for his life and for his students' innocence.

"Point for me.." he said gleefully. Someone cleared their throat.

"The threat still stands.." Naruto said, an amused smirk on his face. "Pass them or else." Kakashi sighed in defeat.

"What else can I do? Those books are my life.." Naruto rolled his eyes. _Pervert.. Wait a second... _His eyes fixed on Kakashi's feet._ He's giving up way too easily.. And.. why.. he's not casting a shadow! _

Sensing someone behind him, he started to jump away, only to be halted by a firm grip on his arm. His arm was twisted and brought behind his back, the book easily taken from his grasp. Naruto felt a foot plant itself in the middle of his back, making him face fault into the ground.

"Naruto!" Sakura gasped out. _Damn.. he did Bunshin no Jutsu when we were watching Gai! Sneaky bastard! _Sasuke thought angrily.

"My my my.. Naruto, you are an interesting guy.." Kakashi murmured, reading his new book. Naruto muttered a few curses into the ground, many of them muffled by the grass and dirt. "Hey, you're too young to cuss."

Naruto managed to pull his torso off the ground by a few inches. "Kiss.. my.. ass." he grounded out. Kakashi chuckled and patted his head.

"One question and I'll allow you three to go." Naruto reluctantly nodded. "You could have factored yourself in to that hostage plan, instead of just Sakura and Sasuke. Why didn't you?" Sasuke perked up. He was also curious why Naruto would do such a thing as well. The idiot was the one always bouncing around, yelling 'Hokage this' and 'Hokage that'. Why would he give up such a powerful dream?

Naruto sighed and turned his head so he wasn't eating grass. "I.. I wasn't really thinking about myself. All that mattered.. was getting Sasuke and Sakura past this test." he said softly. Then scoffed. "Besides, your rules were dumb. The ninja who'd rather follow rules to save their own ass and all that crap, instead of caring about what happens to their team mates.. is a lowly ninja indeed."

Kakashi was quiet, taking his foot off of the blond's back. Naruto pulled himself up, refusing to look at his two team mates. "Sorry you guys.." he whispered, walking away.

_Naruto.._ Sakura thought, humbled by Naruto's simple words. Sasuke suddenly smiled.

_It make take a year or more to become a genin.. but with people like Naruto around.. it might not be so bad. _They both pivoted and followed after Naruto, their heads held high.

A silly smile, hidden by his mask, engulfed Kakashi's face. _Finally.. _he thought, poofing away.

Naruto jumped back a few feet, startling Sasuke and Sakura, an instant before Kakashi appeared in front of them. His one visible eye was curved, his mask creased in what they could only guess to be a smile.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura.." he dragged it out a little longer, enjoying the surprise and annoyance on their faces. "You three pass the Genin Exam."

* * *

"Haha! We passed! I'm the best!" The raucous voice yelled out, higher pitched yips joining it. Shikamaru rolled his eyes, tapping his fingers on the wooden counter, ignoring the bowl of ramen in front of him.

"Stop being such a troublesome guy, Kiba." he muttered. The dog boy rounded on him.

"Yeah, like you losers passed! You're just jealous!" Kiba laughed, his fangs flashing. Ino punched him in the head. He slumped over his chair, cradling his abused head. "Ow.. what a violent bitch.."

"We did pass, you arrogant asshole! We've told you three times!" she nearly screeched, her face turning red. Kiba waved a hand carelessly.

"Yeah, sure..." he said condescendingly. Team Ten and Team Eight had met in front of Ichiraku Ramen, tired and spent, but still proud that they had become genins. Kiba seemed to get his second wind, and started questioning Shikamaru's team to see how they had passed. He couldn't believe that a Sasuke obsessed girl, a cloud obsessed guy, and a food obsessed boy could have possibly become genin. Kurenai was a prime example how tough the jonins of Kohona really were.

But the exam she had given, for an Aburame, an Inuzuka, and a Hyuuga, had been frightfully easy.

Gathering information, analyzing it, and using it to it's fullest potential was their clans' speciality, after all.

"K-Kiba-kun.." Hinata's soft voice broke in. "I don't think they'd lie.." Ino brightened up.

"That's right! Thanks Hinata-san!" the girl said sweetly. Shino muttered something under his breath, then busied himself with some ramen when Kiba looked at him suspiciously.

Chouji's mouth was too full to comment on Kiba, but that didn't stop Shikamaru. "Hmph. You may have become genin, but I bet Hinata and Shino did all of the work." Kiba flailed his arms, nearly knocking Akamaru from his perch.

"What did you say, you lazy bastard?!" Ino put a hand over his mouth, her eyes wide. She leaned back in her seat, looking for something. She slide off of her stool and started to look left and right.

"Ino, what's wrong?" Chouji asked between mouthfuls. The blond had a sharp glint in her eyes, a predator gleaming within.

"My Sasuke senses are tingling." The five other genins face faulted. Shikamaru sighed, and lifted a bite of ramen to his mouth. He should have known.

They heard Naruto way before they saw Team Seven, as was to be expected. "Come on, you two! Let's celebrate! Ramen on me!" Ino reapplied her makeup.

Team Seven rounded the corner. Naruto walked with his arms folded behind his head, a sunny smile on his face. To his left Sasuke had his hands in his pockets, a smirk on his face and to his left, Sakura walked with a little skip in her step, her eyes straying once or twice to look at Sasuke.

They were tired looking, bruised, and cut up, Sakura bearing the worst cut on her right cheek, but they were happy. They were the first time that the jonin had ever passed. Kakashi had told them himself. They had every right to be on cloud nine.

_Na-Naruto-kun!_ Hinata thought, her fingers nervously poking each other. She could imagine how he'd greet her. He'd run up with that infamous grin of his, grab her hands, and look deep into her eyes. He'd say, "Did you pass Hinata-chan?" She'd nod, and then he'd say "I knew you could do it!" And then they talk and talk until everyone in the background would disappear, and then he walk her home, kiss her on the cheek...

_Yeah right.._ she thought glumly, turning back around in her stool. _Like he'd notice me when Sakura-san is around.. _

"Hinata-chan!" she heard someone cry out joyously. Two strong arms hugged her from behind. _N-Naruto-kun?! _"Did you pass Hinata-chan?" he asked, affectionately rubbing his cheek against hers. She turned a deep red, but nodded. The rest of the genins were either too busy watching Ino glomp Sasuke and Sakura yell at Ino for touching him, to notice Naruto and Hinata.

But Kiba did. "Hey, stop molesting Hinata-chan, you blond asshole!" he hissed. Naruto stuck out his tongue at the irate dog boy.

"Go fetch, dog breath." he turned back to the girl he had attached himself to so eagerly. "I knew you could do it!" Shikamaru gave them a sidelong glance. _Troublesome guy.. too affectionate... and in public too. It'll be a blood bath if Kiba decides he likes Hinata as well._

"Hey, dobe." Naruto turned his head, not letting go of Hinata. He scowled at the nickname. Sasuke had shaken off Ino. "You said ramen was on you, right?" Naruto pouted at him for a moment, then smiled, thinking he had just about enough money to treat Sakura and Sasuke after all.

"Yep yep! Oi, old man!" he yelled. The chef looked up a little disgruntled, but face brightening up when he saw his most frequent customer. "Can you make some ramen for my team mates, the new genin of Kohona?!" At the end of the sentence, he raised his voice like a DJ trying to rally up a crowd. The chef rolled his eyes but smiled.

Hinata blushed when Naruto plopped in the vacant seat next to her. Forget her daydream, this was even better. He turned, gave her that irresistible smile, and then started to chow down on his miso ramen.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow, amused at the two. One would have to be blind to not see how much the two liked each other. _I thought Naruto liked Sakura? Not anymore, I guess.. _He watched with his dark eyes when Naruto started to engage Hinata in a conversation. He frowned, knowing how hard it was to make the shy girl talk. However, Naruto was showing an uncharacteristic amount of patience and Hinata was trying her very best not to clam up. With such need and effort on both sides, the conversation wasn't constantly halted by stammers and Naruto's potty mouth. Kiba interrupted with a _'hey, dumb ass, where's your forehead protector?' _Naruto patted his forehead and his pockets.

"Damn it! I knew there was something I forgot this morning!" Hinata shyly laughed. His irritation gone, the blonde smiled goofily at the Hyuuga girl.

Sasuke sighed, turning back to his ramen. How he wished he had a girl like that who had a crush on him, instead of the screeching banshees that stalked him constantly..

In a huff, Kiba left, throwing a goodbye over his shoulder to his two team mates. Shino left not long after, murmuring something to Hinata about going to sleep. Chouji was ready for his second lunch- "I have to build up my chakra, Shika!"-, but Shikamaru managed to drag him away.

Ino hung on to Sasuke's arm, ignoring Sakura's complaints, and trying to engage the dark haired rookie into a conversation.

"So you passed! Of course you would! You're an Uchiha!" Sasuke flinched. "I bet you carried big forehead girl and the idiot to victory!" Hinata and Naruto stopped talking, a frown on each of their faces. Sakura busied herself with creasing her napkin.

"Ino.." he muttered. He stood up, pulling his arm out of her grip. "You're.. really annoying." Ino felt as if a thousand ton rock had been dropped on her.

"W-what..?" she said quietly, watching as the Uchiha walked away. Sakura fiddled with her chopsticks, feeling sorry for her rival and once best friend.

Naruto rested a hand on Ino's shoulder. "Bend something too much, and it will break.." he murmured, his normally bright eyes serious. She looked back at him for a moment, then brushed his hand off of her shoulder.

"Yeah, maybe..." she whispered, tossing money for the ramen on the counter, leaving the opposite way the Uchiha had.

"Poor Ino-san.." Hinata said quietly. Naruto 'hmph'ed.

"She should stop going after something that will never be hers." he said, drawing the attention of both the girls left. "She's too headstrong. He's too headstrong. They'd end up trying to make the other submit. They'd never work out." Sakura stood up.

"I have to make sure she's.." she started to explain. The blond shook his head.

"She won't appreciate your concern." Naruto murmured. "You'd have a better chance with Sasuke." Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, she gave a desperate look toward the direction Ino went.

"But Ino much easier to talk to than Sasuke! He'd bite my head off!" she burst out truthfully. His eyes closing, Naruto waved a hand at her.

"Do whatever. But Sasuke needs you to talk to him more than she does." Eyes opening, he gazed at her in such a serious way that she almost wanted to ask where the idiot who had painted the Hokage monument had gone, and who this strange, serious person in front of her was. "She has been rejected before, she'll get over it. But Sasuke's not exactly.. sound of mind. Putting it delicately. He needs someone to talk to more than her. He won't turn you away.. if you watch what you say." He looked away. Sakura let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. "He's like a bomb ready to blow. Be careful." Just like that, he dismissed her.

Dazed, Sakura walked out of the stand, stopping when the screen fell back down. Before her stood a choice. A choice to go with something safe- although with Ino, it was hard to tell what was safe or not-, something she could not be looked down upon for. A choice to throw all caution to the wind, and see what was wrong with that quiet brooding team mate, whom she loved with all of her heart. A gamble that was 80-20, in favor of him forever hating her for being nosy.

Sakura looked left and right. Right was safety. Left was uncertainty. _'He's like a bomb ready to blow..' _she heard Naruto murmur in her mind. _'She's been rejected before. She'll get over it.' _She remembered Sasuke's cold voice. _'Ino.. You're really annoying..' _She'd hate for that same sentence to be directed at her but...

Sakura turned left and ran. _I'm coming Sasuke-kun! _

Naruto smiled, knowing which direction she took. Hinata watched him with her pale silver eyes. He saw her watching, and with a smile, took her hands in his.

"May I walk you home?" he asked quietly. She blushed, a habit she seemed to be fond of doing in his presence, and nodded.

* * *

"Sasuke! Sasuke-kun!" The dark haired boy stiffened when he heard his name. He turned slightly to see his pink haired team mate running after him, relaxing when he saw it wasn't Ino. He stopped and waited for her to catch up with him.

Sakura smiled gratefully. "Thank you." Sasuke shrugged.

"What do you want?" he asked bluntly. She nervously fiddled with a lock of hair.

"Can I.. walk with you?" Sasuke stared at her hard, trying to figure out her motive. After a tense moment of her trying to keep her eyes locked with his instead of backing down, he shrugged again.

"Suit yourself." he started to walk again. Sakura beamed, and with a little hop in her step, walked with him, only a pace behind.

"I...um.." Sakura stammered. "Well.. I'm sorry!" Sasuke gave her a bewildered look. "For Ino. For whatever she did. To you." He arched an eyebrow.

"Why are apologizing for what you clearly have no control over?" He scoffed and turned his head. "You know what, just never mind. It's not like you understand why she even pissed me off.." He walked a little faster.

Sakura had the mental image of her standing in front of a bomb labeled _'SASUKE.'_,two wires held in each hand. _Hm. What wire was I supposed to cut? The red one, or the blue one? _Inner Sakura had to ask.

"Sasuke-kun I.. I'd like to think that, well, maybe not now, but later, you can view me as a friend, instead of well.." She twisted her hands together. "An annoying fan girl."

Sasuke's eyes flickered toward her. He himself wasn't even sure he wanted a friend. Friends were weaknesses. Friends were people Itachi targeted to make his already horrible life worse. But at her hopeful gaze he sighed and said, "You'll have to try hard to become my friend." When she nodded cheerfully, he frowned even more. "Not just with you, but with me. I'm not exactly A class friend material." Sakura beamed. Sasuke was never the one to make illusions about himself.

"I know. Maybe.. I'm too annoying.." How she loathed that word. "..And you're too you. But we can try! Now's a good time to start!" Sasuke turned his face away, a hidden smile on his face. _What a persistent girl... _He frowned again when he remembered why he was so annoyed.

"Uchiha this.. Uchiha that." he said unexpectedly. _Huh..? _was Sakura's only thought. Sasuke didn't look at her. "When people look at me, all they see is the potential of an Uchiha. They don't..." he trailed off, not knowing how to word what he was feeling.

"They don't.. see you?" Sakura asked softly. Sasuke nodded stiffly. They walked the rest of the way in silence, stopping in front of Sasuke's apartment building. Sakura looked at the ground, sure that she had somehow offended him.

Sasuke paused, a deeply introspective look on his already serious face. He turned to her, dark eyes troubled. "It just really pisses me off." he raised a hand in his customary salute. "See you tomorrow." Sakura smiled, like the sunrise beaming over the dark horizon.

"Yeah.. Bye!" she ran off to the direction of her home, a grin firmly plastered on her face. Sasuke watched her go, not sure if he was annoyed, mad, relieved, or what. A smile twitched the corners of his lips up.

"Heh.."

* * *

He knew where she lived. She didn't know if she should have taken that as a good sign or what. Instead she skittered behind him, memorizing the way his head tilted back, how his eyes closed in that bright squinty eyed smile, how his arms folded behind his golden mane.

She loved everything about him, from his expressive eyes, to the three faint whisker marks on his face that made him look like a fox, even to the way his sandals slid against the ground.

When he stopped, she nearly fell right over him. He turned around, worry- for her!- in his gaze. "Hinata-chan? Are you okay?"

Hinata straightened, feeling overly embarrassed. "Y-yes.. I was just.. thinking.." _of you.. _her unspoken words floated in her mind. Naruto smiled.

"Yeah, you seem to do that a lot.." They looked away from each other, both embarrassed and awkward.

_Damn it.. What does a guy do when he's about to leave his girl? _Naruto wondered, not having been a heavy dater. Kyuubi resurfaced.

**Leave a message with his pack so that they'd take care of her? **Naruto scowled at Kyuubi. _I'm not going on a vacation, you giant fur ball! I'll probably see her tomorrow! _There was a speculative silence.

**Hm.. Mark her before a rival does? **Naruto rolled his eyes. _Alright, last time I ask you for advice... _The Kyuubi scoffed and muttered something rude about human courting rituals.

Naruto put a hand on the cool metal gate that lead up to the Hyuuga mansion. He looked at the dark and almost dreary house, feeling almost homesick. He knew every entrance and exit to the place. Every hidden door, hallway, and passage. Even all eight of the secret entrances to the rather large kitchen, three of which he didn't reveal to Kohonamaru and Chouji.

He frowned. Thinking of that made him remember the very last time he had been a grown up, staring at his surviving friends hopeful faces. How Tsunade had given him a reassuring smile. How Ino had begged silently with her eyes to save Shikamaru. How Gaara gave him that faintly dark, yet oddly reassuring look. The one that screamed _'You better not screw this up, or else.' _

Naruto opened his eyes, not seeing the images of the past, only a Hinata looking worried. "A-are.. you okay, Naruto-kun?" she asked quietly. "You looked like you saw.. a ghost."

_But I have been seeing ghosts, Hinata-chan!_ his mind insisted what his mouth would not. _People long dead walking upright and acting as if nothing at all has happened. But nothing has happened.. but yet it has. Paradox of time travel, I suppose. Makes me kinda wonder if a ghost is a fragment of a memory, or something that is expelled out of our body when it expires. Is there even an afterlife?_ He looked back at the mansion that, although the noon sun shined down on it, no brightness and cheer could be felt within. _You said once.. _His mind flash backed to Iruka's funeral. _You said something that at that time, made me very happy. But, I don't know if I can cling to that beautiful notion you gave to me.. Not now.. _

His hand came up and touched the side of her face. "I'm fine.." Naruto smiled. "You shouldn't worry about a guy as unworthy as me.." His hand dropped and he took a step away, knowing his boundaries.

The blonde lifted a hand in a wave. "See ya later, Hinata-chan." She watched him shove his hands in his pockets and walk away. Hinata touched her cheek where his warmth still was. _Naruto-kun.. Your eyes.. _

She always heard the saying, _'eyes are the windows to the soul'_ and completely understood it's meaning whenever she looked into Naruto's eyes. His eyes, no matter how bright, no matter how loud he was being, were always lonely. Just like her's.

But his eyes now.. It was like looking into a different soul, still Naruto, but covered with more scars, more wary of opening up. Tears came to her own eyes, blurring the vision of her retreating crush.

_Naruto-kun.. what happened to you to make you have such a wounded soul?_


	12. Endless River of Blood

Yay! Who else is totally psyched about the second season of Naruto! Naru looks so cool!

And just to refresh your memory, if i forgot to put it in the other chapter. No KakaIru. They're just friends in this fic.

**Updates: I, from now on, shall update every seven to eleven days. The chapters will be longer, the content will (hopefully) be better, and I'll have enough time to finish my homework. Huzzah.**

* * *

For the Love of my Friends 

Chapter Twelve: Endless River of Blood

by Foxie

* * *

_Flashback: Year Five of the Great Sound and Leaf War._

_Umino Iruka's funeral_

* * *

_You can tell who was closest to the deceased at the funeral._

_The gossipers, excited that something interesting had happened, and can't wait to spread the news about who was wearing what, and which person cracked first, slink near the edge of the crowd._

_The ones there to show their respect, but didn't know the dead person well just stand there, inserting a few comments here and there, looking a little bored._

_The ones the deceased had touched deeply, such as a dead teacher and his students, past and present, cry hard when they watch their beloved instructor being lowered into the ground._

_But the ones who the deceased had been a major part in their lives, such as the family members, the close friends, the lovers, stare almost as emotionlessly at the dead body as the gossipers. So many emotions conflicting them ever since they heard the news, so many tears spent.. They are spent. Devoid of emotion, and non reactant to stimuli._

_Even as their souls scream, 'This cannot be happening! This cannot be real!' and wishes to run over to that godforsaken coffin, rip it open, and somehow make the person come back to life, they stare almost coldly at the lowered casket, their bodies frozen in place._

_Umino Iruka was an average ninja. Chuunin level, a favorite among the instructors at the Academy, he had never taken a pen without bringing it back to it's owner. Like many other ninjas his age, he was without parents, and although liked by many a female ninja, didn't even have a girlfriend._

_Few came to his funeral, mostly the Hokage, her attendants, the students, the genin, and lower class chuunin. The few left in the village, who had not been given a highly dangerous assignment crucial to the Resistance._

_Praise was given lavishly to Iruka. After all, it was the dream of a ninja to die a noble death protecting one's village. The ones closest to him didn't want to hear it. Not only because they wished to mourn in silence, but also because they knew that in no time at all, Iruka's name would just be another engraving on the Leaf's memorial stone. Ninjas died everyday in the times of war._

_The sky opened up and the tears of the heaven rained down upon them._

_The gossipers leave first, prepared for an hour long session of gossiping to those who could not make it. The respectful ones linger for a little, before they make the excuse of leaving because of the rain. Those who liked Iruka a lot and missed him stayed for a little while longer, risking sickness._

_Kohonamaru collapsed before the gossipers had a chance to leave. A long haired Anbu, just returned from a highly dangerous mission, caught him before the genin could hit the ground._

_Some shook their heads at the display, others crowded in closer, half worried about the grandson of the Third Hokage, half curious. The Anbu, his face fixed in a expression scarier than his carved mask, glared at them._

_"Back the fuck off." the teenager said in a roughed voice, his throat raw from the hours he had cried over his sensei's death. The elders glared at him, knowing well what lay behind that angry face. The teenager's eyes darkened, his chakra rising to such a high level that few had ever sensed before in their lives. "I said, back the fuck off."_

_Finally, the curious and the rude departed, leaving only a few stragglers. Two genins stood before him._

_"Naruto-ni-chan?" the girl asked in a soft voice. She stretched out her arms for Kohonamaru. Her eyes were outlined in red from crying, her face pale. Her male companion wasn't in much better shape._

_"Moegi-chan, Udon-kun.." Naruto found that he didn't care much about what happened to him, but cared worlds more what happened to the three kids who idolized him. He handed over Kohonamaru. "Take him home, take off his wet clothes, and make sure he gets something warm to eat. That goes for you guys too." Udon, being the taller and the stronger of the two, put Kohonamaru over his shoulder before wiping his runny nose._

_"But what about you..?" Udon asked in his slightly nasal voice. Naruto shrugged._

_"I'll be here for a while." Knowing how hard headed and stubborn their idol was, they nodded in unison and left, taking the quicker route, on the roof tops._

_The Anbu shifted his gaze from the retreating genin to the cold tombstone in front of him and the picture of Iruka that whoever organized the funeral forgot to take with them._

_He refused to look at the tombstone. It was too cold.. too impersonal. He instead focused his gaze on the smiling Iruka._

_"Hey, Iruka-sensei.." he whispered. "Told you I'd come back." Rain plastered blond hair to his face. His knees grew weak. He sat rather roughly on the muddy ground. "My ninja way, you know.. To never break a promise. Kinda wished that I had been more true to it.. and come back sooner rather than later."_

_Tsunade watched Naruto sadly, then donned the mask the Hokage of the most powerful ninja village was suppose to wear. A mask of cool indifference, yet a spark of warmth._

_Sakura started to walk toward Naruto, only to be halted by the Hokage. The older woman shook her head once and walked away. Taking one glance backward, Sakura followed the Hokage's footsteps._

_"You know.. Kakashi would have been here.." he tried to make an excuse for his sensei's best friend. Iruka would have highly disapproved of Kakashi's actions. Even Naruto was angry at Kakashi, although it was mostly fueled by sadness. Two of his most precious people had been killed, one by his own selflessness, and one by the emotions that he himself had called 'excess baggage'._

_Kakashi and Iruka had a strange friendship. Both of them were rather solitary men, Iruka preferring to spend his time focusing on his students and making sure they achieved their best, Kakashi preferring to spend his time living life on the edge and reading his perverted books._

_Iruka was the kind of guy you could trust your life with. Kakashi was more of the type where he'd make sure you were safe in a dangerous situation, but in the next minute, throw your life in danger if he happened to be bored. Iruka was a steady guy, a rock one could lean on. Kakashi was like the wind. He drifted this way and that, too elusive to catch._

_Both completely polar opposites, they collided when a force of nature called Naruto was throw into the mix._

_Kakashi asked about his new students, hoping to get a new perspective on the strange trio. Iruka gladly gave it to him. Kakashi scolded Iruka when he coddled and was protective of his students. Iruka argued right back, annoyed that the children he knew so well were being handled by a man like Kakashi._

_Well.. They were far from friends at first. They were constantly on the opposite sides of a battle field- in a figurative sense, of course- and often clashed on the ideas they felt were the most important._

_But they had some common grounds. Naruto, for one. Some of the others were the need for at least one medic per team, how Kohona needed to tighten up it's security, how they both approved the choice for the new Hokage. Soon after Kakashi lost to Itachi the first time, they stopped looking at what made them different and started to look at what made them similar._

_Iruka would drag Kakashi's sore body from the training areas- Kakashi really started to push himself after his humiliating defeat by the much younger missing nin's hand- back to his apartment, Kakashi would substituted in for Iruka when the chuunin got sick. After Naruto left for his three year training, the two became even closer friends, both reminiscing over the blond ninja and the light he shinned in their lives._

_Rumors that the two shared a relationship beyond that of just friends spread around the village, fueled by Kakashi and his favorite prank of randomly popping up behind Iruka and reading out passages from his favorite perverted books. Iruka would immediately turn red, elbow the gray haired ninja in the stomach, and refuse to cook for him for an entire week.- Kakashi was such a horrible cook that it was said that he could burn water. Iruka always wavered and didn't fully administer the punishment when Kakashi went on and on to another ninja about how his microwave 'mysteriously' exploded when he 'accidentally' put a kunai in there, or a different lame excuse of some kind. Iruka always fell for it.- But the fact of the matter was, they were both lonely men who found comfort in arguing, debating, and annoying each other to death._

_The death of Kakashi's second best friend screwed up the jonin's mentality big time._

_Naruto's hand fisted in the muddy dirt. "But.. you know.. shit happens.." He was soaked to the bone, so cold that he was numb, yet he continued to sit there, staring at the immortal smile of the man he had thought of as his father. He let out a shaky breath, aiming a small and sad smile toward the photo._

_"Heh.. If I didn't stay so long in that last village.. it would have been me in there, not you." His head dipped down, long raggedy bangs shadowing his eyes. "I killed Sasuke, and now I've killed you. Who's next?" He laughed bitterly. "It must be some kind of curse, huh?"_

_Someone walked up behind him. Naruto noted their advancement, but did nothing about it. He didn't care if it was a friend or a Sound Nin. He was the cause of so much pain to his loved ones. He deserved to die._

_The other person sighed softly and sat down next to him, not caring about the muddy that soiled the medic uniform that the other ninja wore._

_"Naruto-kun.." He knew that voice. No one else that he had ever known said his name so sweetly, so full of affection every time he heard it. He wanted her to go away. He wanted to wallow in his sorrow. Drawing his knees to his chest, he tried to ignore her._

_"Go away Hinata." was his almost forceful demand. Hinata sighed._

_"No." she murmured. "I'll leave when you leave. I will not back down.. for it is my ninja way..." He was quiet, not knowing what to say._

_"You're dumb." he said lamely. Hinata frowned, her voice becoming a little more clipped._

_"And who's the idiot who planned on staying out here all day? During a storm even?" He looked over at her, his eyes roaming over her form, taking it in like he had never seen her before._

_Her hair was longer than he remembered, tied up in a messy bun. She no longer wore the baggy clothes of her youth that she had hid behind, but the rather form fitting skirt and tank top that most female medic nins wore. Hinata tied her forehead protector around her arm instead of around her neck, and her demeanor was no longer a shy little girl, but a mature, fully grown ninja._

_Her eyes, he thought, staring into the silvery depths when she turned to look at him. They have not changed at all. She smiled at him, such a healing smile, so freely given._

_"He's happy, you know?" He arched an eyebrow, confused. "Iruka-sensei. He's happy now. He may have died, and left us all.." she looked at the photo, then turned back to him. "But he's with his family now in heaven. It must be so nice.. after not seeing a loved one for so long.. to be able to stay with them for eternity."_

_Had it been a lighter situation, he would have scoffed at the notion, the idea being too romantic for a tough guy like him. But Naruto felt a spark of hope light up in him. No longer feeling the pains of growing older and older every day, no longer missing those who've passed, no longer having to worry day after day about stupid fucking Orochimaru and the Akatsuki.. and knowing it's only a matter of time before those he had left behind come to visit him! He jumped up, letting out a whoop, startling Hinata._

_"Ha ha, Iruka-sensei! You ended up getting the best deal of them all!" he shouted up at the sky. Naruto punched his fist in the air, a grin threatening to spilt his face open. "I'll kick the icy snake bitch's ass, and then I see you in the afterlife!" Filled with energy, the blonde danced around in the rain, reminding Hinata of a sacred ritual to honor a god._

_Naruto finished a twirl, then surprised her by grabbing her hands and pulling her to her feet. He whirled her around twice, laughing the entire time. Finally, he came to a stop, putting her down gently._

_"Thanks Hinata.." he said quietly, pressing his forehead against hers. She blinked at his sudden proximity, knowing that Naruto had no problem showing his affection to his friends, but wished there was something more behind the innocent act._

_Hinata smiled and kissed his cheek. "Anything for a smile from you..Naruto-kun."_

_

* * *

End Flashback _

* * *

The genin leaned against the iron railing of the balcony, looking out at the Hokages of the past. 

It was so strange not seeing Tsunade's face carved up there. He sighed and slumped against the railing fully, sliding down until he hit the ground.

Team Seven had been given only D class missions for the past two weeks, something that annoyed even Sakura, who hated to be put in danger. Naruto was more annoyed at the fact that most of his time was being monopolized by the Fire Lord's wife, and her stupid cat that just couldn't stay put.

Naruto yawned and stared out blankly. _Kakashi better not be too late or.._

"Naruto!" The Kyuubi host blinked and turned around. Sakura ran up to him, slowing down so she didn't look like a fool. Her eyes looked left and right. "Is Sasuke-kun here yet?" Naruto rolled his eyes and grabbed the bottom of her dress, tugging sharply so the girl would fall down. She 'eeped' when she dropped, then punched him hard on the head.

"You never change.." he muttered, trying to sooth the bruises on his skull with his fingers. Sakura scowled at him.

"Nor do you, idiot." was her tart reply. He scowled back, not in the mood to be the submissive one. Her angry expression dropped when she got a closer look at his face.

"Naruto.. did you even sleep last night?" His eyes were bloodshot and shadowed. His normally lively face was pale and withdrawn. Naruto shrugged.

How could he sleep when so many nightmares plagued him? How many more nights could he stand watching Sasuke, Moegi, Udon, and the others die over and over again before he snapped?

"I slept just fine." he mumbled, lying through his teeth. She opened her mouth, just about to call his bluff when Kakashi poofed in behind them.

"Yo." They both stared at him with wide eyes. Kakashi arched an eyebrow, wondering if he had something in his teeth. Then remembered that even if he did have something in his teeth, they wouldn't be able to see it because of his mask. He looked down, pretty sure he had put his vest on the right way and zipped up his pants. _Hm.._

"What's with the looks, you two?" Sakura pointed a shaky finger at Kakashi.

"Y-you... you.." she stuttered. Naruto braced himself against the railing, his hands hovering in front of him uncertainly.

"You can't possibly be Kakashi..." he muttered. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, even more confused.

_Uh.. Last time I checked, that was my name._ he thought. Out of his mouth, a rather intelligent "Huh?" slipped out. His confusion made Naruto and Sakura jumped up in unison, pointing their fingers at him.

"You're not late!" they yelled. Kakashi sweat dropped._ Damn... If this little mistake is repeated, someone might think that I'm a responsible person._ He shivered at the thought. Responsible people were predictable. He _hated_ being predictable.

"Heh.. eh, I'm here early 'cause.. I'm testing your ninja skills!" _Nice save._ "If you get too used to a person, enemy or ally, doing the same thing over and over again.. it'll throw you off balance if they try something different." Oh yeah.. He was slick. Kakashi: Two points. Innocent students: Zero.

Sakura's eyes grew hopeful. "So.. you'll be early from now on?" Kakashi leaned over, a smile curving his one visible eye.

"What do you think?" he said in a sweet voice. Both of his students scowled at him. He turned to look at the Hokage's monument, the easy smile sliding off his face when he remembered why he had been so distracted that he broke his perfect record of tardiness.

* * *

_Flashback- Thirty minutes before._ _

* * *

_

_Kakashi whistled a cheery tune, one that he could not name, yet was so familiar and soothing to him. He was in a great mood. Who knew that teaching a bunch of angsty driven pre-teens would be so much fun?_

_He flirted with the fruit lady, badgered the book keeper of his favorite adult book store about the release date of the next Icha Icha Paradise, helped a pregnant lady carry her groceries home, and set fire to Asuma's vest when he wasn't looking._

_The jonin giggled in only what could be sadistic glee when he saw Kurenai throw the whole pot of coffee at Asuma, apparently forgetting that it was hot._

_"It's a beautiful daay, in my town." he switched tunes, singing off key. The Copy Cat Ninja of Kohona couldn't be good at everything, after all. The jonin was tone deaf._

_"Glad to see you're so perky." someone said sullenly. Kakashi turned to see a fellow jonin leaning against one of the walls in the town square. He had chin length brown hair, wore his forehead protector like a bandanna over his head, and had a senbon hanging out of the corner of his mouth. For some reason, Kakashi couldn't attach a name to the face._

_Ebsui? No.. that's the guy who acts like a prick. Hayate? No wait.. that's the guy who looks like he has a terminal disease..._

_"Be careful with your brats Kakashi." Genma muttered, pushing himself away from the wall. Kakashi frowned, feeling his happy meter deplete a little. He didn't like some other jonin, no matter who they were, call his only students brats. They're my brats._

_"How so?" was Kakashi's neutral reply. Genma frowned to himself._

_"There was a sighting at the border.. A missing nin." Kakashi tensed, the first missing nin popping up in his head was the sole murderer of an entire gifted clan.. and the brother of one of his students. "A Rock village nin. The Anbu apparently followed him, but.. they lost him."_

_Kakashi scoffed, although a little relieved that the nin wasn't from Kohona. If he was still Anbu captain, the nin would have been caught. Genma started to walk away._

_"The few Anbu that managed to catch up with him were found later, either killed, or underneath a genjutsu so powerful that some of them needed to be killed in order to give them peace. Don't be arrogant, Kakashi. The genjutsu is said to be at a level that the sharingan cannot reach. Keep your team close."_

_"Question." The brown haired jonin turned back, a little exasperated. "Who are you?" The annoyance and seriousness on the brown haired ninja's face faded into a look of comical disbelief._

_"W-What! You don't remember! I served underneath you five years ago!" Kakashi touched his chin, deep in thought._

_"Nope, still don't remember you." A vein in Genma's head throbbed._

_"It's Genma." he bit out. Kakashi brightened up. Finally.. Genma thought. He remembers._

_"Oh, Genma!" he said in surprise. "You know.. you don't look like a Genma." The poor jonin face faulted._

* * *

_End Flashback_

* * *

It had been fun, messing with Genma's mind. Of course, Kakashi had remembered who Genma was. Soley because of the senbon hanging from the brown haired jonin's mouth. No one else in Kohona were dumb enough to stick a weapon in their mouth. 

A genjutsu.. too strong for my sharingan to defeat.. He frowned, the idea faintly scary. He looked at his students, not wanting them to face something he could not handle, not in their first year. Especially not in their third week. Kakashi noticed the absence of one brooding student of his.

"Hey.. Where's Sasuke?" he asked.

"Dunno." Naruto replied.

"Maybe.. he's sick?" Sakura supplied, worry in her eyes about Sasuke and his well being. Naruto snorted.

"As if. He'd drag his sorry ass down here to train, even if he had a raging fever." he said knowingly. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head.

"Ditching?" he inserted. Naruto shook his head.

"Again, as if." The trio 'hm'ed, all in their separate thinking poses. Sakura gasped in horror when a horrible image danced in front of her eyes.

"What if Sasuke was taking a shower in the morning, slipped on some water, bashed his head into the wall, and started to bleed to death-" Naruto bopped her on the head.

"Once more.. Highly unlikely. Quit rambling." She scowled at him. Kakashi pushed them apart before things got ugly.

"Anyway.. that does bring up a good suggestion." Sakura stuck her tongue out at Naruto. He returned the gesture. "Let's go to Sasuke's house and check up on him. Now.. does anyone know where Sasuke live-"

Sakura was already going down the stairs. "Hurry up slowpokes! Sasuke-kun needs me!" Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets and followed at a slower pace.

"Don't be so surprised. Every girl from eleven to sixteen years old in this village knows where the great Uchiha Sasuke lives.." the blonde muttered, sarcasm dripping off of his words.

* * *

The apartment was large, in Naruto's eyes. Separate rooms for the kitchen, laundry room, and living room, not a speck of dust anywhere. The floor was so clean that he'd eat ramen off of it. 

But, it was cold. Not in the way that temperature could be an explanation.

The walls were bare, save for a single poster in Sasuke's bedroom, depicting a red and white fan, the Uchiha family crest. No luxuries were there, no cent wasted on material items. Extra kunai sat on Sasuke's dresser in a protective casing. Scrolls were neatly lined up on his desk. No pictures were lying around, except for the team picture they had taken right before Naruto stumbled onto Kohonamaru.

Naruto hated Sasuke's apartment, such a contrast to his own messy one.

At least his felt like a home. Sasuke's felt and looked like a place where one sleeps.

There were major differences between the comfort and warmth of a home and a bed.

"Sasuke-kun..." he heard Sakura murmur in the next room. He scowled. _Making us go through all this effort for you, you bastard.._ Truth be told, he was as worried as Sakura about Sasuke's well being. It took every ounce of control in his body not to run around in a circle like a headless chicken over worry for the Uchiha boy.

Grinning suddenly when he spotted a permanent marker, he picked it up and gave a sly look over at the white walls.

Kakashi was in the kitchen, a little worried about the delayed return of Naruto from Sasuke's room- it should have only taken a second or two for even Naruto to see if anyone was in there., but was too occupied with his book.

_Taka..you sly dog, you.._ he thought wistfully.

Sakura walked out of the bathroom. "He's not in living room, the laundry room, or the bathroom." Kakashi nodded once.

"Naruto's still in Sasuke's room." he mumbled. Sakura's eyes lit up. Maybe he found Sasuke-kun! She ran over, pushed open the door, prepared to greet her precious-

"Naruto!" The blonde gave her a guilty look, hiding the marker behind his back.

"H-hi, S-Sakura-chan!" he said nervously, standing in front of his latest prank, trying to hide it from Sakura's prying eyes. But, alas, he was too short.

Sakura shoved him out of the way and stared open mouthed at the drawing on the wall. It was a short comic. Naruto and Sasuke were sparring in the first square. The second square, Naruto flicked Sasuke in the head, making the boy fly out of the comic. In the third part, Naruto flexed his muscles and wore a medal that said 'Defeater of the Wimpy Uchiha.'

Naruto laughed nervously. "Gotta remind him who's boss.." Sakura gave him the evil eye. Naruto 'eeped'.

Kakashi pulled his attention away from his book to look at the bedroom door in confusion. Sounds of a very violent beating flowed out into the kitchen.

Sakura walked out, dragging Naruto in a head lock. The blonde had an assorted amount of bumps on his head.

"Not in the bedroom either." Sakura bit out. "And Stupid was drawing all over Sasuke-kun's walls." Naruto struggled half heartedly.

"The walls were glaring at me, dammit!" Sakura scowled at his obvious lie and bopped him on the head. Kakashi coughed.

"Ahem. Sorry to interrupt, but we have a missing Sasuke to find." The trio became serious again.

"So.. not at the meeting area, not at home. Where else does Sasuke hang out?" Kakashi directed his question toward Sakura, now knowing she knew the dark haired boy's habits better than anyone else. The pink haired girl let go of Naruto and started to pace.

"Well.. Sasuke-kun doesn't really.. hang out, in the strictest form of the sense. When we were in school, he'd wake up an hour before, get ready, go to school, spend two hours at one of the training areas, go home, get ready for bed, sleep.. and so forth. Every day."

Naruto blinked owlishly. "How boring." She glared. Kakashi coughed again.

"So.. he'd be at a training area?" Kakashi asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this so he could finish reading his book. Sakura frowned, and slowly shook her head.

"Sasuke-kun.. would never break a meeting time to train by himself. He'd see more use in showing up to the meeting to train with you, Kakashi-sensei, than just practicing by himself." She murmured.

"In other words.. back to square one." Kakashi muttered, annoyed. Naruto walked over to the window, deep in thought. The other two watched him.

"Hmm." He stared out at the village, his eyes focusing on a tall building in the distance that had the Uchiha crest on it. His eyes lit up suddenly. "That's it!" He turned around to face his companions.

"He's at the abandoned sector of the village." Naruto said excitedly. Sakura arched an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about? There's no abandoned-" she started to say.

"None at all, except.. for the Uchiha sector!" Kakashi said. Sakura's eyes widened. She didn't know there was a whole part of a village that belonged to the Uchiha clan.

"Why is it abandoned?" she asked, her curiosity perked.

Naruto and Kakashi were solemn. "Well.. After the Uchiha tragedy a couple of years ago.. Sasuke became the sole owner of the Uchiha sector." Kakashi said quietly.

"Why?" she whispered. Naruto shifted, not comfortable with talking about Itachi, even indirectly.

"There's no one else left alive to fight him for it."

* * *

They made it to the Uchiha sector in good time. Naruto nearly cried when he realized how many buildings there were. 

"Well.. Tally ho.." Kakashi muttered, walking into the first one. Sakura nodded, determined to make sure her Sasuke-kun was alright.

Which left Naruto out on the street, confused as hell. "Aw.. whatever." The boy walked down the street, not bothering to check in any buildings. "What a pain in the ass..."

He was annoyed, but the sheer creepiness of the sector was what kept him talking. There was not but silence. No birds chirping, not a sound from the other parts of the village could be heard. The air was stagnate.

It was a ghost sector.

"Stupid Sasuke.. making me waste my time on him.." he hoped to motivate Sasuke into coming out of the shadows with his insults, but only the faint echo of his own voice greeted him. "Why.. does this feel so.. familiar?"

The walls of some of the vacant stores were covered in a brownish stain that refused to be washed clean by the rain. Shivering, Naruto thought he could hear the faint whispering of the ghosts still haunting the sector, those whose lives had been unfairly taken by a boy wanting to test out his power.

A sudden wail burst out of nowhere, making Naruto jump three feet into the air. It echoed throughout the sector, making Kakashi and Sakura run out of the buildings they were in to see what was going on.

Naruto was frozen on the street. His breathing was labored, his heart was pounding, he never felt more scared in his entire life.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled. "Was that you?" Her voice broke him out of his trance. He turned shakily back, his face pale underneath his whiskers.

"No." Another wail echoed through the sector, making Sakura and Kakashi slide into defensive positions.

"Dammit Naruto!" Sakura shouted, on the verge of hysterics. "This better not be one of your stupid pranks!" Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down.

The wail died down to quieter sobs. Naruto blinked and turned to where the noises were coming from._ Some.. Someone's crying!_

Feeling returned to his legs. The blond started to run toward the sound.

"Naruto!" the other two had no choice but to follow. Naruto ran like the hounds of hell were at his heels. He came upon a rather expensive looking house, knowing that inside, whoever.. or whatever was causing that horrid sound was in there.

Naruto kicked open the wooden gate, darting up the three steps to the mansion, tearing through the sliding door. "Sasuke!" he cried out.

The Kyuubi host could feel his friend's chakra. It was so unstable. "Sasuke!" he yelled with more urgency. All that greeted him was that horrid cry. He turned to it. _The next room!_

He ran up to the door and slide it open.

What he, the jaded war veteran of the future, saw, was enough to make him back up a few paces.

"Aw.. Fuck.." Naruto whispered. Blood poured out of the room, coating Naruto's ankles with it's sticky substance. Sakura and Kakashi caught up.

"Naru-" The rest she had to say was interrupted by a gasp. She covered her mouth with her hands, bile rising to her throat. Kakashi stared at the blood, then looked up at Naruto, not being at the right angle to see what the blonde was seeing in the room. Naruto's face was white as a sheet, yet, he took a step forward, his hand reaching out for something.

"Sa..uke..?" he asked in an uncertain tone.

In the middle of the room, crouched over himself and sobbing, a seven year old boy with dark black hair and an oversized blue shirt with the Uchiha crest on it, sat in the middle of the flowing blood. He looked up at Naruto, a childish face twisted in agony, dark eyes filled with so much pain.

"Did.. aniki kill you too?"

* * *

hehe.. you guys are soo gonna hate me for ending it right here. 


	13. The Man with Two Faces and the Darkness ...

Yipes. Thirteen chapters already? I haven't even gotten to Haku yet!

* * *

For the Love of My Friends 

Chapter Thirteen: The Man with Two Faces and the Darkness of the Light

by Foxie

* * *

"Did.. aniki kill you too?" 

Naruto blinked in confusion. "What the hell are you talking.." He was interrupted at Sakura's horrified gasp. The girl pointed shakily at the wall to his left, the wall most of his body was turned to.

Naruto tore his gaze away from the small version of his rival, and looked where she was pointing. On the wall hung a huge mirror, elegant gold trimming surrounding a dusty reflective surface.

He cared not about the mirror, he cared about what was staring back at him, the pale blonde haired boy identical to him. The boy looked awful. Blood streaked across his face, a huge gash on his torso. Naruto's breathing shaky, his hand touched his chest. The gash was deep, the white of his ribs peeking out through the red. The boy's dark clothes prevented Naruto from seeing how much blood he had lost, but his green shorts were colored a faint brown.

In denial, Naruto backed away from the image, feeling his ribs and sticky blood against his fingers. "No.." he muttered, falling down to his knees, not caring about the blood that sloshed against his body.

Hiding in the shadows, a being giggled sadistically. This was going better than he thought it would. Who knew that the boy who had caught him in the abandoned sector had such a dark mind? His eyes lit upon Kakashi and Naruto. He rubbed his hands together in glee._ The Copy Nin and Kohona's dark little secret.. This will be fun.. _

Sasuke started to cry again. "I-I'm sorry... I-if I w-was stronger..If I w-wasn't such a c-coward.. you wouldn't have died.." Naruto curled over himself, the pain unbelievable.

"Bull shit.." was all he could get out. As if broken out of a trance, Kakashi and Sakura moved forward.

"Don't." Naruto snapped. "Look closer at the blood." Both of the ninjas looked at the blood that was steadily flowing to them. They back up when the blood came closer. It disappeared. "I-it's not real." he bit out, pushing himself to his feet. "It's not real" he shouted, putting his fist through the mirror.

"Naruto.." Sakura whispered. The blond turned around, red slitted eyes meeting her own. She gasped at the demonic eyes. Naruto shifted his attention to Kakashi, who was unsettled by the sight.

_Is the seal loosening?_ He feared the one he called his student was now a demon._ Is Naruto possessed by the demon? _The red eyes and the youki pouring off of the blonde was making his hair stand on end. He knew he only would not be enough to destroy the Kyuubi. Even the Fourth, the strongest ninja ever to grace their village, could not defeat the demon lord.

Red chakra whipped around Naruto, snapping at invisible threads of chakra in the air. The blood and Naruto's wounds flickered twice, like a faulty light bulb.

The hiding nin gritted his teeth in anger. The youki was weakening his genjutsu! His anger melted into amusement._ It doesn't matter. If the Uchiha believes the illusion to be true, no amount of weakening could break him out of it. That's the beauty of my blood line.. The mind is a most powerful thing. Even the demon is feeling pain at the sight of his 'wound'.. _

The feral eyes softened slightly. "Kakashi-sensei.." he whispered. Naruto was still himself. "The blood.. the mini Sasuke.. my wounds.. none of it is real" He touched his chest, the blood coating his fingers. "If it was real.. I'd be healing already" Kakashi suddenly remembered his talk with Genma.

He tore his forehead protector off, his red sharingan glowing. He could see what was real, and what was not but illusion. There was no blood. Naruto had no wound. He walked closer to Naruto and looked into the room. There was no child screaming his lungs out, but there was Sasuke, looking relatively normal, clutching his head in pain and trying to fight off the illusion.

Kakashi's hands formed a seal, the sharingan spinning. "Release" Kakashi was thrown backward against the wall. The pain he felt on his back, he knew was real. "Damn.." _A genjutsu that cannot be defeated by a sharingan. _

Naruto groaned. "We are so screwed."

* * *

Kurenai sat down next to her fellow jonin, Asuma, impatiently. "I said I was sorry" she muttered low enough so their students wouldn't hear. The bearded jonin shifted painfully, the pull of his bandages over his burns not very pleasant at all. 

Their teams sparred in front of them, Kurenai's team having a significant advantage because, overall, they were stronger. Asuma's team surprised them with a well thought up strategy. Ino possessed Hinata, Shikamaru captured Kiba and Akamaru in his shadow, and Chouji used Meat Tank against Shino.

"You know what I told my kids? That I was on a_ mission_. I had to go into a burning building to _save people_. Why? 'Cause they'd laugh their asses off if their instructor was burned by coffee" Asuma hissed. The red eyed woman rolled her eyes.

"Men and their pride.." she muttered. Asuma brightened up a little, remembering why they had been at the coffee shop in the first place.

Shino disappeared in a flurry of bugs before Chouji could hit him, and appeared behind Shikamaru. The quiet boy attached his bugs to the startled shadow user, draining his chakra. The shadow's grip loosened and finally fell off of Kiba, who let out a whoop. Kiba knocked out 'Hinata', sending Ino's spirit to spiral back into her body.

"You canceled our date to go after that nin, right" he asked slyly. She nodded slowly.

"Yes, what of it" Kurenai asked carefully. The bearded jonin grinned.

"Well, if you tell me about it, I'll forgive you" Kurenai nearly face faulted.

Ino bounced up and threw five kunai at Shino and Shikamaru, forcing Shino to withdraw his bugs and retreat. Shikamaru was too tired to dodge. About an inch away from his face, the kunai stopped their flight, being tugged back by his blonde team mate. Ino had tied fishing lines to the loop hole of her kunai.

Shikamaru wasn't the only one who could look several steps ahead.

"Forgive me! I was trying to help you! Besides, it's top secret information." Asuma gave her a stubborn look. "..Fine. You jerk."

She sighed, not actually minding if Asuma knew. The Hokage didn't specifically say that it was confidential, just to not cause a wide spread panic over the news. He didn't say that she couldn't talk the mission over with her boyfriend, who happened to also be a fellow jonin.

Despite how petty Asuma sometimes was, he had a good head on his shoulders. She needed someone like that to help her make sense of what she had seen.

"That nin.. used a lot of jutsus exclusive to the Rock village to evade us. As expected." Kurenai started. "But none of them compared to the genjutsu he used on those that caught up to him." Asuma nodded. He had heard rumors about it.

"I was part of the back up forces. We have a very shaky treaty with the Rock Village. If we caught one of their missing nins and gave him to them, our peace may have been strengthened." she said unnecessarily, for Asuma already knew that. She was just buying some time. Kurenai's hands shook when she remembered what the back up forces had come upon. "The nin probably isn't as strong as, say, Itachi, but with that blood limit of his, it really doesn't matter."

Chouji came back, a little bruised and roughened up from hitting whatever that had stopped his roll. He shook his head roughly, gathering his wits to him, and joined his team mates.

"The genjutsu is.. so elementary.. so easy, yet is so incredibly deadly. It takes the image of yourself, what you think you are, deep down in your subconscious, and pulls it to the surface. For a normal person, I doubt that it would make much difference, but to a ninja.. someone who has killed, who had done things they feel guilty about, even if they do not show it.. someone who has a dark past.. it is a most effective technique." Kurenai said, resting her chin on her hands. "And no one, but the person inflicted with it.. can pull themselves out of the worst of it. Not even a sharingan. Only a person with the will of a kami could snap the illusion right in half. For us lesser humans, unless the person comes to terms with what they are, deep inside, someone like me cannot help them, cannot guide them out of their illusion and help them break it."

She took a breath, remembering when they were forced to kill some of their own Anbu, the torture their minds were going through too much that they were trying to kill each other. Kurenai used a lighter idea to explain the genjutsu.

"If one, deep down, believes that they are a woman, even if their physical gender is a man, by the kamis, the genjutsu will make him look, feel, and sound like a woman. Even makes think he really was, burying all past memory that deviates from that." When Asuma arched his eyebrows at her, she added grudgingly"If, deep down, they believe that they are a blood thirsty monster, then that nin can take that image and make it come alive, to both the victim, and the people around him."

"I don't.. understand." he said, confused. Sure, he wasn't a genjutsu specialist like her, but he had some experience. And this wasn't making any sense. Kurenai laughed bitterly.

"Let's use an example, shall we"

Shino darted over to Hinata, having one of his bugs secrete a smelly gas, then lifting it to her nose. She twitched and shot upward wrinkling her nose. Kiba helped them up, then they turned to face the other three.

"Let us use our number one prankster, Uzumaki Naruto. He's lived all of his life in a village where they continually verbally abuse him about Who We Must Not Speak Of living inside his body. He's found about our violent friend. His mind is probably so screwed up by now. The villagers scorned him, and labeled him as the demon, although the demon and him are two separate entities. He knows and understands now why everyone hates him. He may even believe, deep down in his mind, that he is Who We Must Not Speak Of. If the nin uses the genjutsu on him.." Kurenai let out a shaky breath.

"_We'll have another Kyuubi on our hands_."

* * *

A dark flash darting out of the house caught three red eyes. "That's the bastard" Naruto yelled. "After him so we can find out how to break the illusion" Kakashi immediately followed the nin, Sakura close on his heels. 

The blond moved into the bloody room, grabbed the crying boy by the back of his shirt and started to run after them. He didn't pay attention to the blood that suddenly coated his back, nor the terrified cry of the child when he was sudden hoisted up.

_Get back here, you bastard.._ Naruto thought, his movements becoming more animalistic. _You'll pay for what you did to Sasuke! _

The nin ran as fast as he could. He felt the deadly rise of blood lust behind him, and knew he could not afford one screw up. He jumped over clothes lines, people, and buildings, yet the demon and the ninjas kept on following him. He turned left, to where he knew the training areas were located.

Kohona was legendary for it's training areas, among other things. Each one was the size of a small forest, and together, all sixty of them took up about eight five percent of the land. He knew he could lose them in there. And once their guards were down.. he'd strike.

Naruto was in front of Kakashi and Sakura in a matter of moments, to their surprise. He glided over the roof tops, giving the illusion that he was flying, only touching down every once in a while because he could. Youki still rolled off of him in thick waves.

Instead of fearing the Kyuubi's release- he didn't feel the seal loosening at all, despite the sudden release of youki- Kakashi was glad that so much power, so much strength, was on their side.

Sakura, however, was just confused. _What was with his eyes turning red? And why has his chakra changed? That's supposed to be impossible!_ The only reasoning she could find for that was that maybe Naruto had a blood line. But she could not recall a blood line like that of Naruto, nor a clan called 'Uzumaki'.

She shook those thoughts from her mind when she saw the terrified look on Sasuke's face. First things first. Find the nin and force him to tell us how to undo the genjutsu. It did not cross her mind that it would take much more than what they had to defeat the nin. Genjutsu specialists were generally weak physically and strong mentally. The nin they were following was strong in both categories.

Naruto jumped over a chimney, then darted left after the nin. He glanced once at his hand. The kanji had reappeared and were glowing a faint red, excluding the very first one, which was glowing blue._ Maybe I shouldn't have released the first seal.. _They entered the foresty area suddenly, the darkness provided by the large trees that Kohona was so well known for the only sign that they had left civilization.

About a mile in, the three slid to a stop. The nin had completely disappeared.

"What the hell.." Naruto put Sasuke on the ground. The earth immediately began to bleed. Sakura rushed over to the boy, random wounds appearing on her body. She cringed and almost kneeled over in pain.

"It's not real Sakura-chan. Your mind makes you think it's real, so your nerves react as if it was." Naruto stood erect two feet away from Sasuke. Every strand of dark energy stretched out toward him was ruthlessly beaten down by red chakra. "It's phantom pain. Ignore it."

She understood phantom pain. It was one of the goals of a genjutsu to create, but was not always caused by a genjutsu. She knew several people who refused to read a gory book, or watch a bloody movie because any of the pain the characters went through, they felt themselves. They were just that sensitive.

Sakura straightened and walked the rest of the way to Sasuke, trying her hardest to ignore the stabbing pains. She sat down in front of him, giving him a weak smile when his eyes focused on her.

She reached out and took on of his small hands in hers. "This isn't real. You're safe with us. We'll keep you safe." The terrified look on his face broke her heart, not because it was her Sasuke-kun that was so scared, but because someone could wear a look like that. Especially a child like the one in front of her.

The boy surprised her by nearly tackling her, embracing her as hard as he could. "Not real, not real, not real.." he kept on chanting in her shoulder. He was starved for the need to be comforted. Sakura had no problem giving him what he needed, even with the blood that continuously poured around them.

Naruto frowned. "Come out, you fucking coward." He growled. Kakashi stood at his side, for once his book not out. They stood protectively over Sakura and Sasuke. The copy nin shifted uncomfortably.

"I hate this.." he finally said. "We're the sheep, being stalked by the wolf." Naruto gave a crimson eyed glance over at Kakashi.

"What do you mean? We're the ones following him." he said in a low tone. Kakashi looked back, deciding that the red eyes weren't such a bad addition to Naruto's face. They still lit up with the vibrant emotions that Naruto always carried on his sleeve. The gaze was still solely Naruto's. The jonin was grim.

"You so sure about that" Kakashi muttered. Naruto couldn't disagree. The air had changed when they had made it into the forest. Instead of the powerful need to find and capture as well as the powerful feeling of a predator, they were tense, careful, and anxious, as well as the horrible feeling of someone watching them. Suddenly the roles reversed. And Naruto didn't like that switch at all.

A dark swirl of energy came at them from behind. Sasuke saw it, a flicker of memory making him scared. "No no no" he shouted, startling Sakura and the others.

Kakashi and Naruto turned around, paling when they saw the pure chakra hurled at them. Kakashi picked Sakura and Sasuke up with one arm- the boy had a death grip on Sakura- and dodged to the left. Naruto dodged to the right.

The blond rolled on his shoulder so he'd land on his feet. He performed Kage Bunshin, sending twenty or so copies running around. Several dark balls of energy make his kage bunshins disappear, but he made it to his comrade's sides without getting hit.

Kakashi had let go of Sakura and Sasuke, fighting off a not very impressive looking ninja with his kunai. It was a Rock nin, judging by the slashed forehead protector tied around his leg. He was skinny, only about five or so inches taller than Naruto. His untidy brown hair stuck in up in every direction. The nin's eyes were a deep black.

The nin chuckled and jumped back. "You are fools, to challenge me." He gestured to Sasuke, who was cradled in Sakura's arms. "He challenged me. Look what happened to him because of his weakness against someone of my strength." While Naruto snorted at the idea that the missing nin was strong, judged on his appearance, Sasuke bowed his head.

_I'm.. weak. Aniki killed my clan, but left me alive because I wasn't worth his time. _His hand fisted on Sakura's dress_. Everyone I touch.. everyone I come in contact with, ends up getting hurt.. because I am weak._ He looked at Sakura. Blood coated her dress, wounds decorated her body. He felt agony at the thought of the girl who so freely gave him comfort was hurt because of him._ She's gonna die 'cause I'm weak. _

"I'm sorry.." he whispered. To his surprise, the girl only held him closer.

"Leave Sasuke-kun out of this" she shouted angrily, using her body to shield him from the nin's gaze. Sakura had completely tossed away the pain she felt from her 'wounds', the disgust and terror she felt at the sight of the blood. All that mattered to her was to keep Sasuke safe. And dammit, she wasn't going to let such a wimpy looking guy keep her from doing just that!

The arrogant look on the ninja's face turned ugly. "Wench.. you should know.. how to talk to your superiors" He hurled a ball of dark energy at her. She paled. He was too close, she wouldn't be able to dodge. Instead, she used her entire body to shield Sasuke.

She waited for the chakra to hit her, but all she was given was a hiss of pain. Sakura watched in horror as Naruto's body flew over hers and impacted heavily into the surrounding foliage, out of her sight.

The blond had taken the hit for them.

"Naru.. Naruto" she yelled. No one answered. Tears sprung to her eyes. _No.. You fool. Get up. Give us that stupid grin of yours.. _Tears slid down her cheeks. _Act like your normal over confident self.. _But he didn't get up. Sakura couldn't see him any more.

"You.. bastard." Kakashi hissed in anger. Sakura, although worried about Naruto, couldn't help but stare in awe at Kakashi. She had seen him annoyed, but never had seen the usually cheery jonin this angry before. The air nearly solidified around him with his rage. She suddenly knew why Kakashi was referred to as one of the strongest of the Leaf. Sakura knew why he was feared.

The nin tsked when he saw blue electrical energy dance around one of Kakashi's hands, feeling only the slightest bit of discomfort at the jonin gathering so much energy, stubbornly waving it away.

"Oh, don't worry Kakashi-san. Your village's dark little secret isn't dead. Rather.. under a similar genjutsu that Sasuke is, unique to my clan." he laughed in an evil way. "Aren't you curious what Kyuubi the Second will look like" Kakashi growled.

"You tread dangerous ground.." he said in a threatening voice.

"Why yes. I believe you Kohonaians have a few laws about speaking of the fox, right" he snickered. _"'Thou shall not speak of what really happened to the demon to the youngsters?' _What's the point? They'll see the demon clearly in a matter of moments." While the clearing filled with his raspy laughter, Sakura mulled over what she had heard.

_Demon? Laws? What does the Kyuubi have to do with Naruto? _

"How do you break the genjutsu." Kakashi didn't ask. He demanded. The nin shrugged, not really caring.

"The genjutsu created and bred into my family, the Revival of the Being Within, my old man called it. Noble guy, dumb as hell. He hadn't gotten the chance to teach me the reverse technique before I ran him through with my blade." The nin said casually.

"That's it.." Kakashi said in a flat tone. The jonin couldn't stand hearing someone talk so lightly about the people he had killed. He performed several seals before leaning over, his palm facing the ground. Blue chakra danced around in his form. "Chidori!"

"Going to kill me because you know you'll have to kill Sasuke later?" Kakashi stiffened. "Yes, you are going to have to kill Sasuke later, if you want him to stop suffering, although the demon might just go ahead and do it for you."

Sakura hugged Sasuke to her. The boy had gone limp and his eye turned glassy. Sasuke's eyes were dead and lifeless. He had fallen into a trance, one she feared he wouldn't be able to walk away from.

Sure that when the nin was killed, the genjutsu would fall, Kakashi attacked him, his sharingan not registering the change in the nin's chakra until it was too late.

His hand buried itself into the nin's chest. The nin smiled and griped Kakashi's wrist. _A rock bunshin!_ Kakashi tried to pull away, but the bunshin grip was powerful.

"An instanteous attack, where the user moves so fast that he cannot see his opponent's counter attack."

The real nin appeared at Kakashi's elbow. "So hasty.. too blinded by emotions to even se the truth.. not what I had expected from the legendary copy nin.. oh well. I'm much more interested in what horrors lie in your mind than picking a fight.." A ball of darkly colored chakra formed in his hand. With sinister smile, the nin tossed the ball at Kakashi.

It melded neatly into his skin. Kakashi let out a soundless scream. Tears running down her face, Sakura looked away. _Kakashi-sensei.. _An image of Kakashi looking up from his book with a slightly confused and glazed look, as if he had been concentrating too hard on the story, appeared before her eyes. _Naruto.. _The blonde as he danced around after their promotion to genin, how he had punched his fist into the air, wearing that foxy grin of his. _Sasuke-kun.. _The usual confident look graced the image of the boy she loved, one eyebrow arched in quiet amusement._ I'm so sorry.. If I had been stronger_..

"Now it's your turn, little girl.." the nin said almost kindly. Sakura pulled the limp Sasuke to her, chanting soft prayers in her mind, begging any deities listening to save her team. "I don't wish to waste any more chakra, so death will be your escape.." He took out a kunai, griping her chin in his hand. He pulled her up to her feet, forcing her to let go of Sasuke.

"How could one with such an innocent face like yours be a ninja, I wonder" the nin asked, more to himself than her. He drew his arm back, preparing to bury his kunai in her chest. "Good bye."

His initially hard thrust was stopped when something looped around his elbow. It tugged hard, nearly pulling the nin's arm out of it's socket. The nin whirled around, only to meet a fist crashing into his face. He fell back.

Sakura opened her eyes, making a happy sound when she saw the side profile of her savior. "Kakashi-sensei" He looked fairly normal, despite that ball of energy that the nin threw at him. She touched his sleeve.

"Are you ok, sensei" He turned to look down at her, a startled gasp slipping out of her mouth before she could stop it.

Half of his mask was completely torn off, leaving half of a pale nose and pair of lips bared. On the same side, his hair had neatly shifted from gray to black, a black oversized shirt mended neatly into his regular flak jacket. His red sharingan blinked at her, dying down slightly in it's ferocity.

"Sakura.." his voice sounded strange, like two people dominating one voice box. "..-san."

_What..? He's never called me Sakura-san before... _The strange dual person that was supposed to be her teacher started again.

"You need to bring Kurenai-san here.. She's usually practicing with her team in training area eight, when not on a mission. We need her." he said quietly, his mismatched eyes focusing on the moving nin. Sakura immediately looked toward Sasuke.

"What about-" Kakashi shook his head, interrupting her question.

"I'll take care of Sasuke-kun. That's a promise that I will honor and die to uphold." Sakura slowly nodded, a little bewildered at the changes in Kakashi's speech pattern, but realizing Sasuke would be much safer in Kakashi's protection.

The girl started out toward where she was sure training area eight was, pausing for a moment to look at Kakashi's back. The half of the material covering his torso that was black had half of a red and white fan on it, something she was sure she had seen somewhere before.

"Kakashi-sensei" He turned, his darker half staring at her with the red eye. "I don't want you to get hurt either." He looked at her, her hands clasped in front of her.. so like a child he once knew. He smiled, for once at least half of it visible.

"Okay."

* * *

He guessed it would be too clique to say that he was in pain like he never had been in before. Because it wasn't true. His best friend sticking his hand through his lung had hurt much more, both physically and mentally. 

But he was in pain. _Annoyingly_ so. And it just wouldn't go away.

He sighed, rolling on his back, trying to find a position that didn't make him feel like nails were digging into every part of his body. He curled into a fetal position.

"This really blows.." Naruto muttered. It took all of his stamina to force the haunting images that filled his mind away. He could barely move, besides rolling around. He pushed away the images because when he did, youki started to fly everywhere.

He accidentally killed a rabbit. Mourning over the death of the fuzzy woodland creature, he shoved the images away and gave it a proper burial, right before he collapsed onto the ground.

He considered rolling back to his friends, but there were too many trees and bushes. "You suck." he told them half heartedly. They shrugged with the wind, as if to say 'Hey man, I didn't ask to be put here.'

His defense slipped, the dark images from his past lurking suddenly bursting forward. _You are... a killer. _The voice didn't sound specifically man of female, but he could tell it wasn't the Kyuubi. The voice had a haunting quality about it.

_'Fuck off.'_ he told it, trying to push the voice away. It always worked on the fox..

_A murder.. a taker of lives.. a bringer of blood.. _

**How many other ways can you say 'killer'? **A loud voice boomed in his head.

_'Kyuubi!'_ Naruto cried out gratefully.

_Do not resist, bring your inner self out.. show all who you truly are.._ the voice murmured, ignoring the demon. Pain blossomed in his veins.

"..Ugh.." He curled tighter against himself. "Fuck.."

**Kitling!** His only constant companion cried out. If he had been calmer, he would have wondered at the almost affectionate nickname. If he had been in less pain, he would have calmed at the concerned voice, from a violent demon or not. If he was less pissed off, he would have wondered if the kamis decided the only way he could have a family that cared about what happened to him was to seal a fox inside of him.

Truth was, he was too interested in his hand. His hand, _of all things. _

But you'd be interested too if it was growing at an alarmingly fast rate- for human growth, that is. "Wow.. way cool."

If the two voices in his head had physical forms, they'd be sweat dropping.

The unknown voice recovered first. _See, you are changing into your true self. Just relax.. No pain will come to you once you change, dark one.. _

**Piss off, you wanna be. I'm the only voice that's allowed to make Stupid insane.** The Kyuubi muttered. Naruto scowled. **Kitling, keep pushing the images away from you, unless you want to end up like Sasuke. **

_Why do you interfere, demon? Is it not your wish to bring pain to Kohona? Have you gone soft over the years? _

Remembering not the tears, or the blood, but the sheer terror on Sasuke, his rival and friend's face, Naruto violently shoved away the images.

**Good. Now think of something less.. dark. **

Naruto nodded, looking through his memory, shying away from the darker ones. The happy ones were soft and hard to grasp, either making him sad because they were fake, or reminding him of the darker memories that took up the most space in his mind.

He found one that he could hold on to. It was neither happy or sad. It was hard to explain but.. it filled him with content.

**I interfere because I can. Because I do care about what happens to the idiot. **

_

* * *

Flashback- Two weeks before Naruto's nineteenth birthday __

* * *

A temporary occupation, they had called it. A simple breach in our walls. _

_They'll be gone by a week! they said. We just need to stick together! _

_Fuck that. Kohona was being taken over by the Sound. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Naruto didn't need any pretty words to disguise the truth. He had too much of that happening already to have the Elder Council try to sweeten and soften to blow to them. _

_The Hokage was blunt. "We need you to stay behind the barrier." was all she said. When Naruto showed up later in her office, she had started to bang her head against the desk. "We are so fucking screwed." _

_Naruto yawned, roused by the smell of bacon cooking. Not bothering to put on a shirt, he knelt down and put his slippers on, for the ground was cold. Drooling, he nearly floated off of the bed in his haste to follow the heavenly smell, nearly tripping over the other futon that belonged to his room mate and his dog. _

_What was left of Kohona's population after the Sound's initial attack was crammed in an area one fifth of it's size. People were crammed side by side almost, in the rather small area, the farthest the jonin and the Anbu could spread out a barrier. _

_What was left of Naruto's team and Kiba's team had crowded into a small three room apartment. Kurenai was usually out on missions, leaving Hinata and Sakura to fend for the apartment's cleanliness. Kiba, Akamaru, and Naruto were usually pigs, letting anything they dropped on the ground, stay on the ground for a week before they actually picked it up. _

_Naruto was the only one who they could talk into helping them, partially because he was afraid of Sakura's mood swings and mostly because he hated that tired look in Hinata's eyes. _

_He stumbled into the kitchen, eyes lighting up in sadistic glee when he saw who the cook was. _

_"Oh, love of my life! My god! I shall forever worship the ground you step on! What has this lowly mortal ever done to have you do such a wonderful thing for him?" Naruto said passionately, hugging the person in front of the stove. He looked over the cook's shoulder, sniffing tearfully. "You make me want to cry!" _

_Despite the lovely words, Kiba still pushed him away. "Don't make me give you something to cry about!" he said crankily. "And put on a shirt, you show off." Naruto snickered and sat down on one of the chairs. _

_"Seriously, I like the pink apron. Sexy." From his place on top of the kitchen table, Akamaru started to howl in amusement. Flushing red, Kiba kicked at Naruto, only hitting him because he was too tired. Naruto's chair tipped back, spilling the blond onto the floor. _

_"Ow.." _

_Someone snickered at him. Naruto opened his eyes to see an upside down Sakura, a clean towel tossed over her shoulder, about ready to partake in her morning ritual of taking a shower. "Hello love." he said eagerly. "Do you want me to scrub your-" he got kicked in the head. _

_"Pervert." His vision blurred. He could hear his only living team mate walk away, slamming the door behind her. Naruto snickered. She always fell for it. _

_"Naruto-kun?" A soft voice asked. He felt gentle hands cradle his head. "Are you alright" He opened his eyes, his vision focusing. Hinata frowned, feeling for a concussion. When there was none, she gently laid his head in her lap. _

_"What happened?" Naruto blinked, then rolled his eyes. _

_"What happened is that I am unloved and under appreciated." She smiled at his pout, lightly petting his wild bangs. Kiba peered around the corner, immediately scowling when he saw Hinata taking care of Naruto. He turned his attention back to the bacon and eggs. _

_That ass! Always making her baby him. Kiba was way jealous. _

_"Your birthday is in a few weeks, huh?" she asked him in a low tone. He stopped pouting, a true look of surprise on his face. Sure, his birthday was becoming more and more enjoyable each year because more people were acknowledging it, but usually he had to remind them it was coming up. Like the time he had written 'Happy B-day Naruto!' all over the Hokage monument. _

_"Y-yeah.." he said, at a loss for words. She smiled secretively. _

_"When the sun hits the horizon and turns the sky red, meet me on the roof." she said in that soft tone of hers. _

_Impatiently, Naruto sat through the meetings between the Council and the Hokage. He hurried through with his advanced training with Kohonamaru and his beginner's training with Inari, who wanted to be equipped to fight if worst came to worst. He lost quickly to Shikamaru in a forced game of Go, leaving during his speech on how much he sucked today. He rushed and rushed, making it to the designated roof a little early than needed. _

_Naruto sat on the edge of the roof, his feet swinging lightly. His nonchalant gaze slipped off when the sun started to dip underneath the horizon, turning the sky a deep red, his mouth opening in a silent 'o' of appreciation. When's the last time I've looked at dusk? He smiled sadly, knowing why. The night was the only time for him. The only time for a shinobi who made his living by killing people. _

_"Pretty, huh?" Naruto nearly fell off the roof. _

_"Eep!" he squeaked in a high pitched voice. She laughed, taking a seat next to the blond. _

_"You know, you should pay more attention to your surroundings." He was torn between blushing in shame and scowling at her. Instead, the expression on his face was like a confused puppy. _

_"Y-yeah well.." Naruto 'ahem'ed, attempting to insert more manlyness in his voice. Hinata just smiled and patted his hand, choosing instead to look out at the fading dusk. _

_That's why he liked Hinata. She never made fun of him, never ridiculed him, always made him feel accepted. He supposed that was why she was such a good medic. Her simple actions and words were healing enough. A goofy smile appeared on his lips, when he too looked toward the fading dusk. _

_"You know.. I have a mission. With Neji-ni-san, Lee-san, and Nara-san.. Outside of the barrier." He immediately stopped smiling, turning to give her a worried look. Her pale eyes asked him not say anything. _

_"Your birthday.. um.." she could feel herself reverting back to her younger self, a strong urge to twiddle her fingers running through her head. "I was afraid that maybe I won't make it to your birthday s-so.." _

_Naruto hit the roof with his fist in anger. "Don't talk like that, Hinata-chan!" he grabbed her hands, forcing her to look right at him. "You'll make it back! You're not going to die-" Hinata put a finger over Naruto's lips. She chuckled lightly. _

_"I didn't mean it like that, Naruto-kun. I don't know if I'm going to make it in time for your birthday." His rant died, a surprised 'oh' slipping out of his mouth. Blushing, he muttered a soft 'sorry' against her finger. _

_"I want to give it to you now." _

_Hinata turned more to him, fully aware that this would be the first time she was face to face with him when he received one of her presents to him. She took a calming breath, reaching around her neck, pulling a silver chain into view. _

_She pulled it over her head, then placed it around Naruto's neck, the silver contrasting heavily against his dark sleeveless shirt. He touched the pendant on it, in quiet awe. _

_It was a pure white diamond surrounded by silver figures. It was hard to tell what the silver was, one direction looking like a wave about to crash on a beach, the other like wings of an angel. _

_"It was my mother's. Father gave it to her after they were married. It is said that whoever wears it will have luck bestowed on them." she whispered. Naruto looked up. _

_"A good luck charm? You believe that?" he asked, curiosity rearing it's head. He always had been a firm believer in skill over luck, but there were sometimes in his life that he knew luck was the only way he survived. There was no other possible explanation. _

_"I met you, didn't I?" Hinata said with a smile, a stubborn blush appearing on her face. _

_"Heh.." Naruto murmured, looking away. "All this time I thought guys who wore necklaces were girly." He reached underneath his shirt, pulling out the necklace the Hokage gave him. "Guess I'm real girly." He snickered, prompting Hinata to laugh as well. _

_He gave her a serious look, both of necklaces in his grasp. "I'll treasure your necklace as much as I treasure the old lady's." Naruto said solemnly. She nodded and stood. "I need a little luck here and there anyway.." _

_Hinata smiled again, patting his head, going toward the door that led back into the building. He watched her go, an almost sad smile replacing the soft one from before. Hinata-chan.. you are my good luck charm.. _

_

* * *

End Flashback _

* * *

He reached for it, sighing softly when it wasn't there._ Hinata-chan.. I need you. I need the luck you always give to me. _

_You're too dark for her.. she is too weak for you.. surrender yourself.. bring out the darkness that burns in your heart. _He wanted to tell it to stick his speech up where the sun don't shine, but his mouth wasn't obeying him. Nor was his body.

Naruto stood up. _W-what's happening to me! Kyuubi! _There was no answer.

_I have silenced your friend. I have control over your body. And there's nothing you can do.. _Naruto struggled for control, his best efforts only making his body tremble a little.

_You bastard! _he shouted. His body was drawn to the small pond not far from where he had first fallen._ Let go! Leave us alone! _

Naruto looked down at the water, looking at his reflection. A man with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail, with the coldest blue eyes stared back at him. Naruto couldn't help but stare at the person in front of him.

He wore a completely black outfit, a katana draped sideways at his lower back, like Naruto used to, back in his Anbu days. He smiled, a dark smile with deadly promises, tying a dark sash around his head and neck, leaving only those icy eyes visible.

_"Naruto-kun.." _his mouth moved behind the fabric. The voice was not his own, but the haunting voice inside his mind.

_"It's time to kill.."_

* * *

Just in case you didn't already know.. 

Youki- demonic energy

And who can guess what Kakashi's internal image of himself is? I liked this chapter.


	14. Revival of the Uchiha

-snickers- I really confused you guys, didn't I? Oh, well. Hopefully you'll understand it in the future. I'll explain it in a later chapter. -twitch- Kohona is.. Konoha-twitch- And Konohamaru too-twitch- Wish someone pointed that out before.. Now I hafta go back and fix 'em all.. -dies-

**FOR THOSE WHO HATE SPOILERS**- please skip this paragraph.  
A lot of this story isn't going to be like the manga. I'm going to switch some stuff around, and completely omit some events, such as Naruto and Jiraiya going after Tsunade( you'll see why), Jiraiya training Naruto for the Chuunin Exam, and also accelerate some events so they'll happen sooner. (such as Itachi feeling the surge of Naruto's power after he used the kinjutsu, and deciding to 'visit' his old village sooner.) I'm not going to skip the Water Country, uh, arc thingy because that would just plain suck for Inari and his family. Can't wait till I get to the Chuunin Exam, though. That's going to be so much fun! This fic will eventually be completed, for those who are worried I'll abandon it (I even got a nifty ending in mind that'll bring one of my favorite characters back to life! Yay!) I like angst, but I love a happy ending. : ) Evil Naru and Chibi Sasuke won't last long, if you were curious..

**FOR THOSE WHO HATE SPOILERS**- please resume your reading.

Hey, anyone have a good idea for a name for the missing nin? It's such a pain to call him 'the nin' all the time.. And he isn't dead! Kakashi's good, but I think it would take a lot more than one punch to kill a guy..

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Fourteen: Revival of the Uchiha

by Foxie

* * *

Ino collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, Hinata following not long after. Shikamaru and Shino braced themselves on their knees, not in any better shape. Hinata swiped her hand over her forehead.

"O-okay.." Kiba said in between pants, leaning against a tree. "Y-you guys aren't too bad..." He fell back into the dewy grass, sighing in pleasure when the aches momentarily subsided. Akamaru whined softly, crawling on him to lie on his chest. Not in any mood to argue, Ino just nodded. A dead, yet comforting silence appeared between the two combating teams, both of them struggling to regain their breath. Shikamaru gave up trying to stand and flopped on the ground next to Ino, staring up at the skies.

"Neat trick there.. with the bugs." he finally muttered to Shino. "Your blood line" The stoic boy just nodded, lowering himself more carefully to the ground than Shikamaru and Kiba. "Cool." Shikamaru stretched, looking around for his best friend. "Hey, where did Chouji go" he asked. A sound of someone chewing answered before anyone else could gather their wits to them. Chouji was sitting on a rock, digging into his back pack for food, even as he shoved potato chips into his mouth with his free hand. Shikamaru groaned.

"Gotta build up the chakra, Shika" Chouji said cheerfully. Kiba rolled his eyes. Even he, the so called _'human garbage disposal' _in his family, didn't eat as much as Chouji.

Ino scoffed. "Keep eating stuff like that and you'll get fa" Shikamaru covered her mouth before the taboo word could slip out, accidentally dragging her into his lap. Ino was suddenly very aware of his heartbeat, beating gently against her back, and how the arm that wasn't keeping her silent was curled around her hip. She started to blush.

"What was that" Chouji said, looking suspicious. The other genins sweat dropped, not noticing Ino's discomfort of sitting in her team mate's lap.

"Uh... Ino was just saying how... fascinating it is that you can cram so much food in there! Right Ino" He nodded her head for her. Ino bit his hand. The shadow user winced, but didn't let go.

Chouji's darkening face lit up. "It is neat, isn't it" Shikamaru sighed in relief when the boy focused back on his back pack, letting go of Ino. She pushed herself away from him, shaking when she realized that she didn't mind the feel of Shikamaru's arms around her._ Sasuke! Think Sasuke! About his dark eyes and his dark hair.. And that cute way he says 'troublesome.'.. Aahh, no! That's Shikamaru! _

"Perv." she whispered, thinking he wouldn't hear.

"You wish.." was the shadow user's equally low reply. He swiped his thumb over the small indentations on his palm where she had bit down, not as uncomfortable about the thought of Ino sitting in his lap as she was.

"What? You guys are done already" A older female voice rang out. "Weaklings." she said teasingly. Kiba sat up, one hand supporting Akamaru against his chest. His face twisted into a scowl.

"What about you two? All you have been doing this entire time is talking" he yelled. Kurenai arched her eyebrow in amusement at her rudest student.

"Hey, I'm injured" Asuma said in defense. Shikamaru snorted.

"Yeah.. I guess that _coffee_ must have really had an_ intense _jutsu or two." he said lazily. Everyone else snickered, save Hinata because she was too polite and Shino because his bee was talking to him. Asuma's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"H-how.. How did you know" he asked, bewildered.

"'Cause we saw Kurenai-sempai throw it at you" Ino said laughingly. Everyone, even Hinata and Shino who smirked a bit, joined in, laughing hard at the pout on Asuma's face.

Shino's attention was drawn to the bee who had delicately landed on his finger a few minutes before. The bee's antennas twitched. Shino's eyes widened a fraction behind his darkly colored glasses. _You don't say.. _

"..Excuse me.." Shino said quietly, his face a bit pale from what his bee had told him. Hinata was the only one who heard him.

"Yeah... That guy.. uh Naruto's sensei.." Chouji couldn't seem to remember the name of the jonin. "He's the one who set your vest on fire."

"I beg your pardon.." Shino tried again. His voice was too quiet, and his friends were a bit too loud.

"..Kakashi.." Asuma said in an ominous tone. Kiba and the others openly snickered. Hinata raised her hand. Kurenai frowned lightly, noting the heavy blush on the younger ninja's face. She knew that she hated for people's attention to be focused on her.

"What is it, Hinata-chan" Kurenai said, her voice breaking through the other ninjas's chatter. Everyone went quiet.

"U-um.." she said, recoiling when everyone's gaze was focused on her. "Shino-kun h-has something he needs to say.." He nodded to her in thanks, lightly clearing his throat.

"Damn, Shino.. You should be more assertive. Making Hinata-chan do the talking for you..." Kiba muttered. Shino arched a dark eyebrow at his team mate.

"Maybe you should be less assertive, _especially _when you have nothing intelligent to insert into a conversation.." was his quiet counter. Kiba growled and was about to say something rude back, but was halted by a sharp shake of the head of Kurenai. With a smirk, Shikamaru mouthed _'Whipped'_ at him, motivating the other boy into flipping him off.

"What is it Shino" Asuma asked.

"There appears to be a disturbance several miles east of here.." he lifted up his hand, letting them see his resource of information, his bee. "A ninja related disturbance. Not one of our own village." The two jonins immediately stood up.

"Is there any other information you can give us" Kurenai asked, the two jonins swiftly getting ready to see for themselves what was wrong. The boy was quiet for a moment, consulting with his bee. The other genins stood, all confused.

"Woah, hold up.." Kiba tried to say.

"There are three persons inflicted with.. a strange type of genjutsu." Shino said quietly, a little confused himself. The jonins paled, knowing exactly what he was talking about. "One big one, two small ones.." He looked up, translating for them. "Either a middle aged chuunin or jonin, and two genins."

Chouji frowned, starting to understand. "A three man team maybe? A jonin instructor, three genins" Shikamaru started to nod, but stopped.

"But where's the third student.." he asked quietly. His gaze sharpened a little when he looked at Shino. "Can your informer tell what team it was" Asuma was struck dumb by them, quietly and maturely conversing about what could be a horribly dangerous mission. If he even _let_ them come...

Giving her a sidelong glance, he noticed Kurenai had one of those soft glazed over looks, like a mother watching her child grow up.

_Women... _

"No. All humans look alike to insects."

"But.. where's the third student" Hinata asked in a hushed voice. All of them fell silent, each wondering where he/she was, and hoping that they were not injured.. or worse.

Someone fell right out of the bushes, into the clearing. They all jumped in surprise, the more hasty ones pulling out kunais. The intruder slowly picked herself up, many small cuts and bruises on her bare arms and face. Dirt and leaves were tangled in her pink hair.

"..Big forehead girl" Ino whispered. Slowly, she raised her head up, tears threatening to fall.

"Please..." Sakura begged. "I'll do anything.. Just help me save my team" They had found the third student. Her friends crowded around her. A thousand questions and random comments were hurled at her.

"Are you ok"

"Say, say! Is the enemy is bad ass ninja from out of town? I'd so love to kick his ass"

"..You're so troublesome, Kiba."

"I-is Naruto-kun okay"

"Where's Sasuke-kun? Is he injured"

"..Excuse me.."

"Hey, what was your teacher's name anyway? I forgot"

"Where's Sasuke-kun"

"..And then I kick him like that, and then punch him like that.."

"Arf arf"

"WHERE'S SASUKE-KUN"

"..I beg your pardon..."

"Sakura-san.." Hinata suddenly pushed her out of the claustrophobic circle. Sakura was thankful she did, for then she broke, crying hard on the smaller girl's shoulder. Hinata reassuringly patted her on the back, lightly embracing the scared girl.

"Do you mind minna" Hinata said firmly, a razor sharp edge on her words. The others looked properly ashamed, and slightly subdued by the disapproving look that she gave them.

Kurenai smiled at the protective look that flitted over Hinata's delicate features. _She would put every thing aside for her friends.. That's why she'll be a great shinobi someday.. _

"I-I'm sorry, Hinata-san.." Sakura whispered when the sobs had died down. Hinata nodded, in complete understanding, giving her a comforting squeeze.

"Do you think you can tell us what happened" Asuma asked in a quiet voice. She took a deep breath and nodded, letting go off Hinata. The pale eyed girl stayed firmly by her side.

_Sakura.._ Ino thought, feeling ashamed for only caring about what happened to Sasuke. _What happened to you guys..? _

Sakura wiped the tears off of her face, trying to compose herself.

"I suppose.. a missing nin from the hidden Rock village attacked your team" Kurenai asked quietly. The pink haired genin nodded.

"He got Sasuke first. In the abandoned Uchiha sector of town.." Her heart hurt thinking back to that. Seeing Sasuke surrounded by all that blood and in a choking, terrified voice of a child, apologizing for what he obviously thought was his fault. _Sasuke-kun... _

"There's an abandoned" Kiba and Ino started to say, only to be interrupted by her quick 'yes'. She continued only when they had closed their mouths.

"He got Naruto second.." Sakura felt stubborn tears burn at the corners of her eyes. "While he w-was protecting us.." Kurenai and Asuma gave each other a grim look. What they had feared had come to pass.

Hinata covered her mouth with her hand. _Naruto-kun! _she cried out internally.

"And Kakashi after him. Tricked him with a rock bunshin.." she said quietly, remembering the soft cry he had not been able to suppress when the sphere had touched him.

"How did you get away" Shikamaru asked. She smiled sadly.

"I have a great sensei.." was her only reply. She remembered what Kakashi had said to her.

_"Sakura.." his voice sounded strange, like two people dominating one voice box. "..-san." _

_What..? He's never called me Sakura-san before... The strange dual person that was supposed to be her teacher started again. _

_"You need to bring Kurenai-san here.. She's usually practicing with her team in training area eight, when not on a mission. We need her." he said quietly, his mismatched eyes focusing on the moving nin. _

She looked at the red eyed woman. "You're Kurenai, right" she asked quickly. The woman nodded slowly. "We need your help. Kakashi-sensei said to get you." The woman nodded again, this time a little confused.

"I understand why you need me and I will help, but..." Kurenai gave her a unreadable look. "He actually told you to get me" Sakura nodded.

"Yeah. Why is there a problem with that" she whispered, uncertain. Kurenai looked a little off to the side. _He should have been down a little longer, battling his own inner demons, not popping right back up to save Sakura.. Could he have.. already come to terms with what he perceives himself to be?_ Somehow, she was sure, that was even worse than the genjutsu placed on him. But she was aware that most ninjas had deep psychological problems anyway.

Which was why the genjutsu was so effective. Most ninjas had a warped, dark internal image of themselves, brought on by guilt and other related factors.

"I hope there isn't going to be one.." Kurenai muttered to herself. She turned to the other genins. "You will all return home immediately, excluding Sakura, since she has to lead us there." Her order was immediately met with groans.

"This is at least an A class mission." She said sternly. "None of you are ready for even a C class mission. Off you march."

The other genin weren't so easily daunted. Strength in numbers, they thought.

"Aw, come on, teach. Don't be such a sourpuss.." Kiba said.

"We wanna help them, dammit" Ino exclaimed with a flip of her hair. "You can't stop us from caring about our comrades!"

"Yeah!" Chouji and Kiba yelled. The others nodded.

Sakura looked at her friends, the constantly contrasting lot of them, all united, all for helping her team. Her fear was slightly elevated, when faced with such pure and fiery protectiveness that she felt coming from them.

"I'm not saying you should stop caring.. I'm saying you can care.. in the safety of your house." Kurenai said stubbornly. She didn't want to put them in such danger, danger that one of their strongest jonins couldn't protect himself against. But her resolve was weakening.

"It would be better, if we came in a larger group. If ambushed, our chances of one or two of us getting away to warn the others would increase." muttered an unlikely ally, Shikamaru. The others nodded.

"Yeah!" Chouji and Kiba yelled again.

"But we'd have the element of surprise if only myself, Asuma, and Sakura go." she countered with a toss of her hair. Kurenai wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Hey, Asuma got his ass kicked by _coffee_. We'd be of more use then him during this mission" Kiba smirked. The jonin turned red.

Snickering, all of Team Ten joined in the "Yeah!"

Someone tugging on her vest directed her gaze downward. "Kurenai-sensei.. We need to go to make sure our friends are okay." Hinata whispered. The pleading look on Hinata's face tugged on her heart._ That right! Her and that Naruto kid.. _

Kurenai looked at Asuma, with a desperate "About time you add in your input"

The bearded jonin merely shrugged, his way of thinking much more simple than hers. "At least we'll have back up.."

* * *

Sakura lead the group to the site, not quite sure if she was going in the right direction, but followed her gut instinct. Fortunately, the gods were smiling down at her, for they reached a familiar looking clearing. She stopped, looking for her team, the light footfalls of the help she had brought comforting to her rattled nerves.

"Kakashi-sensei? Naruto?" she took a step forward. "Sasuke-kun?" Sakura took another step forward, only to jump back when someone dropped down from the trees, a startled gasp ripping from her throat.

"W-who the fuck is that!" Kiba yelled, Akamaru immediately starting to growl. Asuma frowned at the ninja in front of them. _That.. kinda looks like Kakashi.. _

"My apologies, Sakura-san.." the crouched figure in front of her murmured. "I lost the nin." Sakura sighed in relief.

"At least you didn't get hurt, sensei.." she said, putting a hand on his shoulder, not noticing the dark look in his mismatched eyes. Kurenai's eyes widened in realization.

"Sakura, get back!" she yelled. Kakashi whipped out a kunai, and thrusted it towards her. She leaned back in shock, her mind in denial. _Why.. why is sensei attacking me! _The kunai imbedded deep into her stomach.

"Sakura?" the genin exploded into smoke, a log where she used to be.

"Replacement.." Kakashi hissed darkly. Two kunai were immediately at his throat.

"Stand up." Kurenai said coldly. Slowly, he stood, eyes firmly fixed on the ninjas in front of him.

"Hmph. This is what the pink haired wench thinks will defeat me? A rag tag team of brats and two has beens" A kunai poked him in between the shoulder blades.

"You.. Are not Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said as coldly as Kurenai. Kakashi turned and looked at her, fully amused.

"And why not?" he said in a condescending tone.

"Because.. those eyes.. are not my sensei's eyes.." she hissed. "I can tell when a henge is being used, and you, frankly, are a horrible henge user." Kakashi gritted his teeth in annoyance. She was becoming a nuisance.

"Maybe.. but can you find it in your heart to hurt your sensei?" he sunk into the ground, before they could do anything about it.

"Damn! It's the nin/" They all spread out, kunai and other ninja supplies out. _This.. is the first real ninja we have ever had to face.. _Kiba thought, his back against Shino's, Akamaru at his ankles growling softly.

_He won't hesitate to kill us.._ Shikamaru thought, sweat sliding down his face. He was starting to regret coming. Clouds were so much safer.

_I can feel Death's cold breath on my neck.. _Ino thought._ But if big forehead girl can do it, so can I! _

_Hm. His focus is Sakura.._ Asuma thought, his cigarette dropping to the ground. _She must have done something to piss him off.. _

Kurenai's thoughts ran on the same track. _Purely revenge. His target is her_. The jonins edged to Sakura, a little reluctant to move away from their own students, in fear of leaving them wide open for attack._ I knew they shouldn't have come.. _

Sakura knew that too. Her thoughts were unlike that her friends or the two jonins. **He'll pay for what he did to my team! **Inner Sakura ranted.**Just let him use that goddamn genjutsu on me! I'll kick his fucking ass! **Inner Sakura punched her fists in the air.** Yeah! **

The nin crept up to Sakura, appearing behind her. She stiffened, with the reflexes of a ninja, dodging his downward thrust. The other ninjas were alerted to his presence. He ignored their tossed kunai, attacking only Sakura.

She flipped out of the way, her foot connecting with his jaw. He stumbled back, touching his bruised jaw.

"Dammit.." Asuma growled. "We can't do anything, not with her in the way." Kurenai looked back at the genin, getting ready to shout orders until she saw the looks on their faces. All of them were terrified, frozen in place with their fear.

"Another reason why you aren't Kakashi-sensei. He would never let me hit him." Sakura said with a dark smile, one kunai in front of her face._ He'll pay.. with his blood! _

_I.. I can't move! This guy.. _Ino shook in terror. _How can Sakura face him and** not be scared! **_

"Bitch.." he spat, running at her. She connected kunais with him, dodging when he kicked out at her. Grabbing his wrist, she managed to get through his guard, slamming her kunai into his leg. He knocked her away from him.

Sakura landed hard on her side. _Damn.. _she thought, pushing herself to her feet._ Damn him! _With her out of the way, Kurenai and Asuma started to attack. He dodged them with a slight limp, throwing several balls of dark energy at them.

"Move" Sakura yelled. "Hidden inside those is the genjutsu" Her friends scattered at her sharp command, dodging the genjutsu.

A sharp pain in her scalp made her gasp. Kakashi, or rather, the nin, grabbed her hair.

"I don't like you." he hissed in her ear. She laughed bitterly.

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing..." she stifled a cry when he pulled harder.

"You see them?" he murmured, nodding toward Kurenai and Asuma, who hovered in front of their students, not sure what to do. "They fear to attack me, because they may hurt you. And your friends.. well they just fear me in general." He chuckled evilly. She grimaced.

"Using me as a shield? How noble of you.." Sakura said sarcastically. He pulled out the kunai in his leg, bringing the bloodied blade to her throat.

Shino looked down, grimacing at the blood on the ground._ Where.. did all of this come from? _He elbowed Kiba. When Kiba's eyes met his own, he gestured downward with his head. Kiba frowned. After a small conference with his dog, he looked up.

"I don't smell it.. Akamaru says he doesn't see it." he said in a bewildered tone.

"Such cheeky attitude from a girl whose going to die.." she closed her eyes. Tears burned behind them._ I'm sorry.. sensei, Naruto, Sasuke-kun.. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough.. But I'll die a proud ninja.. _

"No no** no!**" Her eyes snapped open. Sakura was suddenly aware of the appearance of massive amounts of blood._ Sasuke-kun! _

The boy hurled himself at the nin, grabbing the arm that had the kunai, forcing it away from her. Scowling, the nin hit the boy away from him. Sakura's teeth dug into his arm when he hit Sasuke, making the nin howl in pain.

The boy managed to land on his feet, hurling himself again at the nin, his small fists hitting the nin where ever he could. _Just this one.. just this one person! Please don't let this one person die too! _he thought desperately.

The nin shoved Sakura away, grabbing Sasuke by the front of his shirt. He punched him hard in the stomach, making the boy loose his breath. In retaliation, Sakura flipped over to her back, kicking him in a place where guys would rather not be hit. A look of comical pain crossed his mismatched features.

Sakura grabbed Sasuke, pulling him out of danger as the nin dropped to his knees, the henge disappearing.

Ino looked at Sakura and the boy who was clinging so desperately to her. _Who's that? _

Kurenai had a good idea who it was. The Uchiha fan on the back of his shirt said all.

"You're under arrest." Asuma snapped at the nin, walking around him. Kurenai stood in front. "You'll be tried for attacking eleven Anbus, one jonin, and three genin, fourteen of those under a genjutsu that even in your village is outlawed against unless in a dire situation. Because of you, nine of those ninjas are dead."

Sakura smoothed the boy's hair. "Thank you.." she whispered. He nodded into her shoulder. "You're so brave for doing that.." He blinked._ B-brave? Not a coward? _

The nin snickered. "Not my fault that darkness is in their mind." Asuma kicked him, making him lie on his stomach.

"But you brought it out." Kurenai stated. "You'll also be tried for impersonating a jonin." The nin pushed himself up.

"I feel safe around you.." Sakura murmured, a little tired after the adrenaline rush faded._ S-safe? _He looked carefully up and down. She had no cuts, save the few that the nin had given her, on her body. He could still see the blood on the ground. _Maybe... not everything I touch.. gets hurt? _His small arms tightened around her, hoping that it was true._ She said.. the blood wasn't real. Then.. what is real? _

"You did so good Sasuke-kun.." she whispered, just wishing the day was over already. _Her voice.._ the little boy thought. _Her heartbeat, so strong and clear... those are the things that are real. _Her hand made soothing circles on his back. _This comfort, it is real. Aniki hasn't taken this reality from me yet. _

"Your village is too soft. If a ninja stole a piece of bread in my village, they would be killed." the nin muttered.

"This is our village. But don't worry. Since your so homesick, we'll send you there to await your punishment." Kurenai said sweetly. "But.. we may be able to strike a deal here." she tapped her cheek, a smirk on her lips. "If you tell us how to break the jutsu, you might be able to get out of this alive."

The nin sat down carefully. "Maybe we can strike this deal of yours..." he gathered chakra to his hand, making sure to keep it minimal so the other two wouldn't suspect.

Sakura slipped out of her tired haze at his words. _Wait a second.. Didn't he.. _She remembered Kakashi asking about the same thing.

_"How do you break the genjutsu." Kakashi didn't ask. He demanded. The nin shrugged, not really caring.  
_

_"The genjutsu created and bred into my family, the Revival of the Being Within, my old man called it. Noble guy, dumb as hell. He hadn't gotten the chance to teach me the reverse technique before I ran him through with my blade." The nin said casually. _

"It's a trap! He doesn't know how to undo it!" she shouted. It was too late. The nin slammed his fist into Kurenai's stomach.

_Damn!_ Asuma thought. He hardened his fist with rocks! the nin whipped around, his foot catching the jonin in the throat. The attacks that came after were too fast to follow. A punch here, a kick there, Asuma couldn't keep track, but they continued until he was backed up against a rock.

The rock softened around his arms and legs, then hardened when he was firmly attached to it.

Kurenai recovered, then used a ninjutsu with the leaves, making the edges razor sharp and sending them speeding directly at the nin.

The nin called out some type of rock armor, making the leaves useless. Bigger due to the armor, he sauntered up to her. Grimly, she pulled out a scroll, knowing it would do her no good. In fact, throwing it at him would be more useful that using it. She refused to do something so dumb, sliding it back into her vest.

Her fingers touched on something she confiscated from Kiba after an overzealous sparring session. An explosion tag. Kurenai smiled sadly. She had never given it back to him.

"Forgive me Kiba, but I'll buy you a new one if we live." Kiba looked surprised but then understood when she pulled out a kunai.

"Throw whatever you'd like at me. It won't work." The nin cackled. She glared at him.

"You're too sure of yourself.." With a flick of her wrist, she applied the tag to the kunai, throwing it at the same time. Arrogantly, the nin stood still, not even bothering to dodge.

Her kunai exploded in his face. Coughing, he backed up, burned and bruised, his armor a little cracked. "Bitch!" he yelled, suddenly charging forward. He was faster than she thought.

The nin caught her by the shoulder and picked her up. He pivoted, then threw her at the same rock Asuma was attached to.

Asuma gave her a look filled with empathy when she realized she was caught and trapped on the rock, like a fly on sticky paper.

"I'm too old for this shit.." he muttered when she glared at him, red eyes just daring him to say anything about how easily she was taken down.

"Now.. my lovely audience.. Watch as I destroy your students.." the nin said, walking toward the shivering genins.

"Afraid, are you? Am I the first big bad ninja to face you" he snickered.

"Run" Kurenai yelled. "Forget about us! Just get going" With a set look, Sakura put Sasuke down, gently untangling his hands from her dress. She stood in front of her friends, her back to them.

"No one will look down upon you for running.. just go." she whispered to them, her eyes focused on the steadily approaching nin. The genins, faced with the lumbering giant of a nin, considered doing just that. "B-but Sakura.." Ino said. "C-come.."

"I will not. This is about _my_ team. I will not back down." Sakura said firmly. Taking a deep shuddering breath, Hinata joined Sakura.

_Naruto-kun.. If I never even tried to help him, I'd never be able to forgive myself. I will.. face my fear! _she looked up, her pale eyes blazing with determination. _I will not back down! _

"I ..will not cower. I stand before you, as the protectoress of my friends.." Her Byakugan activated, sliding into her gentle fist stance. "What will you do" Sakura gave her ally a surprised look.

_Hinata-san.._ she thought. Then a vein throbbed in her forehead. _Damn, she looks so much more intimidating that I do with those eyes of hers... _

"Only two have the courage." he snickered again, in that annoying way of his. "Two out of eight.. wow, that's saying a lot of your pathetic wimpy village.

"To stoop so low as to use insults.. You truly must fear our village." someone whispered. "And you can make that three." The little boy stood in front of the two girls. The nin frowned at the boy, knowing that he had seen the boy before. Something about that hairstyle and his eyes...

"If you plan to attack, then do so now. For all of your talk.. is really annoying me." The genjutsu cracked with an audible sound, then broke. Sasuke's eyes were red, the sharingan just barely tapped into, his body was back to normal.

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino called out happily.

The child turned ninja smirked at the surprised nin. "What, you thought I'd let you off so easily" His smirk widened. "Then you'd be dumber than Naruto."

The nin pointed his finger at Sasuke. "My genjutsu! You broke it! I-it's impossible! I mean.." He grabbed his hair. "That demon.. he must have weakened it so much.. But you still couldn't have gotten through by yourself!"

Sasuke stuck his hands in his pockets. "True. If I had been alone, I would have suffered extreme mental anguish. I would have watched over and over in my mind.. the dark thoughts and memories that created my mental image of myself. I would have probably killed myself." he said bluntly. "But.. I wasn't alone, was I, Sakura?" He turned and looked at her, a bit of a smile on his face.

She blushed, never having seen Sasuke giving her such an appreciative look before. She grinned. "What are friends for?" **Damn, those red eyes look sexy on him!** Inner Sakura said helpfully, adding to her blush.

Sasuke looked back at the nin, the battle ready look back in place. "Now.." he pulled out a few shuriken. "You trespassed onto my property, and attacked my team. I do hope you have something other than that silly armor to protect you from my wrath."

His confidence was just what the other genins needed. Feeling the numbness due to fear leaving their bodies, they joined Sakura and Hinata.

_What a guy.._ Asuma thought. _Just him showing up and acting confident effects them. They need a leader like him. _

"Yeah! And we want our senseis back! Believe it or not, they're some times useful." Kiba said with a grin.

"We're right behind you, Sasuke." Shino said quietly. Chouji pounded his chest and took a wide step out, like a sumo wrestler.

"Just ate, so I'm at my chakra maximum! When you need a Meat Tank, just say the word and get the hell out of my way!" Shikamaru agreed with Chouji.

"My shadow is at your disposal." he muttered, without the standard _'troublesome'. _

"Got your back, Sasuke-kun." Ino said with a flirty wink. Inner Sakura waved a fist at her.

"Good." Sasuke said to all of them. Watching the nin, he said "Let the coward act first." An ugly look marring his plain features, the nin growled and ran at them, the ground shaking underneath the armor's weight. The genins immediately shifted into defensive positions.

"Remember, the bigger they are the harder they fall!" Sasuke shouted to his comrades. A loud_ 'right!' _answered him.

The nin tripped, a small earthquake almost lifting them off of the ground.

The battle ready genins and the trapped jonins sweat dropped.

"Oh man.. that's pathetic.." Kiba muttered in disgust. "And we were afraid of this klutz.." The others made murmuring sounds of agreement.

"Hm.. Guess this _was_ the best place to pass out." someone muttered. Sakura gasped, recognizing the meshed voice.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she rushed to his side, hopping over the dazed rock nin. "Are you okay?" He gave her a painful smile, his red and dark eyes twinkling in quiet amusement.

"Yes.. but I can't _believe_ he tripped over me." She helped him up. His mismatched eyes caught on the jonins. "Ah, Kurenai-san.. You look a bit uncomfortable." She glared at him.

"Damn. That genjutsu effected you pretty bad. You're more polite than normal.." Asuma muttered, trying to reach around for a cigarette.

"But he still showed up late.." Kurenai muttered, staring at him in interest. _I see.. Obito and Kakashi.. A mix of two persons.. _the special jonin frowned. _He's.. living a life for two people. That's what the genjutsu brought out. _

Sasuke frowned at Kakashi's side profile, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. "What are you talking about? Kakashi looks.." the jonin looked over at Sasuke who started to trail off. "..fine.."

"Holy shit! What happened to you" Kiba exclaimed. A brief look of amusement flitted across Kakashi's face. Kiba's face turned red. "Oh, yeah right.. the illusion thing."

"..Sharingan.." Sasuke whispered, looking more at his eye than the rest of him.

"..Ugh.." the nin muttered, pushing himself to his feet. The genins slid into battle positions once more.

Sakura slung one of Kakashi's arms over her shoulder, edging Kakashi as far away from the missing nin as possible. _Sensei's in no condition to fight.. _she thought.

"Hm.. I agree." he muttered. She stiffened. _Can he read minds? Gah, how embarrassing!_ "No, I cannot read minds, your eyes and actions shout out your thoughts loud enough." She couldn't help the small sigh of relief. He chuckled before turning a little more serious. Sakura gently set him down near the other two jonins.

"I cannot draw out any chakra and my taijutsu only got me so far.." he looked down at his tired body. "Damn, I feel so useless.." She glanced up at him, knowing that wasn't something he'd normally admit.

It was odd, looking at the man she looked up to, seeing such a bizarre blend of two people instead of the one she was used to. Sasuke had been heavily affected by the genjutsu, his mind reverting to a younger period of time, one where he believed himself to be the sole reason for the darkness in his past. An unknown -at least, to her- darkness that had something to do with blood. But Kakashi, under the same genjutsu.. He didn't act much different than he normally did.

He looked up, a smile curving his eyes. "You remind me so much of Rin.." he said fondly. Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. _Rin? Who's that?_ She stored that into the ever growing box of _'Things to ask Kakashi if we live'. _

"Did you find Naruto?" she asked quietly. He looked a little depressed when he shook his head.

The nin picked himself up and shook himself off, an evil chuckle slipping out of his mouth. "Who wants to die first?" Sasuke slid into a taijutsu stance, his eyes clearly stating what he thought of that arrogant question, coming from a person who had just tripped like a moron. The others prepared to back him up.

"Very well, Uchiha, since you're so eager-" his sentence was cut off by his own pained gasp. _What.. what is this? Who could have.. _He fell forward, his rock armor disintegrating, a long diagonal cut on his back. He panted, the burn of pain on his back taking away all ability for him to think.

A darkly clad being crouched behind him, a bloody katana in one hand. He brought the other up to part the cloth covering his mouth, licking the blood off of the blade.

"Who wants to die first." A phrase that had come out of the mouth of an arrogant ninja that they had rolled their eyes at. A phrase said now said so simply, so without feeling, coupled with the cold look in the unknown ninja's icy blue eyes.

Fear came to them once more.

* * *

The nin still isn't dead! He still needs a name!

And is Rin dead? Grr.. It really annoys me when that happens, when they don't bother to tell us what happens to the girls of Naruto. They're just as important to the storyline as the guys!

hmm. Didn't like this chapter as much as the others. I've started the other one already, and that's a hellva lot more interesting.: )

I liked the Sasuke part though. Dunno why.

* * *

Preview of the next chapter!

_"Which one, Hyuuga?" he asked coldly, trapping her against the tree._

_"I.." Hinata whispered, her head dipping down to hide her eyes. "I.. couldn't... I couldn't fight you because.. because you're..." Tears trickled down her face. She looked up, her pale eyes brimming with tears. _

_"I couldn't fight you because you're Naruto-kun!" she cried._


	15. The So Called 'Alter Ego'

Thanks for the great ideas for the nin's name. I've decided on Tessai- 'made from iron' -snickers- Thanks Jesse. That is pretty ironic. And about chapter one.. if anyone has the original version of it (although I can't imagine why anyone would have it.. well, it's worth a shot.), please give it to me. And the rock nin, now know as Tessai? Not much more than a chuunin level enemy. Why is he royally kicking everyone's ass? You'll see why later on in the story. And one more thing- if you don't like my story, stop reading it. Go find a more brilliant story that fits your needs. -looks pointedly at one reviewer.-

-looks back at the rest, grinning.- Consider this my late Valentine's(or Single's Awareness) day gift to you all. -throws heart confetti around-

* * *

For the Love of My Friends

Chapter Fifteen: The So Called 'Alter Ego'

by Foxie

* * *

"Who the hell are you?" Sasuke asked sharply. The ninja ignored him, fully occupied with licking his blade clean.

"Tainted blood.." the ninja muttered in disgust. Shaking, Sakura block the ninja's view of Kakashi, automatically thinking that the ninja wanted to fight her handicapped sensei. The ninja's icy blue eyes froze her in place. "None of you are worth my time.."

"Oh yeah bastard!" Kiba shouted, to the point where his fear turned into anger. "Just try me! Juujin Bunshin no Jutsu!" he cried, Akamaru hoping on his shoulder. Where there was a boy and his dog now stood two extremely feral looking Kibas. "Gatsuuga!"

The ninja passively watched at the cyclones came closer and closer. Lifting his hands, he stopped them in their tracks. His hands tightened in the Kibas' hair, making the boys yelp. When they stopped spinning, the ninja carelessly threw them over his shoulder.

Kiba impacted hard with a tree, his dog smashing against his chest, causing the bunshin jutsu to fall. Groaning, he sat up.

_What the hell is that guy! _he thought, his eyes focused on the ninja's steady walk toward him. _My attack.. should have at least made him falter! _He cradled his dog's body to his chest. Akamaru whimpered, darting underneath Kiba's coat.

The ninja shifted his grip on his katana, then sharply aimed in downward without a warning. Kiba almost dodged, the katana lodging in his shoulder instead of his head. The boy gritted his sharp teeth in pain, too prideful to cry out.

"Kiba!" Shino muttered, gathering his bugs to him. The others watched in horror as the ninja pulled the katana out of the boy's shoulder, then made a move as to swipe downward again.

The ninja's katana was stopped by his own hand. Icy blue eyes narrowed at his hand, which gently griped the sharp edge of the katana, blood coming out of cuts caused by it. He recognized the sharp pull of his chakra, the immobility, the subtle dance of the shadows beneath his feet.

"_Nara.." _he hissed.

Several feet behind him, Shikamaru stood in the same stance, his hand bleeding as well. A long shadow connected the two of them. He had moved on instinct, an instinct that had saved Kiba. Sweat poured down the curve of his face.

Ino watched them, her eyes widened in surprise._ Shikamaru.._

"Did your father.. Nara.. did he ever tell you that if the will of the trapped enemy is greater than yours.." Shikamaru gasped when the ninja turned completely around, the pull of his shadow doing very little to stop him. "That your own jutsu can be used against you?" The ninja stuck his arms out in front of, his left hand drifting to the wrist of his bleeding right one. Shikamaru was in for a surprise when he was helpless but to do the same motion that the ninja did.

The ninja gently touched his wrist, almost caressing it, before griping it tightly and twisting.

Shikamaru cried out in pain. His wrist was broken.

"Shikamaru!" His team mates cried, rushing over to help him. Shikamaru, with a will greater than the ninja had thought he had, destroyed the jutsu before the ninja could do anything else. The boy collapsed to the ground, cradling his wrist to his chest.

_Damn.. _he thought, his dark eyes focused on the ninja. _Just who the hell is this guy!  
_

* * *

The Hokage sat at his desk, his quill dancing on top of parchment. Dotting his 'i's and crossing his 't's, he read over the letter.

Satisfied with the contents, he set it down next to an identical letter, with only a few changes in the content. He closed his ink jar, cleaned the tip of his quill, and stamped the Hokage seal on the corner of both letters.

He rolled them up, tying them with a red string. _Snail beats snake, snake beats toad, toad beats snail.. The perfect equilibrium. _He thought back on what Naruto had said to him. _The monkey cannot beat the snake, but can beat the toad and the snail.  
_

He walked out of his office, and gave the two letters to the chuunin standing guard, telling him to have them mailed to Tsunade and Jiraiya by use of summon birds. The man nodded and quickly walked off, presumably to go get the scroll to summon them from Ibiki.

Sarutobi retreated back into his office. _If the snail beats the snake alone, the snake's offspring gang up together and would take out the snail. If the toad, snail, and monkey work together to destroy the whole nest, the probability of revenge is small. But.. how does the fox, with all of it's cunning, fit into this?  
_

He stared out the window, in deep thought._ The fox.. can defeat the toad, defeat the snail, trick the monkey, and kill the snake, all by himself. So.. why would the fox want to help the snail, toad, and monkey defeat the snake?  
_

"..I'm giving myself a headache.." the old man groaned. He was never good at animal riddles. An Anbu swept into the room through the window. The Hokage didn't react to the sudden appearance of the ninja, being used to it.

The Anbu bowed low. "Hokage-sama." he said respectively. Sarutobi drummed his fingers on his jaw, still in deep thought. He turned to the Anbu suddenly.

"What would a fox get out of helping a snail, toad, and monkey kill a snake?" he asked. The Anbu was understandably confused. It was not a part of his job description to understand the ways of animals. Nor was it to understand the ways of old men. Shifting uncomfortably under the older man's stare, he thought.

"Maybe.. revenge?" he said uncertainly. The Hokage nodded, considering that possibility. He trusted Naruto to do the right thing but he was wary of the Kyuubi. Although the demon's violent youki that wasn't completely sealed up in Naruto had calmed down quite a bit since the boy became a genin, he was still worried that sudden increase of Naruto's chakra was a bad omen.

"Maybe. Why did you say you were here again?" Sarutobi asked absently, fingering the curtains of the large window that was almost a second door for the ninjas of the village.

"I didn't." The Anbu stood to his full six and a half feet, towering over the old Hokage. "There is a possibility that Tessai, the missing nin from the hidden rock village, has struck again." The Hokage pulled himself out of his daze. His eyes sharpening with a fire that belonged to someone half his age, he gave the Anbu a stern look.

"And no one has gone to the site?" he asked. The Anbu shook his head.

"As you have ordered, Hokage-sama." he said. The Hokage fidgeted for a second. He knew that Tessai had hidden himself somewhere in Konoha, but he had hoped that the rock nin would leave without causing any trouble. Unfortunately, Tessai had been drawn to the chakra that Naruto had let loose some three weeks earlier, and had stayed longer near the border than the Hokage had permitted him to. The Rock village should worry about their own wayward ninjas, he had thought before. That was until the deaths of a family near the outskirts of the village, all slain with a katana. There was enough evidence that pointed toward Tessai as the murderer, so the Anbu were sent after him, and that was when all hell broke loose.

"And the genjutsu specialists?" Sarutobi asked, an unreadable look flitting across his old wizened face. Either Tessai wanted a taste of the power Naruto had let out, or he was trying to prove himself to the Akatsuki. Neither was a good possibility.

"All present but for one. Yuuhi Kurenai. We think she may already be at the site." the tall ninja murmured, standing at ease.

"Damn.. How many do you think are present at the site?"

"We know that Kurenai and Hatake Kakashi's teams are there. Sarutobi Asuma might also be around there, with his team."

"Damn." he cursed again. "Nine genins involved in what could be a very dangerous situation..." _And with Naruto around that kind of genjutsu using ninja.._ He let the thought trail off, not wanting to think about what could happen if Naruto was hit with the genjutsu. _The seal would not be protected by Naruto's will. The Kyuubi could break free and we'll be faced with a holocaust that would make what happened twelve years ago look like a joke.  
_

He closed his eyes, seeking Naruto's chakra. His chakra was always hard to trace. It had the similar wavelength of beings of nature, hard to distinguish between him and the forest, although Naruto's chakra tended to be a lot more violent than that of a plant's. But Sarutobi was used to seeking out Naruto's chakra, the troublemaker he was.

The Hokage located him around training area twelve. The old man started to shiver. _No..  
_

"Hokage-sama?" The Anbu asked in concern. The Hokage was pale.

"Get the medics and the Anbu forces ready and at standby. Genjutsu specialists too." the Hokage snapped out. The Anbu nodded, disappearing in a column of smoke.

The Hokage walked wearily to his desk with a heavy heart. For he could tell how Naruto was feeling by his chakra, whether he was mad, annoyed, sick, or most often than not, sad. He glanced up at the pictures of his mentors and peers, the Hokages of the past. The Fourth looked at him almost accusingly, reminding him so much of Naruto.

He collapsed in his chair, passing a hand in front of his eyes. All he felt from Naruto now was...

Blood lust.

* * *

He watched, knowing, but not seeing, as his body moved separate from his own mind from inside of a grayish dome._ What.. what the hell is going on! _He banged his fists usually against the barrier._ Let me out, asshole! _He channeled chakra into his hand, a orb of swirling blue light lighting up his prison._ Lemme out! Rasengan!  
_

The orb hit the dome, the dome bending around it like jello. Naruto was flung back with the same amount of force._ Damn.. Damn it to hell.. _He dropped down to a knee, staring solemnly at his hand._ What can I do? I'm pretty much screwed..  
_

A flicker of red caught his attention. Someone was just outside the dome. He pulled himself up, running to the dome wall, trying to peer out through the cloudy veil. A single red eye met his own.

If he had been anyone else, he would have jumped out of his skin, screaming like a girl.

Instead, he shifted closer to the wall, a grin on his face._ Kyuubi! _he cried. _You have no idea how good it is to see you! _The eye narrowed a little in annoyance.

**In the worst possible situation, yet you still are an annoying little brat. **the fox stated. **One would have thought being in such a situation, you'd be humbled. **The shadowy red figure shifted and Naruto felt a violent vibration zip through the dome when the Kyuubi hurled himself at it, nearly throwing the blond off of his feet.

_Dammit! Warn me when you do that! _He yelled. _You're not exactly a light weight, you know! _Even as he scolded the fox, he couldn't help but feel the sharp pain of disappointment. If the Kyuubi couldn't destroy his prison, then who could?

The fox sighed, a heavy sigh that echoed the pain in Naruto's heart._ I'm.. alive. I'm awake. Yet I'm practically possessed. I'm attacking my friends, the very ones that I went through so much trouble to help_. Naruto whispered. _Sooner or later they'll figure out it's me. Sooner or later I'll die as a traitor. This really.. blows.  
_

He sat down, his back to the barrier wall. _They might use the genjutsu as an excuse, an explanation as to why I went nuts but.. you know, the villagers.. they'll be so happy, to know that everything they've said all these years are true. That I'm a murderer. A person who revels in the sight and smell of blood. A cold bastard who loves to put people in pain.  
_

Several hundred feet larger, the Kyuubi sat in a similar position, his back to the dome. A frown, if a fox could create such an expression, was on his face. He knew this was the best possible time to strike. The seal would be weakened, not protected by Naruto's stubborn will, but by a mere shadow. He could be free, free to smell, free to breathe, free to do whatever he damn well pleased. But..

He turned slightly, looking down at the small huddled figure in the dome. He cursed silently for his weakness. Damn human conscience. Must have been a side effect for having Naruto as his host for so long.

**This... genjutsu. Surely it must follow the same basic principles of a basic illusion, correct?** Naruto perked up slightly. **Genjutsu typically works by manipulating chakra fields in such a way that they would trick the sensory lobes of an opponents brain into detecting something that was not there, making it possible for ninja to see, hear, sense, or smell something that isn't real. Ninja are trained to detect when their mind was being manipulated, thus when detected, a simple pulse of chakra unravels the genjutsu. This.. one is slightly different. Like Henge, it physically changes the body, but also really does a number with your mind. After all, how can one say what they think they are isn't real?  
**

The Kyuubi shifted uncomfortably, not sure if Naruto understood what he was saying. **Since you think you are a certain way, and this genjutsu merely builds on those thoughts, how can you detect treachery?  
**

_But.. But wait a minute! I know my mind's being screwed around with! I know I'm not really like that other guy! _Naruto shouted. Then a horrible notion came to mind._ Then.. then that means..!  
_

**That the image that has been forced upon you, through the villagers insults and your own pent up guilt, is the opposite of how you truly are. And because you two clash so much, the chakra surrounding the genjutsu not only performed it's regular duty of reinforcing it, but also created another persona in your mind, one created solely from your internal image. It beat you down, and even subdued myself, gaining complete control of your body. Forcing you into this prison like dome thing and myself completely cut off from his conscious.** He paused, adding unnecessarily, **The genjutsu must effect everyone differently.  
**

Naruto tapped his fingers against his leg, deep in thought, his mind swimming in the information that the fox had given him. He hated using illusions, being more of a ninjutsu artist himself. The main reason why was because illusions were so complex, so annoying, and needed a lot of patience, which he didn't have. He liked to see the results of his hard work right away, like how he could with ninjutsu and taijutsu. Genjutsu was a chess player's art.

He, as the number one most obnoxious ninja in Konoha, could only see one solution.

_Then.. we can.. drive him nuts by singing the theme song of Barney? _The demon twitched in annoyance.

**Not what I had in mind..** he muttered. Naruto scowled resentfully, rather liking his idea.

_Fine! Tell me what you had in mind, and if I don't like it, I'm gonna start singing! _the blond snapped stubbornly. The Kyuubi rolled his eyes.

**Only the victim can release themselves from an illusion. Only if the victim realizes that the illusion is fake, or in your teacher's case, come to terms with what they think they are, can someone like that red eyed woman help them, if they cannot break it themselves.** Pausing, as if expecting Naruto to break out in an off key tune, the Kyuubi continued on. **You are the only one who can break this.  
**

_I've already tried._ Naruto muttered in a flat tone. _It's useless. I'm still trying to kill my friends. And. I. Can't. Do. Shit. About. It.  
_

**_You've given up too easily._** the fox snapped. **Get off your lazy ass and break it before you have no one to become Hokage for. **His tone gentled slightly. **But you'll need to focus. A lot. Would it help if I could find a way to stop him from attacking your friends?  
**

Naruto blinked._ Like, possessing my body? I thought he severed the connection between your conscious and his?  
_

The Kyuubi laughing in a haunting way. **The seal was the only thing that kept me from trying to possess you in our earlier years, kitling. A simple mind barrier.. don't make me laugh. With the seal practically inactive because of your predicament, it'll be child's play. **The fox shook himself out of the odd moment he was having. **But even if I do possess him- ultimately you- he'll still be quite real. To you. You're going to need to do the grunt work. Destroying the barrier will rid yourself of the foreign chakra, thus destroying the genjutsu and this dark version of you. **

_What's keeping you from taking complete control of my body? _Naruto asked, a little suspicious. _And totally shunting me to the back of our minds? _The fox swished his tails in a bit of a temper.

**A little thing called a fucking human conscience..** Kyuubi muttered.

_What?_ Naruto asked, not quite hearing him.

**Trust. Just trust me Naruto. **

* * *

Sasuke was livid. "Bastard.." he hissed, swooping down at the ninja from the branch he had been perched on. They had been fighting the ninja for the last couple of minutes, seeming to be at more and more of a disadvantage as the fight wore on. The ninja's wrist, to their great surprise, had mended and healed in a matter of moments, while Shikamaru's stayed in the same state, preventing him from using any jutsus.

Chouji had come at the ninja with a Meat Tank, only to be batted away.

Ino had tried to possess him with her Shintenshin no jutsu, only to be sent back into her body in tears and pain from the ninja's powerful mental counter.

Sakura, Sasuke, Shino, and Shikamaru's combined efforts to make him retreat crumbled the moment that the ninja announced his presence.

The jonins, either too exhausted to fight or immobile, could only watch in horror as their students were beaten back viciously. Kakashi tried time and time again to stand and fight, but with the genjutsu confusing his chakra and mind, he was as helpless as the other two.

Sasuke was backhanded across the face, sent flying across the clearing, where he landed hard on his back. He coughed up blood, swiping the drops off of his lips, a grim expression on his face._ Out of the frying pan, into the fire, eh? _was his only thought.

The ninja unsheathed his katana once again, landing at Sasuke's feet. The boy glared at him, undaunted by the hellish figure towering above him. The ninja brought the katana in a downward thrust. Sasuke rolled out of the way, barely dodging the would be fatal blow. The ninja then put his foot on the boy's stomach, insuring his captivity.

He tried to rid the world of the dark haired boy, but was once again halted. Sakura slide next to Sasuke, bringing her kunai up in a weak defense against the ninja's much longer blade. Crouched over her team mate, she was slowly forced down by the ninja's strength. The katana started to dig into the soft flesh of her upper arm, making blood blossom out of the wound to drip onto Sasuke.

Sasuke looked up at his pink haired team mate, shocked speechless. _That's twice.. Twice now that she's done something like this.. _The Uchiha, from his prone position, sent a flurry of attacks in the ninja's direction, aiming for his stomach. The ninja barely noticed, too enraptured by the blood that was coating his blade.

Shino appeared at their side, and in a blinding movement, slammed his fist into the ninja's face. The ninja backed up a few paces.

Shino helped Sasuke and Sakura up, his fist still crackling with chakra. He wasn't a physical fighter, but he had made the first solid hit against the ninja.

This slightly raised the morale of the genins.

Ino rose, making her way to Shikamaru's and Kiba's sides, the more wounded of the eight genins. Chouji stood slightly off to the ninja's left, his eyes a little glazed. They were almost sure that he had a concussion.

Hinata stood behind Kiba and Shikamaru, the only one who hadn't jumped in to fight. Her hands curled together in front of her chest as she stared at the ninja. _Why..? Why does this have to happen? _Her eyes focused on his, a familiar color blue._ Why you..?  
_

The ninja licked the blade again, a long pink tongue darting out to catch the droplets of blood. "Hm.. Lovely. The blood of the innocents.."

They snapped. Attacking in unison, they started to push the ninja back, causing more and more wounds to appear on his body. The closed in on him, making a semi circle around him. If he tried to go left, Ino and Shino immediately started to slice at him with their kunai, the latter of two sneaking his bugs in on the ninja at every chance he got. If he tried to go right, Shikamaru and Kiba, both handicapped of one arm, would slash low at his legs, while Sasuke would throw punches and kicks at the ninja's torso. Chouji and Sakura attacked from the middle, no matter what he did. All the ninja could do was retreat back.

_Yes! _Ino thought. _We're doing it!  
_

The ninja spied a weakness in their wall of wrath. He dug his fingers in Kiba's wounded shoulder, finally making the boy cry out and stumble out of line. He grabbed Ino by her hair, throwing her at Shikamaru and Chouji, who were knocked back by the throw. Chouji finally fell unconscious.

Sasuke dodged the ninja's outstretched hand, digging his kunai into the ninja's arm. Sakura did the same on the other side. Shino came in last, sending out his bugs in waves to drain the ninja's chakra.

The ninja detached Sasuke from his side, using the boy as a club to beat Sakura off. They fell off, Sasuke landing on top of Sakura. He immediately pushed himself off, trying to see if she was okay. "Sakura?" He cradled her head in his hands, careful not to touch the painful looking cuts on her neck and ears. The girl winced, despite his caution.

"I'm sorry.." she whispered. She looked like hell and was sore enough to prove it. "I can't move." he tried to pick her up and move them away from the ninja, but his legs refused to move. The ninja had tapped a nerve in his spine, making lose all feeling in his legs. Sasuke looked grim, a small bitter smile playing on the corners of his mouth.

"Nor can I.."

The ninja sent out a powerful pulse of chakra, causing the bugs to take in more chakra than they could handle. The bugs blew up. He grabbed Shino by the front of his jacket. The bug user didn't show any expression on his face, no sign of the inner turmoil and fear appearing on his face.

"Hmph. You're no fun." The ninja threw Shino at the rock the jonins were pasted to. Shino crashed hard against it, blood coming out of his mouth.

"Shino!" Kurenai called out, worry in her voice. He looked up, his chin bloody. He said nothing, passing out against her half trapped feet.

There was only one genin left standing, the only one who didn't fight him. The ninja turned, his icy blue eyes locking with a pair of terrified pale ones. He walked up to her, amused when she started to back up. The numerous wounds on his body started to close up, leaving old, drying blood and torn clothes as the only reminders of their small victories.

"Hinata-chan!" Kiba cried out, trying to stand. "Run!" She kept backing up, until she was back to back with a tree. She stared at the ninja who kept on coming. He stopped right in front of her, well within her personal space.

"You didn't attack me. Did the fear freeze your legs? Did my chakra make you falter? Or was it because you're a weak little cry baby ninja, one who knew she could not stand up to someone like me?" He griped her chin tightly with his hand, the other lightly resting on her shoulder. "Hmm? What is it?"

"Let go of her!" Kurenai shouted. "If you want a fight, let us free and we'll fight you in her place!" The chakra she had been gathering to blast away the rock slipped out of her grasp. Cursing silently, she started gathering chakra again. _Out of all the training I had to become a jonin, this was one of the things that they should have trained us for, yet didn't!  
_

Kakashi made a valiant attempt to stand, using the rock as a crutch. "Leave her alone!" the copy nin echoed Kurenai. "If you want blood, take ours. Leave the kids alone!"

"Fighting and beating a genin isn't that hard! Fighting a jonin is harder!" Asuma struggled against the steel like grip of his prison, once again cursing the burns on his arms and chest. "If you want a challenge, fight us!"

The ninja ignored the shouts of the teachers, his eyes focused on the girl in front of him. "Which one, Hyuuga?" he asked coldly, trapping her against the tree. The teachers quieted, watching helplessly.

"I.." Hinata whispered, her head dipping down to hide her eyes. "I.. couldn't... I couldn't fight you because.. because you're..." Tears trickled down her face. She looked up, her pale eyes brimming with tears.

"I couldn't fight you because you're Naruto-kun!" she cried. Something in his eyes changed, from cold uncaring, to annoyed. She had a feeling it wasn't extended to her. The ninja touched his forehead, as if to ward off a head ache. With her eyes, she could see two chakras, red and black, clashing against each other.

Someone started to snicker. The rock nin sat up painfully.

"Not exactly what I had in mind, but whatever." he said, baring his yellow teeth in a grin. "Thought that the demon would immerge and destroy the village but.. this is much better." While the darkly clad ninja gazed at the rock nin pensively, the genins talked amongst themselves.

"No.. no way in hell that can be Naruto!" Kiba hissed at Shikamaru. The shadow user didn't know what to say. Ino pushed herself off of Chouji and Shikamaru, lightly smacking Chouji hoping to revive him.

"That guy.. whoever he is.." she started to say. "He has a stronger mental barrier than my dad! Even some of them Elders!" The Yamanakas were known especially for their psychic like abilities. Some of Ino's relatives had the ability to possess someone, like she and her father did, while others could see the future, read into chakra and minds, talk mind to mind, or even move things using their minds. The Elders were the strongest and the oldest of their clan. They all had very strong mental barriers.

Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other, their mouths opened wide. "N-Naruto?" Sakura whispered to Sasuke. His red eyes had faded into black. Biting his lip, Sasuke looked at the ninja before looking back at her.

"Naruto.. would never hurt his friends.." the genin said uncertainly. "That cannot be Naruto." Sakura couldn't agree with his reasoning.

"B-but, Sasuke-kun.. The genjutsu!" Sasuke looked away, knowing how much the illusion could effect someone's reasoning and personality. But for Naruto.. to carelessly attack his friends? It wasn't a concept he could understand. Although, he admitted, it must have been a similar situation for Sakura and the others when he was under the illusion, not that he could remember much.

Hinata looked at the side profile of his face, willing herself to believe that this was some sort of trick. Naruto would go back to normal, his eyes would light up in anger at the fact that he was forced to hurt his friends. Then he'd turn to her, and she'd comfort him, knowing the internal anguish he'd feel at the pain he had given them.

"Who are you." the ninja snapped at the rock nin.

"What, don't recognize me? Attacking from behind must be your way of breaking the ice.." the rock nin muttered. "My name is Tessai. And I'm your creator."

Naruto shifted, gentling his grip on Hinata, but still made sure she stayed put. She winced, then looked down, surprised to see a clawed hand gently resting on her shoulder. The red had beaten back the black. The red chakra was in full control.

Naruto, really the Kyuubi borrowing Naruto's image, was careful with the ningen in front of him. He couldn't remember how much it took for a human to break, and if he accidentally broke this one.. Well, he'd have hell to pay, knowing how the real Naruto especially liked this ningen.

A sound of amusement passed through Kyuubi's lips. "My creator huh?" No one noticed the slight shift from blue to red in the ninja's eyes.

Tessai grinned. "Yes. And unless you do what I say, in twenty minutes time, you'll go back into being a weak little genin boy who everyone considers a dead last."

Kurenai felt betrayed, in an odd way._ A.. A time limit! _She thought back to the Anbu that they had to kill. Guilt consumed her_. No.. _

Naruto had shifted from a ruthless killer to a hardened predator. Hinata didn't know how she could tell the difference. But, somehow, she felt safer.

"Is that so?" he drawled. "Then I guess it would be in my best interest to listen." Tessai's grin widened even more, if possible.

"I only request two things, to prove your loyalty to me." he said, spreading out his hands. "One, take that cloth off of your head."  
Kyuubi complied, his longer nails accidentally cutting into the leather strip that held his hair up. Long blond hair fell around his shoulders, but it did nothing to hide the tell tale whisker marks on his face that so clearly identified him as Naruto.

The wounded genins gasped, knowing now that they couldn't deny the truth. The jonins looked on grimly. The ninja locked gazes with Kakashi. The man flinched reflexively, but then had to gasp as well, recognizing the red eyes._ The.. The Kyuubi!  
_

Modestly looking down, more of a way to hide his eyes than in respect, Kyuubi turned back to Tessai. "And your second request, Tessai-sama?" Tessai loved the sound of that, he could tell, like every pompous power hungry being that Naruto or Kyuubi had ever faced. The nin did a couple of hand seals, summoning a rather fancy looking sword that was a bit too long for his rather inferior height, especially inferior when compared to Naruto's height under the genjutsu.

"Hold the girl down so I can kill her." Hinata immediately started to struggle. Kyuubi nodded politely, mentally gnashing his teeth together, not liking the thought of being ordered around.

"As you wish... but may I say something to the girl?" he asked, keeping his gaze fixed firmly to the ground.

Tessai was suspicious. "Why?"

"She still seems to harbor the hope that her precious 'Naruto-kun' will reemerge and save her. I do love it when people die in absolute fear.." he ended the last sentence in a hiss, his red eyes closing as if in delight. The Kyuubi was a very good actor. He actually preferred his enemies to die while in a fight with him. The scent of fear always made his nose go haywire and his head to become light headed. He knew why of course, the memory of the first dead being he had ever seen digging it's roots firmly in his mind. But that memory was hidden even from his host.

Tessai gave his permission with a nod. His new servant was crueler than he was. The fox leaned down, a very different objective in mind.

"Don't be afraid." he whispered in her ear. "Act afraid, but don't be afraid. Naruto is trying his hardest to break free of the genjutsu. He hates having you all in danger." Hinata shifted, trying to resist the urge to run away. _Why is he talking in third person? Is he.. not Naruto?  
_

"Who.. who are you?"

"Just think of me as.. Naruto's alter ego." He tilted his head slightly in an animalistic fashion, like how a cat would tilt it's head toward a sound. His warm cheek brushed up against hers. "I won't let you get hurt." Kyuubi pulled away, his eyes once more directed toward the ground. He gently maneuvered her in front of him, her arms clamped down at her sides.

She had caught a glimpse of his red cat slitted eyes. Something about them just screamed 'demon!', but she couldn't bring herself to distrust him. Her eyes met Tessai's and she instinctively shrunk back against Kyuubi. It was easy to act afraid, she mused, but harder not to be afraid. Tessai's eyes were that of a mad man's. Eyes that glinted with so much craze, so much madness, that she preferred a demon's gaze over his.

He giggled sadistically. Kyuubi frowned a little, his red eyes narrowing. Tessai was nuts. **Hurry Naruto.. **he thought. **If you don't destroy the illusion before the time limit depletes, our new little friend will not be just a shadow, but a very real part of our minds. **

* * *

Meanwhile, the real Naruto was torn between raging at the Kyuubi for touching Hinata, and screaming at his darker self that lied just outside of the barrier, taunting him.

_It is useless. You are weak. You have made the demon weak. And thus, your friends will die by my hands._ Despite his darker self's calm words, the other boy's face was twisted in fury. Naruto felt delight at making him so pissed off. For it could only mean that he was succeeding.

Naruto threw himself against the barrier against, feeling the dome stretch even further. _Ha ha! I'm getting closer! _The barrier flung him back. Expecting it, the blond landed on his feet. Charging up with more chakra, he hurled himself at the barrier again. To his surprise, his darker self appeared in front of the stretching barrier, back handing him away.

Naruto hit the ground, rolling twice to take the edge of the throw off. He pulled himself up, a scowl on his face. _Hey! That isn't fair! _he shouted, stomping his foot.

_Nothing in life is fair._ the other Naruto snapped._ I will be the only one in charge here! _

_Power hungry bastard.. _Naruto muttered sullenly._ Just accept it! I'm cooler than you! Besides, this was my body first! _He shifted his body back. _And it's gonna stay that way! _He ran to the opposite side of the dome, catching his evil twin off guard.

_Fool..._ The darker version of Naruto growled, then disappeared, appearing right in front of Naruto, wasting no time in knocking him away again.

_W-what? Shunshin no Jutsu! _he gasped after he righted himself._ But.. how the hell- _

_  
We are one. We are the same. I can do anything you can do.. and I can do it better. _Naruto scowled.

_You just said 'we're the same'. How can you be better if we're at the same level? _The other Naruto rolled his eyes, lightly clicking his tongue.

_It's not that I'm stronger than you, faster than you are, or anything like that. _he said with a grin to match Gaara at his worst. _I just don't care what happens to the people around me, unlike you. I don't tone down my power to keep from hurting people, unlike you. I only look out for number one, me, unlike you.  
_

_And you can't match that. Because your heart bleeds for other people. You care about what happens to them. You traveled ten years into the past to save your friends when you could have come back to overthrow Sarutobi and gain the Hokage title, which you so think you deserve.  
_

_Why am I better than you? It's because I'm not a soft fool. Because I don't stupidly risk everything for a bunch of foolish people who are never going to get anywhere in life.  
_

* * *

Tessai lunged forward, the edge of his blade glinting cruelly.

"Hinata!" was the collective cry. Kyuubi smirked, meeting Tessai's eyes. At the last possible second, he leapt into the air, taking Hinata with him. Tessai lost his balance and felt face flat against the ground.

"I knew it! You bastard!" his words were muffled by the ground. He should have known that the being in front of him wasn't the blond idiot from the Uchiha's team. He was too skilled. Kyuubi landed on a thick branch, gently putting Hinata down. He turned, smirking at the rock nin.

"Knew what? That you're a git?" he said in that low tone of his. Tessai jumped up, pointing his blade at the very amused Kyuubi. He waved it around, making gasping and panting noises, as if he couldn't think of what to say.

"..B-bastard!" he finally got out. Kyuubi crouched on the branch, supporting his chin on his hand.

"Hm. All that genius and that's all you could think of?" Tessai, in a temper, threw the blade at him. Kyuubi side stepped it. He wiggled his eyebrows up and down. "Didn't your mommy ever tell you not to play with pointy objects?" His eyes sharpened. "Or did you kill her too?"

"Just.. Just what the hell is going on here!" Kiba yelled. The others couldn't help but agree.

There was a loud crack, then Kurenai dropped down from the rock. A second crack had Asuma falling down as well, less gracefully than his red eyed girlfriend. They had gathered up chakra and sent a large amount of it out of several of their opening points. The result was the rock cracking and weakening around them, making it very easy for them to push through. Kakashi looked back, watching as Kurenai lifted Shino's head up, checking his vital signs. _This.. well, hell, I don't know **how** this looks.. _the copy nin thought.

Tessai growled and started throwing everything he could reach at his red eyed enemy. Rocks, leaves, and stones hailed at Kyuubi.

"How childish.." he muttered, knocking the biggest rocks out of his way. Tessai was thinking as fast as he could, trying to come up with a solution._ I'll.. I'll put him under a genjutsu too! Yeah! Then he'll forget all about me!  
_

The rock nin added in an extra ingredient to the storm. One of his genjutsu balls. Kyuubi narrowed his red eyes at it, batting it away like a persistent fly. Tessai's jaw dropped to the ground.

"What.. What the hell!" he screeched, yanking on his hair. "That's not supposed to happen!" Kyuubi narrowed his eyes in annoyance, being reminded about how much he hated humans.** Always thinking that they know everything..  
**

Hinata clung to the trunk of the tree, feeling Kyuubi's annoyance roll off of him in thick waves. _Naruto-kun.. _she thought, clasping her hands together. She remembered what Kyuubi had whispered to her._ I believe in you. You can do anything you set your mind to. _She closed her eyes, willing her message to Naruto.

"You foolish mortal." Kyuubi snapped at Tessai. "You cannot do the same illusion twice on a ninja, especially when that ninja is still underneath it's influence!" Tessai gaped, his mouth opening and closing, no sound coming out. Kyuubi put a hand on his forehead in exasperation.

"Must I explain everything?" he decided he had to when the rock nin kept staring at him in that blank way. "You put the illusion on me.. on Naruto, actually, right? Because his internal image was the anti.. well, the anti-Naruto, a new persona was created in Naruto's mind, as a self defense. Because Naruto would know that something wrong was going on if he suddenly started acting the opposite way he normally did, and would realize he was under a genjutsu. This.. anti-Naruto gained control of Naruto's body and started to attack everyone. Naruto couldn't break the genjutsu because he was weakened and thrown behind a barrier." Kyuubi shrugged.

Kakashi looked up at the powerful figure on the branch, thinking, not for the first time, how much he looked like the Fourth. The red eyes made him nervous, and he couldn't decide which one was the bigger threat. Tessai or a Kyuubi-possessed-Naruto. Kurenai touched his head, and with an audible crack, the genjutsu that made him look half like Obito fell.

The genins crowded near the jonins, the unconscious ones just barely awoken. Sakura had one of Sasuke's arms slung over her shoulder, as did Ino and Shikamaru with Chouji. Shino blinked up at the figure in the tree, a little lost. Kiba crouched next to his team mate, his dog hidden in his coat. He clapped his hands together.

"Right." he turned to the three jonin. "Which one should we be watching out more for then?" The jonin could only shrug helplessly.

Kyuubi continued, ignoring the other humans on the ground. "I suppose this was supposed to considered a perfect genjutsu, correct? If the illusion ended up completely counteracting the victim's true self, a newly created personality would beat down the opposing force. If the victim wasn't completely unlike what the genjutsu dragged to the surface and came to terms with it, their sense of chakra and their body's would grow weak in a feeble attempt to correct itself." he nodded to Kakashi as an example. "If the genjutsu worked perfectly, the victim could be either used as a weapon, or be killed easily, which ever the user might prefer."

His sharp teeth bared in a grin. "But there is one aspect that your little jutsu didn't cover."

Tessai found his voice. "And what was that?" he asked, his voice a little sullen.

The grin widened. "Me."

* * *

Hee hee.. I've always preferred Kyuubi as the good guy(or girl.. some authors have Kyuubi pegged as a girl.. i dunno, I always thought of him as a guy..), although it's purely a creation of the fandom.  
Hmm.. Is Asuma and The Third Hokage related? 'Cause, the Hokage's name is Sarutobi.. and Asuma's family name is.. Sarutobi.. -confuzzled- Maybe.. a mere coincidence?  
And and and! Before I forget! Go to Naruto fan, there's a very interesting post! Something about.. gee, I dunno.. the possibility of Naruto the anime coming out in North America soon-waves flags with the Uzumaki spiral on them, eyes glittering like a fan girl's- Yay! But.. knowing how long the 'official' people take with the translations.. -pouts- 


	16. The Perfect Question

I automatically think there's nothing wrong with my story because.. hell, I wrote it, it makes sense to me. I like having my errors pointed out.. well, not really, who does? But it provides a learning experience.  
benighted fool- thanks for pointing out my grammatical errors. And yes, I am female. Was it really so obvious: ) That part really cracked me up.  
And this chapter? Short, yes I know. Because writer's block. And Wild ARMs 3. Yes, I'm listing a game as one of the reasons why I can't concentrate. Laugh all you want, but it's true. Jet is pretty distracting -zones out-. He's kinda like Sasuke, but in a western style way with white hair and purple eyes. And he's pretty fixated on getting Gella (the type of currency used in the game.)  
I'm doing this chapter in a bit of a different format. Anything in bold is Kyuubi's thoughts(as always), and anything in bold-italics is Naruto inside his mind. Bold-italized-underlined words is Anti-Naruto yapping. This is just for this chapter for the anti- Naruto and Naruto interaction. Any of Naruto's thoughts will be italized.  
And yes, before you ask, evil bastard he may be, but Itachi is one of my favorite characters. He's just so.. cool. He's the kind of person you love to hate. Or hate to love.. or- gah, I'm confusing myself. But, seriously, he is one messed up character. If he was seventeen when Naruto and co. were twelve, and the Uchiha massacre happened when Sasuke was seven or eight, that means that Itachi killed his clan when he was -starts counting on fingers- twelve or thirteen years old! I mean, pre-teen and teen angst and all set aside, who really thinks about that sort of thing when they're that young?

* * *

For the Love of My Friends

Chapter Sixteen: The Perfect Question

by Foxie

* * *

A dark haired ninja looked pensively up at the reddening sky from under his cone shaped hat. A dark cloak hung off of his small frame, red clouds sewn in at random. A shiny forehead protector wrapped around his head, the leaf that adorned it viscously slashed. He blinked, eyes the color of freshly spilled blood disappearing for a moment, then he turned around.

His companion was similarly dressed, yet had the deadly appearance of a shark that decided to walk on land. A bandaged sword was balanced against his shoulder. Without a word, the red eyed ninja walked, leaving his less graceful comrade in arms to amble clumsily after him. The shark faced ninja would have been annoyed at the man- really boy, as he was only seventeen- but the truth was, he was too used to it and glad that someone else took the lead instead of him. To make the great and head strong Kisame back down from a leadership role.. he shook his head, not believing it himself. But then again, that was the sort of effect Itachi had on people.

Speaking of which, the Uchiha had stopped, sinking once more into his pensive mood. Kisame waited, not wanting to end up like Itachi's enemies. He could only trust the dark haired ninja as far as he could throw him. His distrust was solidly backed up by the fact that the missing nin had killed his own family. What would keep him from killing Kisame if he was annoyed? But still.. the shark's curiosity made him rise to bite at the bait.

"Itachi, whazza matter?" he asked, briefly wondering if they were to be his last words. Fortunately for him, Itachi was in an accepting mood. He tilted his head to the side, long black tresses sliding with the movement.

"Don't you feel it? The Kyuubi.. it's vibrant power.. it has increased lately.." He could feel the electricity in the air, the caress of the energy pulling at him, beckoning him closer.

"Yeah.. uh.. which one was the Kyuubi again?" Kisame asked, itching his head. He swore he was allergic to the hats they were supposed to wear. Itachi's eyes flashed once in annoyance, the only sign of emotion on his pale face.

"The Kyuubi.." his tone, lower and deadlier than before. "Is the Demon Fox Lord. He successfully fell five hidden ninja villages before turning his sights on Konoha, where he, in turn, fell to the might of the Fourth Hokage and was sealed up into an infant. His tails are said to be able to crush buildings and to cause tsunamis with a single flick, his body able to conjure the hottest and darkest of flame to destroy his enemy. His youki, his power, is something a mere human would never understand." Kisame winced, realizing his mistake. The Kyuubi was Itachi's favorite of the demon lords, so much so that when the Akatsuki started their search for the demon lords, that Itachi had requested that the Kyuubi be left to him. Sometimes, Kisame thought that his partner was in love with the Kyuubi. Or rather, the power he represented. He immediately blanked his mind when Itachi looked at him, not sure if the sharingan could read his mind but not willing to take the chance.

"So.. What should we do, you reckon?" Kisame asked carefully. By giving the choice to Itachi, he was indirectly apologizing for his mistake, an apology that might save his neck in the future. Itachi turned his back to Kisame, the slight flick of his long hair signaling to Kisame that his transgression had been forgiven. Kisame sighed lowly in relief.

"I say.. We should take a trip back to my village soon." His eyes darkened, a sinister smile playing on the corners of his mouth. "I'm feeling pretty homesick."

* * *

Kyuubi jumped down from the branch he was on, landing about a foot away from the rock nin. His unholy grin did nothing to hide the deadly fangs that glinted in the dying sunlight. Tessai backed away. He went on with his explanation

"What your little jutsu didn't cover was the possibility of there already being a second, third, or more personalities already inhabiting one body. Which wasn't a smart thing. You were bound to run into someone suffering from MPD. Ninjas are some of the most psychologically messed up people in the world." His hand shot out, fisting in Tessai's shirt. He easily lifted the smaller ninja up. "But you'd know that already.. wouldn't you, Tessai?"

Kakashi stood, now in full control of his chakra. Asuma and Kurenai stood at his side, unconsciously giving the leadership to the stronger of the jonins. "Shikamaru. Shino. Ino." the three looked up at him. "Find your way back to the Hokage tower. Alert him of the situation at hand." Looking at their injured friends, then at Tessai and Kyuubi, they slowly nodded. They leapt away, Shino taking the lead. Kyuubi stopped growling at Tessai, his focus shifting towards what the copy nin was doing.

"Kiba. Sakura. Chouji." The next three looked up. "Get Sasuke out of here." Sasuke glared at the ground, not wanting to leave, but knowing not to question Kakashi, especially when he sounded so serious. Chouji and Sakura carefully set Sasuke on Kiba's back, who looked even less happier about the situation than the Uchiha prodigy. Kiba glanced back at Hinata's small form huddled in the tree, only feeling a little better when she smiled at him. They too left, not long after the first group.

Kurenai and Asuma knew what Kakashi was doing. He not only was reducing the genins' chances of getting hurt, but also was getting them out of there before they heard anything 'Kyuubi' related. It would not be wise to turn the only friends Naruto had on him because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Hinata." the girl gulped, lightly jumping down the tree. She landed a few paces behind Kyuubi, who turned slightly to look back at her. Kurenai gritted her teeth, not liking her student so close to the demon. It made her nervous. To her, it was like sending the lamb into a den of hungry wolves.

"Go after the others, make sure none of them lag behind." Kakashi commanded in a sharp tone, making her break eye contact with Kyuubi. After a shift of her eyes in Kakashi's direction, then back in Kyuubi's, she walked forward timidly, ignoring the jonins' soft gasps and subtle hints to get away from him.

Hinata touched his shoulder. "He'll.. be quite alright?" she asked in a soft tone.

Kyuubi had forgotten that a person's eyes could be like that. So soft, so innocent, and so completely full of trust. He, since his rising as the fox Demon Lord, had never seen someone look him in the eye and not fear him.

The Fourth was one ninja he'd never forget, not because of his humiliating defeat, but the look in his eyes, a determination that brought down a demon that was said that the kamis couldn't even defeat. But there was fear in his eyes. Not for his own life, but for the village that he so righteously protected.

Naruto was a strange ninja as well. Blue eyes that mirrored the ninja that had spied him last, there was anger, hatred, and stubborn fear that the boy used as a leverage, instead of having it weigh him down as a weakness. Soon the eyes changed, showing grudging respect and still that tangible fear that would haunt his gaze, maybe not of him, per say, but of what would happen if people found out about him. It wasn't until much later that Naruto could look at him, completely unbiased. To look at him like a friend, like a rival, like a confident, not like the demon he was grown up scorning. But that had taken time. So much time that it felt like Kyuubi had known Naruto all his immortal life.

He wondered if those pale eyes would crumble, would tear up, would shy away in fear if he announced he was the Kyuubi, the most evil and bloodthirsty demon to roam the lands. Kyuubi came to a realization when his heart hurt at the mental image. He could not have this.. this small slip of a girl hate him like everyone else.

He smiled suddenly, a true smile, not one that sang with the sweet horrors that he was going to put upon them, not a bloodthirsty grin. His eyes curved in a Narutoish way.

"He'll be fine. I'll make sure of it." **Just for you...**

Naruto was crouched down in the darkest recesses of his mind, clutching the cloth over his heart. His eyes were squeezed shut. _**Hinata-chan...**_ He could not bear for that trusting look to fade out of her eyes either.

Kyuubi swung his gaze back to Tessai, unceremoniously dropping him on his ass. He unconsciously listened for the soft foot falls of the Hyuuga retreating. The three jonins cautiously approached the two.

Tessai trembled in fear. He did not need to know the back ground of Naruto's past, or even some of Konoha's folklore to know what he was facing. Cold crimson eyes that spoke of endless time and truths, the slitted pupils that narrowed on him, so calmly assessing him, like how a person would look down upon an insect. He turned pleading eyes to the jonins.

"P-please!" he sobbed. "I'll g-give you anything! Just get me away from him!" Kyuubi closed his eyes in annoyance. **Another disappointment. Pity it had to happen during one of the few times I'm in control.** He knocked the nin in the side of the head sharply, rendering him unconscious.

"Take the coward." he spat, turning his back on them. They hesitated, Asuma moving first to secure the nin. Kurenai and Kakashi stared long and hard at the blond in front of them, neither wanting to put themselves in a situation that could cost their lives, or more importantly, the lives of the villagers.

"Kyuubi-" Kakashi started to say. The demon shushed him with a wave of his hand, his eyes still closed.

"The battle.. It has not been settled." he murmured.

Naruto pushed himself up. **_What am I doing?_** he thought to himself. **_Just giving up? When Hinata and the others are waiting for me?_** He heartily smacked himself in the head, being absent of one pink haired ninja to do it for him. _**Even Sasuke-bastard got past this! **_He turned determined eyes to his other self. He grinned, in a 'I-know-something-you-don't' sort of way.

**_You don't give a shit about other people right? You have no restraints in battle, will do nothing to put yourself in danger to save someone else?_** Naruto tapped his cheek. _**Seems to me like I'm actually the stronger one.**_

"You.. want to fight us?" Kurenai asked uncertainly. The Kyuubi talked in riddles, or in half completed thoughts, in her opinion. She wished he would just be straight to the point. It had shocked the hell out of her to not only see him let Tessai and Hinata go without injury, but also for him to be so polite to her student. Almost as if.. he respected her. But the Kyuubi.. there was no way a demon could respect a human!

"Hmph. It would be far too easy for me to defeat you mortals, even in this form. Besides..." Kyuubi coughed in his hand. "The kitling would be annoyed at me if I broke any of you."

Asuma frowned a little at his response. "So.. We can trust you not to take over the world while we're not looking?" The fox rolled his eyes, muttering low about how humans always needed reassurances.

"Depends whether I'm bored or not. Or maybe just pissed off..." he trailed off, his eyes shining in the growing darkness like a cat. Asuma and Kurenai exchanged dubious looks, not letting their guard down an inch. Kyuubi rolled his eyes, choosing to ignore them.

Kakashi, apparently, was the only one who understood what the Kyuubi was saying, but wasn't any more trusting of the demon than the other two. "Then.. the battle that hasn't been resolved.. is with Naruto!"

Asuma slung Tessai over his shoulder, straightening up. "Between Naruto and the demon?" he asked, wary eyes on the Kyuubi. The fox turned and stared him down with one red eye, making the bearded jonin's anxiety levels sky rocket.

"No, oddly enough." Kakashi murmured, deep in thought. "With Naruto and his other self, solidified by the genjutsu." Kurenai switched glares at the Kyuubi to Tessai briefly.

"So.. is there anything we can do about it?" Asuma asked, shuffling his feet. All three of the jonins found themselves turning to the Kyuubi for answers. The fox looked a little bewildered, then thoroughly annoyed, muttering something rude about humans underneath his breath.

"I cannot do a thing about it.. and you weak humans can do even less.."

"Can we please get through this conversation without the 'weak human' or 'foolish mortal' insults?" Kakashi asked, exasperated.

"If she'd stop looking at me like I'm going to rip her throat out with my teeth." Kyuubi said childishly, crossing his arms over his chest. Sure, he'd understand their fear, even welcome it as it would greatly boost his ego, but acting as if a single flick of his eye could kill millions? Even world conquering demons had vacations.

They should have been worshipping the ground he walked on for him not destroying the village right now. After all, it was only his loyalty to Naruto that kept him for seeking revenge for his twenty-two year imprisonment and the past actions of ninjas against his old clan. Sasuke wasn't the only avenger out for blood.

But for now.. he'd settle for pissing them off.

"Not like that would be a first.." Kurenai muttered underneath her breath.

"Tch. I reserve that death for my powerful and noteworthy enemies. Not a PMSing bitch." Kurenai's eyes lit in anger.

"Demon!"

"That was a brilliant observation. Try it again. I'd love to hear what other things you have noticed about life." Tapping his cheek, he bared his teeth at her. "Tell me.. have you noticed that the sky is blue? How about that the grass.. is green?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at the Kyuubi goating Kurenai, shutting off the sounds of their conversation to concentrate on the matter at hand.**_ Where was I? Oh, right. I was just listing your weaknesses..._** His other self snorted.

_You must be blind and hard of hearing then! To think that those were weaknesses!_

**_Here's how it is, dumb ass, and I'm only gonna explain it once. You have no restraint in battle.. therefore you're untrained and uncontrolled, probably causing more damage to yourself than your opponent. You don't give a shit about other people.. thus you hate yourself, obviously trying to spare them the difficulty of dealing with your sorry ass. And you do not lift a finger to help out a comrade in battle.. you will not reach beyond your limits to save.. to help.. to protect your precious people... thus you are weak._** He started gathering chakra. Thick waves of blue energy hugged his form.

_**I am everything you're not. And you wanna know what that means?**_

_**I'm a lot more fucking suicidal that you.**_

Kurenai's retort was cut off when Kyuubi clutched his head. "Hm. So that's what he's going to do."

"What who's going to do?" Asuma asked uncertainly. Kyuubi was quiet for a long time, such a long time that he thought that he wasn't going to answer.

"He's... going to expend his living energy to snap the genjutsu. In other words.." Kyuubi trailed off.

"He's going to kill himself." Kakashi finished grimly.

* * *

"Oi! Wait up!" Shikamaru, Shino, and Ino turned around to see Kiba, Sakura, and Chouji quickly gaining on them. The quickly darkening sky shed barely any light for the shinobis, leaving them to feel for branches using only smell and instinct. The first group paused, simultaneously dropping to the ground to wait for the others. It wasn't until Kiba got close that they saw Sasuke being awkwardly carried in a piggy back fashion.

"T-thanks.." Kiba panted, gently putting Sasuke down. The Uchiha felt like a doll, a doll that only had movement in his upper body. And it was annoying as hell. He tried to massage some feeling into his legs, but felt nothing. "Needed to stop for a sec.. Sasuke is no light weight." A diamond hard glare was thrown in his direction by Sakura and Ino, who both crouched by Sasuke's side. Ino rubbed his arm with her hand, as if to save everything was okay. Sasuke was so irritated at his immobility that he forgot to tell her to bug off.

Shikamaru gave Kiba an impatient look. "We need to get to the Hokage. So.. if you don't mind.." Kiba waved his hand in a dismissive way.

"If there's a foreign ninja in Konoha, then the 'Kage already knows about it."

"That is correct.. but the Hokage still needs a report Kiba." Shino said. "Either pick up the pace, or be left behind." All of them stiffened when someone else landed near them, soft footfalls barely distinguishable from the cricket chirps. They peered out into the darkness, trying vainly to see.

"Who's there?" Shikamaru said in a harsh whisper. There was silence, then the crack of a twig being broken. The ninjas behaved as if the small sound was a gun shot, jumping into the air- save for Sasuke, who was confined to the ground.- and arming themselves with kunai.

"I said.." Shikamaru said. "Who's-"

"..Nara-san?" someone asked uncertainly. The tension left when they recognized the timid voice.

"Hinata-chan!" Kiba whispered, his nose twitching madly trying to find her scent. He caught it, and began to follow it.

"Ouch! That was my foot!" he heard Ino cry out when he stepped on something lumpy. He ignored her, reaching out like a blind man where he was sure Hinata was.

"Hinata-chan?" Another hand touched his. He grabbed on to it, knowing that it was his team mate, and pulled her closer to the others. "Are you alright?"

"I'm.. fine." she whispered. "Let's just go."

"But.." Sakura interjected. "What about Naruto?" She reached around Sasuke, pulling him up to his feet, noticing that Ino did the same on the other side. The other ninjas prepared to jump off.

"Naruto-kun will be fine." Hinata murmured confidently. "He'll keep him safe." Assuming that she was referring to one of the jonins, they all nodded, forgetting that they couldn't see each other, and leapt off in the direction of their home.

* * *

_Five minutes left. Hoo boy.._

**You sure you want to do this?**

_Positive._

**..Really sure?**

_Yes, already. There might only be a slim chance for survival, but hell, we're used to those types of statistics, right foxy?_

_Don't give me that look. I made a promise that I would do everything and anything within my power to insure my friend's survival. Even if the cost of it happened to be my life._

_You'll be fine. Just make sure to snap the seal and escape before I use the last of my life essence, or you might be drawn into the Spirit Realm as well. You still have quite a few centuries ahead of you._

**..You're freeing me?**

_Yep. Just.. try to follow my example a little bit, okay? As a last request? And please don't destroy Konoha._

**..No.**

_What! What the hell do ya mean by 'No'!_

**'No' as in I refuse. I refuse to.. take the coward's way out and escape. This might be my best chance to escape, when the bonds that bind us together are the weakest and can be broken easily..-sigh- Listen, I had my chance at life. I chose my path, and ended up being defeated by that ninja with the eyes that mirror yours. I lost. I accept my defeat humbly.**

**And even more importantly than that, if you go down, I go down with you.**

_..But.. Ky-_

**It is my choice to fall. Fall by making the wrong choices and following the darker paths in life, or by the side of a friend. I already fell once.. this time.. I'd like to fall with a friend. There also might be a chance that by me staying with you, your chances of survival will increase.**

**  
I had a pack once. A clan, a 'family' if you will. They all died at the hands of ninjas, which was my sole reason for starting my tyranny. I wanted revenge so much that I didn't care who I stepped on to get it. I was going to eradicate the world of ninjas. And I was going to bathe in their blood. I, in essence, was much like your friend Sasuke. Which is why I gave you so much support at the border, when you two were fighting. I saw myself in Sasuke, and saw what horrors could come of it. But that's not my point..**

**My point is.. Naruto.. my point is that I had a family once, and now all I have is you. You are my family. And I'll be damned to the seventh depth of hell if I at least don't try to do something to help you out.  
**

* * *

"What's life energy?" Asuma asked quietly of his comrades when the demon seemed to zone out.

"Well.. you know how stamina is what keeps our bodies going, right? To talk, to speak, to even think.. That's all stamina. Life energy is.. a purer form of stamina. It's the energy that keeps our bodies going, keeps our bodies living." Kakashi murmured.

"It's not something one can just easily tap into." Kurenai added, "Someone isn't going to confuse life energy with chakra.."

"Because if you just barely tap into it," the copy nin said, "unbalance it in anyway.."

"Your death is almost assured." she finished.

"Life energy.. can be used.." Kyuubi muttered unexpectedly, "Your Fourth did it to seal me in the kitling." Asuma and Kakashi exchanged looks. "He.. might survive though.." The demon zoned out again, focusing purely on Naruto. His eyes flashed blue.

Naruto's other self stood in a similar position, blackish blue chakra fanning out around him. Any thing you can do, I can match. he said in a bored tone. Naruto grinned.

**_Maybe.. but are you willing to match it?_** He reached deep within him and pulled on something. Warmth rushed through his body, like hot liquid fire was in his veins. The edges of his chakra were stained with white.

_No.. you.. you couldn't be that dumb!_

**_On the contrary.. I believe I am.._**

Kyuubi doubled over, feeling the strain rush throughout his body. His legs gave out and he dropped to the floor. The demon braced his hands on the ground and started to cough up blood.

The barrier shattered. The dark ninja backed up, his hands coming up in a weak defense. He opened his mouth in a soundless scream before he shattered into a million pieces.

The effects of the genjutsu dropped. Naruto, in his normal, twelve year old form, was in place of the demon. He looked up, smiling a little.

"Hehehe.. Who's the ..hotshot now..?" The blond's eyes rolled to the back of his head, a small thump announcing his fall into darkness. Kakashi knelt down, easily cradling the boy in his arms like a baby.

"Great job Naruto.. great job."

* * *

"Where's the doctor? There's a ninja here in need of assistance!"

"Him? _Him?_ No, I refuse to treat that..._ thing_!"

"Do it.. or die."

"Shit! We're losing him!"

"God damn! Look at this mess. Complete depletion of stamina, chakra, and a severe imbalance of life energy. There's strain on his muscles and organs, especially his lungs and heart. I.. don't think he'll make it Kakashi-san."

"Well.. I must say, Shizune-san.. Your suggestion was risky.. but it worked for now.."

"You have my thanks.. at least someone around here knows what they're doing.."

* * *

He opened his eyes, blinking a couple of times at the light streaming into the room. He scowled, immediately knowing where he was. Only hospitals had walls painted that blinding of a white.

He stretched, pleased when there was feeling in his legs, then thought back to the brief periods of time that he had woken up before. Some one was always talking, but he could only recall a few sentences. He was sure one of the talkers was his teacher, while the other two were unknown. One was female, 'Shizune' and the other was male, the doctor.

_And.._ he looked over at him room mate, disturbed at the sight.

His team mate was hooked up to every machine that was used in a hospital to monitor someone's life. He looked beyond all of the machinery, at his team mate's face. It was unbelievably pale, his normally wild hair flopping down to cover his closed eyes.

"Sasuke?" In the doorway stood his teacher, lounging casually against the frame, his book in one hand. If Sasuke didn't know any better, he would have thought that the gray haired jonin was guarding them. Sasuke started to say something, then felt the need to clear his dry throat. "Water's by the bed."

Sasuke turned, and lo and behold, there was a pitcher full of water and a cup. He ignored the cup and drank the entire pitcher. Kakashi arched an eyebrow at his antics before returning his attention to his book.

"How.. long?" Sasuke rasped out.

"Four days." Kakashi stated calmly, ignoring his student's wince. His gaze drifted away from his book, his eyebrows pinching together. "I suppose..." Sasuke looked up, waiting for him to finish. The jonin stared pensively at the floor for a moment, snapping his book closed. He then looked up, giving his full attention to Sasuke. "I suppose you'd like some answers."

Kakashi closed the door behind him. He grabbed the only chair in the room and sat on it backwards, his arms folded over the top of the back. Sasuke looked away, so many questions without answers rearing their heads in his mind.

"I cannot answer everything, so do not get angry with me because of it." Kakashi murmured, unusually solemn. "Some things are better left unanswered." Sasuke couldn't disagree more. Knowledge was power, confusion was a weakness. Without answers, there could only be confusion. Scowling at his lap, he realized that there was only one question he wanted to be answered. One simple question that encompassed all of the questions he sought answers to.

"..Why?" Kakashi stared at him, a long stare that made him feel uncomfortable, as if the copy nin was staring directly into his soul.

"Why." Kakashi let the word roll off of his tongue. Such a simple word, one that could explain the mysteries of the world if guided in the right direction. But the question was too vague.

"It's the perfect question." Sasuke explained dully.

"Indeed.." And yet it was perfect.

* * *

For all of you who need a reason why Tessai was in this storyline, but not in the original timeline. Besides the obvious "Hello! She's not Kishimoto.. hell, she isn't even Japanese!" It goes something like this- Tessai went all psycho, got branded as a traitor and missing nin, and went into hiding. He got to the outskirts of Kohona, knowing not to do anything rash, as the leaf and the rock were not very close allies, but the leaf would kill him if they were provoked. So in the original timeline, Tessai spends a couple of days in Konoha, then heads off for Water Country to lie low, only to get killed by hunter nins. In this timeline, Tessai was interested by the power that Naruto had built up and let out that one time, so stayed a little longer to investigate. He poked his head into the wrong places too many times, so the Hokage issued out a order to detain Tessai. And that's where the blood shed starts. Tessai uses his genjutsu on all of the Anbu sent after him, and hides out in the abandoned sector of Konoha, which happens to be the Uchiha 'hood. So Sasuke strolls in, to pay his respects to his late clan and renew his vow to kill his brother, as he does every other month, and happened to run into Tessai. Sasuke, pissed as hell, confronts the missing nin and ends up being chibi-ifed. And so on and so forth. I can't think of a way to fit it into the story now.. sorry.

MPD- multiple personality disorder.  
PMS-.. Do I really need to spell this out? Premenstrual Syndrome. Learn to fear these words. This is when your mom/sister/cousin/girlfriend/friend gets all bitchy for no reason at all. And suddenly guys are inconsiderate morons and the world's about to be destroyed sucking hair brushes.. or whatever suits your fancy. Ah, the joys of.. aww, screw it, can't think of a way to be any more sarcastic. Insert your own moody fantasy.

(of course, modern health books have a much better description but I'm too lazy to go look it up. If I was in the Naruto manga, I'd probably be a Nara. Or a random person that runs in, completely in flames. Hey, accidents seem to happen more often when I'm around.)

If anyone has the original copy of chapter one.. you can send it to me if you want. I rewrote chapter one and reposted it, but I want to make sure I got all the important points down. My email address is now on my profile.


	17. A Little R & R

If I didn't say this in the last chapter, I'll say it now: Thanks to all those who sent me the original copy of chapter one. I compared it with the one that I wrote as a substitute, and have decided to keep the second copy up. Thanks again.  
Disclaimer: hmm. I keep on forgetting to do it.. but I think you all have gotten the point. I don't own Naruto. I have volume five in possession, but nothing else.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Seventeen: A Little R & R

by Foxie

* * *

Sasuke eased himself back on the bed, exhausted by the physical therapy that the doctors had him go through. Of course, he had been this exhausted when they first started but was too prideful to tell them that. He was feeling the consequences of that pride. As soon as he pulled his legs on the bed, the door swung open violently, the door knob gouging a hole in the wall.

"You're paying for that." Sasuke muttered, not bothering to look up.

Kiba stood in the door way, his closed fist hovering in the air. "Oops. My bad." Sasuke shook his head in mild annoyance.

Sometimes, Kiba rivaled even Naruto in sheer stupidity.

The rest of Kiba's team moved around him. Shino nodded to Sasuke, who wordlessly nodded back. "How's your physical therapy going?" the bug user asked in that calm tone of his. Sasuke's face soured, giving him the response he had been looking for.

Hinata bowed quickly to him, handing him a small jar. "Medicine for aches." she said simply, her focus already honing in on the other occupant of the room. Sasuke took it and thanked her.

Room 143 had many people coming in and out of the room everyday. Hinata, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Ino were the first that had been allowed in. Chouji, Kiba, and Shino had come in a bit later, apparently because they were watching Kiba's stitches getting pulled out. Even Lee stopped by for a moment to give them(for once, Sasuke envied Naruto.) an 'inspirational' speech.

But none of them visited as much as Hinata. While Sasuke had already guessed that she liked Naruto, how much she liked him was proven by the lengthy hours she spent by his side, sometimes even requesting a cot at the end of visiting hours so she could sleep near him. The doctors and nurses disapproved, occasionally throwing a nasty glare in Naruto's direction. But they did as she wished. She was a Hyuuga, after all.

Sasuke had gotten to know her a bit in the past few days. She wasn't the type to completely ignore someone in favor of another, even with her timid attitude. Hinata would pull her chair nearer to his bed and they talk, for hours on end. About nothing really. It surprised.. no, it shocked the hell out of Sasuke that someone could make him talk so much, but when they started to talk, he just couldn't stop. Every time they did, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Even if they talked about something as unsophisticated and unimportant as whether or not Kurenai wore colored contacts.

Sometimes they talked about their teams, and more often than not, Naruto. Sometimes about their families.

Sasuke had been shocked to find out that half of the Hyuuga clan was controlled by the other by the use of a death seal on their foreheads, while Hinata had been equally shocked to hear that his entire clan was massacred by his brother when he was twelve.

Sasuke had never been impressed with her ability during the Academy, actually not even knowing that she existed until the genjutsu incident. But he was sure that this girl was the one for Naruto.

Truth be told, Sasuke fancied the idea of them getting together for a couple of minutes, but knew it wouldn't work. They clashed too much. Hinata was shy and kind. He was confident and aloof. The only real connection they had was Naruto, who Hinata happened to love with all of her heart. Naruto was the kind of force that Hinata needed in her life, while Hinata was the person who could soften Naruto's rough edges. Sasuke found himself viewing the situation from a sibling's perspective, wanting Naruto to have the best of the best, but when the best of the best came around, couldn't help but feel a little envious.

Sometimes, they didn't talk at all, zoning out into their own worlds, each unconsciously setting their heart beat to the steady beep of Naruto's heart monitor.

Sasuke turned his head to it and stared at the wriggling green lines. Most of the machines had been taken away the day after Sasuke woke up, freeing up the room around his unconscious team mate.

_Why? Why haven't you woken up yet, Naruto? _

That had been one of the many questions that still plagued his mind, unanswered.

_

* * *

Flashback__

* * *

"Alright. Ten questions. I'll answer them to the best of my ability, and if I can't answer them at all, you get a free question." Kakashi said, his elbows resting on the back of the chair._

_"Isn't it.. twenty questions?" Sasuke asked. Kakashi shrugged, showing how much he cared about rules, even those of a simple game. "Fine. Question one.." The Uchiha's eyes drifted away from Kakashi to the many presents that crowded his side of the room. So many flowers and heart shaped balloons and get well cards... Yep, his fan club had swept through. Yet Naruto..  
_

_A vase with a white flower, nine 'get well soon' cards (the ninth card had a ramen certificate on it, three free meals for the price of one. Iruka always knew what was the best gift for his students), and a limited edition Icha Icha Paradise-Volume I were the only things on his side of the room.  
_

_"Are you always such a pervert?" Sasuke wondered out loud, his eyes wide at Kakashi's idea of a good 'get well' gift.  
Without hesitation, Kakashi answered, "Yes. On to question two." Sasuke winced when he realized that he had accidentally used one of his questions already.  
_

_**Think Uchiha! Think! I need a vague, yet specific question so I can get the maximum amount of answers.  
**_

_"Why.." The best questions always seemed to start with 'why'. "Why did I react the way I did to the genjutsu?"  
Kakashi was quiet for a while, so long that Sasuke considered restating his question. But the jonin spoke before he could.  
_

_"You have horrors in your past that many of your friends do not. That's all. It has nothing to do with strength, or ability. It's just your memories and the impact they have on you." Kakashi closed his eye. "What Itachi did to you and your clan is what shaped what you thought you were and who you are now. And that's what the illusion brought out."  
_

_"Itachi didn't do anything to me." Sasuke nearly spat out his brother's name. "I was too weak for his acknowledgement, and too cowardly to do anything but run away when I saw what he did to our parents." The jonin snapped his fingers.  
_

_"Exactly. Question three." Sasuke scowled when Kakashi abruptly closed the conversation.  
_

_"Why do you have a sharingan?" he snapped, his tone almost accusing. Kakashi was about to say it was one of the things he could not answer when he saw the look on Sasuke's face. The sharingan was an Uchiha technique. Sasuke deserved to know why he, a Hatake, not an Uchiha, had the ability. Even if it did pour salt on old wounds.  
_

_"More than ten years ago," Kakashi started with a sorrowful sigh, "I was in a team much like Team Seven. The Fourth Hokage was our instructor, and my team mates were a skillful medic nin named Rin and... Uchiha Obito." Sasuke's eyes widened. The name was familiar. His late uncle, of whom Itachi had spoken reverently of.  
_

_"I hated Obito." Kakashi said bluntly, "I had a strict code. Follow the rules. Finish every mission successfully, whether it meant a team mate's life was on the line or not. He did everything I did not. He was late to every practice, to every mission, a horrible excuse for his tardiness easily falling on my deaf ears." Sasuke arched an eyebrow at him, thinking that Obito was a lot like the Kakashi he knew. Kakashi smiled a little underneath his mask, knowing what was going through the boy's mind.  
_

_"Anyway, I went on to being jonin, and the leader of our team. There was a war going on, if you remember. The Fourth went to the front line to help, while we were assigned the duty of destroying the bridge behind the enemy, so they could not get any more supplies." Kakashi sighed again. "Obito and I fought along the way, and Rin managed to get captured by the enemy. This was where we spilt paths. I wanted to finish the mission, while Obito was dead set on saving Rin. He said, and I quote 'Those in the ninja world who break rules and regulations are called trash, but those who do not care about their companions are even worse trash.'" he paused, fiddling with his glove. "If you remember, Naruto said something along the same lines during the genin exam.. That was the sole reason why I let you guys pass." Sasuke looked at his prone team mate, saying nothing.  
_

_Kakashi sighed and ran a hand in front of his face. "Obito went after Rin, I went after the mission. However, less than half way there, I started to feel guilty so I turned around and went after Obito. Good thing I did too. He nearly got himself killed. I lost my eye trying to protect him. We both went after the ninjas who kidnapped Rin, Obito activating his dormant sharingan along the way. We got Rin back, but the last ninja sent the rocks down to crush us. A rock hit me in the shoulder, dislocating it. Obito stopped running and saved me," Kakashi looked away, "only to be crushed by the rocks."  
_

_A nurse came in, a tray in her hands. "Uchiha-san, it's time for your medicine." she chirped. Sasuke pulled himself out of the haze he had been trapped in and took the medicne from her. She left to go refill his pitcher of water, not without giving Naruto a nasty look before exiting.  
_

_Sasuke juggled the medicine bottle, knowing what his next question was going to be.  
_

_"You should take that." Kakashi chided.  
_

_"And you should finish your story." he retorted, diverting the jonin's attention away from the bottle.  
_

_"Oh, right. Obito, as I was saying, saved me from being crushed by the rocks. But he was still alive. With his dying breath, he announced what he was going to give to me as a present for becoming jonin. His eye." Kakashi lifted his forehead protector and showed Sasuke the sharingan, making sure not to add any chakra to his eye, lest he accidentally put his student in a trance. "It's sad, to lose a friend. And in the end, that's what Obito and I were."  
_

_The nurse came back in with the full pitcher. She gave the medicine bottle, which Sasuke was still fiddling with, a pointed look. He popped off the cork and drank the entire thing, giving the nurse a dull look, as if to say 'Look, I drank it. Leave me the hell alone.'. The nurse left.  
_

_"Question four.." Kakashi reminded him.  
_

_"Why.. such cold eyes.." Sasuke murmured. He looked over at Naruto, who looked sickly, but peaceful. **What could you have done to make everyone looks at you so, dobe?  
**_

_"Hm?"  
_

_"Why does everyone hate Naruto?" The sad look on Kakashi's face faded into a blank mask.  
_

_"I'm afraid I can't answer that Sasuke, it's.. an adult thing."  
_

_Someone knocked once on the door, then pushed it open. It was Asuma.  
_

_"Hey Kakashi," the bearded jonin said, without his trademark cigarette. "we need you at the 'Kage tower. We have to welcome Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama back home."  
_

_Kakashi got up, moving the chair back to the wall. "Why do I have to come?" he muttered in an annoyed tone. Asuma shrugged.  
_

_"Politics, I suppose."  
_

_

* * *

End Flashback_

* * *

"He owes me seven questions." Sasuke said out loud in a sullen tone. Kiba looked up from inspecting the hole in the wall.

"Who?" he asked confused. Sasuke shook his head, absentmindedly petting Akamaru. The dog had decided to take a nap on his bed.

"When will you be back on your feet?" Shino asked. Sasuke shifted his attention to the bug user. He had begun to notice that the less amount of people in the room, the more Shino would say.

"Hm.. The doctor says a day or two and I can leave." The quiet ninja nodded, his attention drawing to Hinata. Sasuke followed.

The Hyuuga was sitting in her regular seat, clasping one of Naruto's hands in hers. She was talking to him softly, in such a low tone that none of the ninjas in the room could hear her.

"..And Sakura-san ran in, completely hysterical, only to find out that Konohamaru-chan was lying. You would have laughed so hard.." Hinata was catching Naruto up on current events. She knew he'd hate to be kept out of the loop. "She ran after him so he took refuge underneath your bed, knowing she wouldn't dare come closer in fear of unhooking one of your monitors. It was pretty funny."

Hinata could almost imagine Naruto smiling at that. "He stayed under there for three whole days, until we managed to convince him that she was calmer." She glanced behind her when the noise level suddenly reached a higher level than that of a sonic boom. Kiba was relating his 'near death experience' to the other two ninjas.

"And so there I was, bleeding to death, a huge ass gash on my shoulder, when this angel comes out of nowhere and starts patching me up..." he said, make dramatic hand gestures.

"You were not bleeding to death. The katana barely tore muscle." Shino said flatly. Kiba glared. All the genins who were attacked by Naruto had no life threatening injuries. Kiba had to get fifteen stitches for his shoulder, Sakura had to get five for her arm, Shikamaru had his wrist in a cast while Chouji suffered from a mild concussion. All were out of the hospital in two days flat. Sasuke and Naruto were the only exceptions. Naruto had tapped a nerve in his spine, successfully blocking it and making him loose feeling in his legs. Luckily, the doctors were able to counter act that by retapping it. All Sasuke had to do was stay for a couple of days for physical therapy.

But Naruto had yet to wake up from his slumber.

"Shuddup ass.. Anyway, this chick had this blonde hair and this weird mark on her head.. and also the hugest-" here Kiba started to make expressive gestures in front of his torso. "that I have ever seen!" Sasuke rolled his eyes, sharing an annoyed look with Shino. Apparently, the bug user had been privy to this particular story many times over.

"It was kinda strange though.. she kept on flinching when she saw my blood..."

The door swung opened. A harassed looking dark haired medic ninja looked from her clip board to Sasuke. She had a tag pinned to her pocket that said 'Shizune'. Sasuke's eyes widened, remembering the fuzzy talk he remembered hearing when he was sleeping. _Oh! That Shizune.._

"Uchiha and Uzumaki, right?" she asked. The ninjas nodded. "'kay. How are you feeling Sasuke?" she asked, walking up to the foot of Sasuke's bed. He shrugged.

"Okay, I guess." The medic smiled.

"Great! Then you can leave tomorrow." Shizune said. Sasuke found himself looking at Naruto. He didn't want to leave, he realized. He had a gut feeling that whatever hospitality that Naruto was receiving was because Sasuke was there. If he left.. then what would happen to Naruto?

Shizune swept out of the room importantly, leaving the others behind in silence. Kiba hit Sasuke's shoulder in a friendly way.

"Good news, eh? You'll be kicking ass with the rest of us by this time tomorrow."

* * *

"Dammit! I swear, Naruto, you are the biggest idiot I have ever seen in my entire life!" A male voice huffed. Naruto could feel himself being carried like a child. He looked up to see Shikamaru's weary face above his.

"No.. stop.." he protested weakly. "Just leave me here.. I'll just weigh you down.." Naruto looked like hell. One of his arms dangled uselessly, while half of his shattered Anbu mask still clung to his face. Blood seemed to be a common accessory, for it was on his face, on his tattered uniform, even in his hair.

Naruto snickered. "Showed that back stabbing fucking traitor, huh? What goes around comes around..." the blond made a whirling motion with his hands, giggling helplessly.

Damn.. the poison's effects.. They had been fighting to hold the northern sector of Konoha. Sound and leaf nins had been fighting half heartedly for a year, but today, an army of sound had set up their base..

Lead by the one and only Yakushi Kabuto.

Naruto had been practically frothing at the mouth to get a go at the traitor. The Hokage had no choice but to let him lead the opposing force. After all, Naruto was one of the highest ranking Anbu members.

As soon as Naruto had laid eyes on Kabuto, he had handed over the command to Shikamaru, stating simply, "This bastard's mine."

Orochimaru's right hand and the Kyuubi host battled brutality, but it was clear from the beginning who had the advantage.

Kabuto was older, smarter, had better chakra control, and had taken the opportunity to poison Naruto during the first few minutes of their fight. For he knew as well as Shikamaru did that the faster Naruto's healing rate was, the faster the poison would circulate through his body.

The smart thing to do was to retreat, regroup, heal, and have another go at it. Naruto wasn't known for making good choices in the heat of battle, especially against people he hated with a passion.

Even Kabuto warned him that he wouldn't last long under the poison's effects.

However, Naruto proved to have an exceptionally high tolerance to poison. He lasted a lot longer than Kabuto had predicted, and that had been the traitor's downfall.

But just because Naruto had a high tolerance of poison did not at all mean he was immune.

The blond started to shake and sweat. "J-just go.." he whispered. "I'm a goner.." Shikamaru ignored him, lugging the Anbu's limp body to where he hoped was safety. The shadow user moistened his dry lips and whistled.

Three jonins immediately appeared at his side.

"Commander sir!" was their snappy answer. He looked carefully at each one of them, watching as their eyes drifted to Naruto and widened in horror.

"Sir!" Tenten muttered in a quiet voice. "Is that.." Naruto rolled his head around to look at her, blue eyes almost glowing against his bloody face.

"Hey Tenten-chan." he whispered. "Didja see me kick that guy's ass?" Tears sprung to her eyes.

"Yes, Naruto-kun.. You did an excellent job.." she whispered back. They all knew Naruto's fate, having seen him blindly run into battle, and kept fighting on even when Kabuto warned him of his soon to be death. The least they could was bring him back to the base.

* * *

Slowly, he pushed through the curtain of dreams and memories, emerging in reality. Keeping his eyes shut, he sighed, remembering the incident like it had been yesterday. He was such an idiot.. and because of his rash actions, Hinata had given up her life to cleanse his blood of poison.

Hinata nearly tipped her chair back in surprise. Naruto had sighed!

"Hinata-chan?" Kiba asked in worry when he saw the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Hinata opened her mouth to answer when something else happened. The hand that she had been holding so gently tightened around hers.

"Eep!" The boys, Sasuke having a bit more difficulty than the other two, hurried over to her side at her surprised yelp. Naruto seemed to be frowning a little, like he was trying to concentrate on something. His thumb swiped along the back of her hand, sending shivers up and down her entire arm.

"He sighed and then he grabbed my hand!" Hinata told them in a hushed voice. "I think he's recovering!" The boys crowded around her.

"But Shizune-san said he'd probably be recuperating for at least another week!" Kiba hissed. Shino elbowed him in the ribs.

"But she also said it was hard to say. She couldn't read his aura." the bug user muttered. Sasuke rested most of his weight on the headboard of Naruto's bed.

"Don't elbow me, you bastard!" Kiba snapped out in a low tone. Shino rolled his eyes.

"You guys are such.. eyesores.." someone mumbled. The four of them blinked and leaned forward.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata whispered, her voice full of hope. Slowly, his eyes opened, blinking several times to get used to the brightness of the room. He looked first at her, then up at Sasuke, Shino, and Kiba.

"Am I in heaven..?" It made sense to him. Four of his dead friends surrounding him, all living... it was like a dream come true. Sasuke, of whom he thought of like a brother and killed with his own hands... Shino, his most quiet friend who had died on one of the few missions that Naruto led... Kiba, who was his rival in many ways and had died in the fiery inferno of the Hyuuga mansion.. And then Hinata...

Sasuke rapped him in the head with his knuckles. "No, dobe. You're in hell. Also known as the hospital." A most confused look passed over Naruto's face. Then he remembered the kinjutsu.

"Alright, give me some breathing room, you idiots.." he grumbled. They backed away, all but Hinata who couldn't go very far with Naruto holding on to her. She blushed when he looked at their entwined hands and did nothing about it but secure her hand more comfortably in his. Naruto sat up, lazily scratching the back of his head with his free hand.

"How many," he paused to let out a jaw cracking yawn, "days has it been?"

"'Bout a week." Kiba said with a smile. "It's good to see you up, stupid. Things have been a bore without ya screwing around." At this, Naruto grinned.

"Strange thing, but I feel like I already know what's happened in the last couple of days." he looked worriedly at Sasuke. "Is that a bad thing?" Sasuke wordlessly shook his head.

"Hinata-chan has been telling you while you slept what had occurred." Shino said quietly. Naruto shifted to look at him. "I suppose you heard it."

Kiba slapped his knee. "Well, I say this is a cause for celebration! All of the rookie genin are in so so health, even stupid." he grinned impishly. "I'll bring the sake." Shino elbowed him again.

"You aren't old enough for alcohol."

"Tch. Old enough to carry a weapon, old enough to learn deadly techniques, old enough to kill... old enough to get completely hammered, I'd say." Naruto saw logic in that train of reasoning, but had to point something out.

"But old enough to hold your liquor? Have you ever had a hangover? Not the best thing to wake up to. And not to mention that the people you got hammered with look at you in an odd way for the next year, because they didn't get as drunk as you and happen to remember what you did and what, or who, you did it with." The rest of them looked at Naruto oddly.

"Have.. you ever gotten drunk, Naruto?" Sasuke asked in a strained tone of voice. Naruto grinned, deciding to be truthful.

"Yep yep!" Kiba rolled his eyes.

"Whatever.. I'm gonna go find that black haired chick and ask her when Naruto is free to go." he jabbed a thumb in Akamaru's direction. The small dog had made himself comfortable on Sasuke's bed and was deep in the realm of doggy dreamland. "Keep an eye on him, okay?"

He walked out of the door when they nodded.

"..He does know that Shizune doesn't know that Naruto-kun's awake, right?"

"..Let's just let him live in his own world."

* * *

Konoha has had many famous and infamous ninjas in its hundred or so years of thriving. The Hokages were prime examples, but what was even more extraordinary was the number of powerful ninjas that were just below Hokage level.

One very well known ninja of Konoha is Hatake Kakashi, the infamous Copy Cat Nin. The hidden mist village especially spoke of him as a threat for he knew as many of their secret ninjutsus as some of their more powerful shinobis. If one asked an elder ninja, however, it wouldn't have been Kakashi that they spoke fearfully of, but his father, the infamous White Fang.

But even more well known than the White Fang and the Copy Cat Nin of Konoha was the legendary three sannin, a three man team taught by the Third Hokage himself. They surpassed all others before them, learning and creating summoning techniques well before most of their age and creating new ninjutsus. It was once said that if you ever faced the three of them, it was likely that you wouldn't survive to tell about it.

However, the team soon spilt up, their paths all leading in different directions. Tsunade lost her will to fight, after the combined deaths of her boyfriend and her younger brother. Orochimaru realized to achieve his ultimate dream, to learn all the jutsus in the world, he needed to walk on the road to darkness. Lost without his team mates, Jiraiya put his ninja life on hiatus, shifting to a life of writing perverted novels.

Some shook their heads, saying it was a shame that they had broken up. Together, they had been the strongest shinobis of their time.

Two of those three legendary ninjas sat in front of a table, scowling childishly at each other. Both well over fifty, they hadn't been in each others presence for several decades.

The woman sat in the left chair. She did not look her age, instead had the smooth skin and body of a twenty year old. Tsunade either aged gracefully, or did something unnatural to herself so she would stay that way. She had brownish blond hair pulled back into two pigtails and intense brown eyes that glared at the eyes of her once team mate.

He had more of a frown on his face, a face that did show all of his fifty plus years. His white hair messily piled on his shoulders, his hand twitching slightly over the large scroll that lied in his lap.

The silence that they shared was shattered.

"So.. Made your perversion a living, eh?" Tsunade asked, looking disgusted.

"Hey, at least I work for a living." Jiraiya snapped. "Surprised you came, actually. I thought you'd be too busily throwing your inheritance down the drain to answer Sarutobi-sensei's beckon."

Tsunade shrugged casually, a sight that made Jiraiya's blood boil in anger. "Hey, I was in the neighborhood."

"Yeah.. and were you on the other side of the continent when the Kyuubi attacked? I was. And I made it back here in three days."

"Just to watch your fool of a student get himself killed."

Tsunade was a very jaded woman, a fact that wasn't at all helped by her extended vacation from responsibility. The only person she trusted was Shizune. She had nothing else but money and her awful gambling habits. She could find joy only in screwing someone over for some cash.

Jiraiya never forgave her for not coming during the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha.

"When Dan and Nawaki died, so did all of my reasons to fight for this godforsaken village." Tsunade said coldly, fingering her necklace. Jiraiya bit his lip, something akin to pity in his eyes.

"Is that so?" They both hopped up in surprise when the door behind them suddenly snapped shut. "But Tsunade, many of your friends still live in this village. Are you so willing to let them be put in danger?" Sarutobi chided gently. Tsunade said nothing.

"Why did you want us here, sensei?" Jiraiya asked. Sarutobi rubbed the back of his neck, walking around to the front of his desk.

"I grow paranoid in my old age." he said dryly.

"Is that so?" Tsunade drawled, her hand on her hip. "Well thank you for the update, but I think I'll be going.."

"Don't." Sarutobi snapped suddenly. She stiffened, her hand barely touching the door. "I.. need a favor." She turned around, a smirk on her face.

"And what makes you think I'll accept?" He tossed her a scroll. She caught it, untying the red string that kept it closed. Reading it, she felt her eyes grow as wide as saucers.

"If.. or when, if you grant me my favor, I sign that, you'll never have to come back here again. And you'll stay clear of the missing nins list."

It was a standard law in every ninja village that the village that you were born in was the village you had to stay loyal to. Those who strayed from that law were branded as missing nins and were hunted down. Even if a ninja had retired and moved away from the village, he was supposed to check back in the village every couple of years, lest he be branded and hunted. Only a 'Kage could bend the law for his subordinates.

Tsunade felt bitter towards Konoha, but didn't want her name to be dragged into the mud by being branded as a missing nin. _If I do what the old man wants, _Tsunade thought, her gaze fixed on the scroll,_ I'll never have to come back here and be haunted by the memories.  
_

"What do you want?" she asked, resigned. A ghost of a smile quirked the corners of Sarutobi's mouth.

"Humor me. Stay in this village until, say, the end of the Chuunin Exam. Whether or not anything happens, and you still are in Konoha by that time, I sign the scroll and you can leave." Tsunade nodded, shaking the scroll at him.

"Yeah, sure. I'm keeping the scroll." She walked out of the room. Immediately, Jiraiya turned to Sarutobi.

"What the hell was that for!" he nearly yelled. "You want her to leave Konoha, leave us, forever!"

"No, of course not. I think she might realize the reasons why she protected this village in the first place, if she stays here for a while. She might rekindle her love of Konoha, if she'd just stop running away from it." The Hokage murmured, trying to ward off the impending headache.

"Oh! I get it. Reverse psychology crap." Jiraiya said with a grin. Sarutobi nodded. "Well, okay. And you don't need to bribe me. I know where my loyalties lie." He left, waving his goodbye even as his eyes lit up in impish delight at continuing his research.

Sarutobi sat down heavily on his chair, twiddling his thumbs. _It pains my heart to have to bribe one of my people to protect this village. It should not be a chore. It should be a privilege. A honor. _He picked up a piece of paper lying on surface of the desk. It was a request to escort a bridge builder to the Water Country.

_

* * *

Flashback__

* * *

Three jonins stood in front of him, a fourth shinobi thrown over the bearded jonin's shoulder. A chuunin stood a little behind them, wringing his hands in worry. They were pleading with him._

_"Naruto didn't do anything wrong!" Kurenai said. "It was all Tessai's fault!"  
_

_"The kid was just as affected by the genjutsu this ass used as Uchiha Sasuke and Kakashi! If you're going to punish him, then punish them too!" Asuma said at the same time.  
_

_Kakashi stared at him with his dark eye. "If anything happens to Naruto.." Both he and Iruka started to threaten. The Hokage held his hand up for silence. They closed their mouths, looking both murderous and sad.  
_

_"Who said I was going to do anything to Naruto?" Sarutobi asked, more than a little confused. Then they told him what they had heard. Someone had found out that Kyuubi showed his face and told someone else, starting a large chain reaction so that every adult in Konoha knew about it. Then the rumors started to fly. One was that they were going to send Naruto away with Jiraiya the frog hermit, which was fueled by the pervert's sudden appearance in the village. Another one was that the Hokage himself was going to kill Naruto to assure that another incident like that would occur. Most of the adults liked that one, so when Kurenai, Asuma, and Kakashi came around, the gossipers were almost convinced that it was true.  
_

_Of course, the adults managed to keep the truth from their children. They didn't want to break the law.  
_

_The Hokage sighed. "A fictional story, I assure you.." A part of him was happy that the people in front of him were so eager to stand up for Naruto, but the other was sad and angry. The adults cruelty to Naruto would only increase. "I suppose the best possible thing for Naruto is to get him out of the village for a while.. until things cool down."  
_

_"So.. the kid is going with Jiraiya?" Asuma asked. Sarutobi shook his head.  
_

_"No.. I need him here. I was thinking more along the lines of an out of town mission."  
_

_"A.. C class mission?" Iruka asked, a little troubled. He wasn't sure if Naruto could handle that.  
_

_"Yes. And I think I might just have the one, if I can convince him to stay here a little longer. And not just him, but you and the rest of your soliders, Kakashi." Sarutobi couldn't tell whether the jonin was frowning or not, but he nodded.  
_

_"But Naruto and Sasuke are still in the hospital.." Kurenai trailed off.  
_

_"Sasuke will be out in a few days. His physical therapist says he's doing real well." Kakashi said. "But.. Naruto.."  
_

_"If I know Naruto," Iruka said, "I know he'll be up and ready for action in a few days as well. Even unconscious, he'd hate to be beaten by Sasuke." The chuunin smiled.  
_

_

* * *

End Flashback_

* * *

He glanced over the request, briefly wondering if it was the right thing to do. So many things could go wrong with a C class mission. The doors to his office flung open. They hit the wall with a bang, startling Sarutobi out of his seat.

"Oops. My bad." A genin stood in the doorway, looking sheepish.

"..Kiba?" the feral looking boy nodded.

"Yeah, uh sorry 'bout that, Hokage-sama. I was looking for that black haired chick, Shizune. Do you know where she is?" The Hokage righted his chair.

"No. Why?"

"'Cause Naruto's awake."

* * *

Naruto sneezed for the nth time. "Tch. Barely out of a coma and you catch a cold?" Sasuke said with a half smile. Everyone, even Hinata, was gone.

"Kiss my ass.. stupid bastard." Naruto said sullenly. "I'm telling ya, someone's talking about me, and that someone is gonna get their ass kicked!" With a superior air, Sasuke waved away his team mate's words.

"I don't believe in those old wives tales."

"You poor poor creature.." Naruto said mockingly. "If ya believe in them, they become real. I guess you'll never know when people are talking about you. Or maybe that's a good thing. People talk about you a lot." Naruto threw in the bait carelessly. He only had to wait a few moments before his line was tugged.

"..So what have people been saying about me?" Sasuke asked, almost painfully curious. Naruto stretched casually, taking his sweet time in rearranging the blankets.

"Oh, just things." he said in a sing song voice. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched.

"Dobe.." he said warningly. Naruto grinned and winked at him.

"I'd bet you'd like to know."

He was nailed in the face with a pillow. He sat right back up with a battle cry, brandishing the pillow like a weapon.

"Mocked by an infidel! I shall have my revenge!" he hopped with fox like grace on to Sasuke's bed, hitting the boy over the head with the pillow. Sasuke quickly armed himself, countering with a waterfall of cold water from the jug that was on the table near his bed. Both boys were grinning.

Even as he cursed violently and countered by shoving the other boy off of the bed, Naruto couldn't stop laughing.

_It's so good to have you back Sasuke._


	18. Loss and the Fated Mission

I injured my foot a couple of days ago, or otherwise this would have come out faster. I was too interested in the bruise that's on it right now, oddly enough. Every time I'd sit in front of the computer, I'd end up poking it for an hour. I am very easily entertained.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Eighteen: Loss and the Fated Mission

by Foxie

* * *

Iruka pasted an understanding smile on his face when the fifth student that came up to his desk failed to create a proper henge, when he'd rather start screaming and ripping his hair out. Really, it had nothing to do with the kids. They were sweet and all, barely corrupted by outside influence(Konohamaru was the only exception. He had been trying to mimic a certain jutsu that he had seen Naruto do once, but fortunately, the blond hadn't taught him anything about it. All Iruka had to deal with was Konohamaru occasionally turning into a very ugly woman.).

It had everything to do with Naruto.

He would have still been annoyed and sad that Naruto had been avoiding him, but ever since he was attacked, all Iruka could feel was immense worry.  
_  
How the hell did Naruto get himself in the middle of an A class mission?_

The bell rang suddenly, of which Iruka was most thankful for. The children filed out, the more friendly yelling a parting greeting to the only half awake Iruka.

When the last one of them walked out of the room, he gave into the urge that had been plaguing him all day.

He started to repeatedly bang his head against the table.

"..Some people take their frustrations out during sparing." Iruka's head snapped up, focusing on the jonin sitting in the window. "I suppose they prefer not to get brain damage." The chuunin closed his eyes and counted to ten.

"Hatake-san," he said in a tight voice, "leave me to my ways. Or I'll burn that piece of crap you call literature." Kakashi nearly fell out of the window in surprise. He never thought that Iruka would be the type of person to curse.

Cradling his beloved book to his chest, as if he expected Iruka to suddenly attack it, he said sullenly, "I just had some news I wanted to share with you. You don't have to be so pissy about it."

Iruka sighed, feeling slightly guilty. "I'm sorry. What was it you had to tell me?" Kakashi slipped his book into his vest just in case. He turned, a small smile curving his one visible eye.

Naruto had mentioned once or twice in their conversations, that Iruka was the closest thing he had to a father. That in itself was what surprised Kakashi. People were biased against things that were unnatural, and Naruto was far from normal.

Not to mention more than half of the village hated Naruto because of the demon that resided in his stomach. For the blond to announce that Iruka was one of his most precious people made Kakashi think that maybe the feelings were one sided. But for once, he had been proven wrong, when Iruka refuse to let the jonins go unless he could see Naruto. The copy nin could clearly see the worry and concern that Iruka had for Naruto, as Iruka was almost as firm about leaving Naruto's side as Hinata.

In the end, it had been his responsibility to the Academy that dragged him away, but that didn't stop his frequent visits.

"He's awake." he said. To say in the least, Iruka's reaction wasn't what he had been expecting.

The chuunin stared at him for a tense moment, then took off out the door, nearly tearing it off of its hinges. Kakashi watched in shock before chuckling lightly.

"He's worse than Naruto." He slid out of the window, landing three stories down on the grass. Nonchalantly, he strolled to the front of the Academy, mentally counting down the time it would take Iruka to navigate his way out of the school, if the chuunin decided not to simply rip right through the walls.

He reached the front, and coincidentally, one. Iruka burst out of the Academy, yelling "Sorry Megumi-san!" over his shoulder.

Chuckling some more, Kakashi trailed after Iruka, finding it hard to keep up with the chuunin's brisk pace. _Who would have thought a guy who sits behind a desk all day could run so fast?  
_

* * *

He found it unbelievably ironic. It had been the voice in his head that had kept him from going insane. An oxymoron in the highestdegree.

It placed high in his list of _Shitty Things that Just Happen to Me_. After he mentally listed why and how his life royally sucked, he broke down. The loneliness was unbearable.

Even though he tried to cheer himself up with thoughts like_ 'Boy, I bet he's happy he's finally rid of me!'_, he felt his spirits drop lower and lower throughout the day, until the full moon shone in his window. Sure that his room mate was asleep, he silently began to cry.  
_  
Flashback_

By the time Iruka and Kakashi came around, they were both on the floor, trying to catch their breath. Broken glass, ripped pillows, and a bed that somehow got flipped upside down caught the adults eyes first. Then the two ninjas that caused all the chaos.

They had flopped down to the ground next to each other, head to foot. Neither had any strength left to try to best the other.

"I won." Naruto insisted in a tired voice. Sasuke tried to kick his head but all he could do was nudge it with his toe.

"You wish, dobe." Naruto pinched his leg in retaliation.

"What in the Hokage's name happened in here?" Iruka murmured to  
Kakashi, realizing that neither boy had noticed their entrance. Kakashi merely grinned.

"Sasuke's version of a 'get well soon' present." Finally, they were noticed.

"Oh.. Iruka-sensei.." Naruto mumbled, looking at the chuunin upside down. "Uh.. hi." Sasuke sat up, looking around as if he had just noticed the damage that they had caused.

"We can explain!" he said, somewhat anxiously. Naruto sat up, nodding as well.

"Yeah uh.. The weirdest thing happened!" he looked at Sasuke, needing back up.

"Most extraordinary. It was, uh, amazing!" the dark haired ninja gave his partner in crime a glare. **What the hell am I supposed to be telling them about, dobe!** Naruto paled at the murderous look in Sasuke's eyes.

Personally, he feared Sasuke's wrath much more than Iruka's.

"A, uh, whirlwind of, um, ninjas! Yeah! Sasuke and I fought them off!" he crossed his arms over his chest with a grin, proud of the lie he had made up. Sasuke smacked the back of his head. **Idiot..  
**  
"Yeah.. ninjas.. right.." Kakashi muttered. He tapped Naruto's nose with his book. "Don't bullshit a bullshitter." The jonin smiled, his one visible eye curving.

Naruto sweated nervously. **We're in for it now..** he thought. **Iruka-sensei's gonna kill us! **Meanwhile, Iruka inspected the room, making a slight clucking noise when he observed the state of the torn curtains.

"This.. actually isn't too bad. For you two, that is." the other three stared at his back, unbelievably shocked. For some reason, Iruka was being extremely lenient. He turned, seeing the look on their faces. "What? It isn't. Look, this can be fixed.. and this just needs to be wiped up.." the chuunin started to randomly clean up the mess they made, making commentary as he went.

In five minutes, the ruin that they had caused in a half hour was either fixed or hidden. "Nothing can be done for the curtain, though.." remarked Iruka sadly. Kakashi sat down on the ground next to the boys rather heavily.

The three stared at Iruka as if he was some alien creature. Iruka blushed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Naruto jumped up, not being able to take it anymore. He pointed a finger at Iruka.

"What the hell do you mean by 'isn't too bad'!" he nearly yelled. "You're always nagging me about vandalism and breaking public property and crap!" Naruto pushed his cheeks together, imitating Iruka. "'Naruto! Wipe the paint off of the Hokage monument!' 'Naruto! Stop sneaking into the hot springs!' 'Naruto! Stop using the Academy wall as a kunai target!' Whine whine **whine**. Bitch bitch **bitch**. The one time I actually feel guilty about doing something wrong, you act like it's nothing!"

Iruka pushed his hands in his pockets. "Well.. I guess I've been a little too preoccupied to try to teach you some respect for our village. These thoughts.." he trailed off, looking away. His expression darkened with sadness. Feeling slightly guilty, Naruto spoke up.

"What thoughts?" he asked. Before Naruto knew what was happening, he was being alternatingly hugged and throttled at the same time.

"You fool! An A class mission, you moron! With a ninja who could have killed you... and yet you're alright. A miracle. Some god must be looking out for you.. I'm gonna kill you for putting yourself in danger!" Sasuke and Kakashi sweat dropped and moved away.

Determining that if Naruto turned any bluer he would die of suffocation, Kakashi unwillingly reminded Iruka that visiting hours were over and that he would have to kill Naruto tomorrow. The jonin and the chuunin finally left when a bright eyed nurse bounced into the room and told them that they'd have to leave. The jonin came back in a few seconds later, informing them of a mission briefing that they both had to appear to tomorrow.

Naruto tried to bribe information about it out of Kakashi, but their teacher merely saluted them with his book, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto and Sasuke slid back into bed, throwing each other a few insults on the way. Both were thinking of what was going to happen the next day.

Rubbing his sore neck, Naruto chuckled inwardly.  
**  
Heh, Iruka-sensei was always so protective of me, eh Kyuubi? **There was no reply. He frowned, knowing the demon often ignored him when he was in a mood. But after all the things Kyuubi said to him, about them being like family, Naruto didn't think their relationship would be the same.** I'm like every other human, dammit. I need reassurances.  
**  
Still not getting a reply, Naruto dipped deep into his chakra reserves, searching for the Kyuubi's chakra. It was the most surefire way to get the demon to talk. There was still no answer.

And Naruto couldn't find the Kyuubi's chakra.

He dug and he dug, feeling frantic when all he could feel was his own chakra. **Kyuubi! **he yelled. **Where the fuck are you hiding! **He remembered some of the things the Kyuubi said.

_**I refuse to.. take the coward's way out and escape.**_

Naruto.. my point is that I had a family once, and now all I have is you.  
You are my family. And I'll be damned to the seventh depth of hell if I at least don't try to do something to help you out.

It is my choice to fall.

The last words rang ominously in Naruto's mind. **He didn't.. no, he wouldn't..** Naruto clutched the fabric over his seal. The Kyuubi had sacrificed himself for Naruto? **No.. I can't do with without you!**

Sasuke looked over, noticing Naruto's pain. "What's wrong, another stomach ache?" he asked, cursing to himself when he realized he had almost sounded concerned. Wide and pain filled blue eyes met his own, and for a moment, he forgot his pride. Then the pure emotion in Naruto's eyes blanked out. The blond looked away.

"Yeah.. just another stomach ache."

End Flashback  
  
Naruto was so used to the familiar warm pressure at the back of his mind, always softly reminding him that he was not alone, whether he liked it or not. Even though that otherworldly presence was the feared demon lord Kyuubi, he was always comforted by it.

Furiously pushing back the tears as he knew that Kyuubi would not approve, he slid out of bed. He walked to the window and let the pale light of the moon wash over him. He knew he had a duty, a duty to his friends, but it was so easy to give up now that his one voice of reasoning, his own bitchy 'cheerleader' was gone forever from his mind.

He slid open the window, gazing downward. It would be so easy to die from a fall four stories high, without chakra and the Kyuubi. If he landed directly on his head, he would surely-

"..Dobe? What are you doing?" he pulled himself out of the window, scowling at the intrusion.

"Nuthin'" Needless to say, Sasuke didn't believe him.

"What happened? You're acting like someone died." Naruto winced. Sasuke had an annoying habit of knowing exactly what was on his mind. Drumming his fingers on the window sill, he tried to think of what to say.

"Well.. fuck. That's it. Someone did die." he mumbled, a hand running through his wild spikes. "Someone real important to me. And it's all my fault. All my.. fucking fault." he stayed that way, with his back to Sasuke, staring out at the sky. Naruto tried to keep his mind blank, fearing the much hated tears rising to the surface.

"..Join the fucking club." Sasuke snapped. Surprised, Naruto turned around. Sasuke winced, realizing that the memories of that day were still so close to the surface. He willed for Naruto to not respond to his remark, not wanting to go through the pain again. But Naruto rarely listened to authority,much less, Sasuke.

"Hmph. You're not special, Uchiha." Naruto said with a glare. Sasuke glared back. The words slipped out of his mouth so easily, where before, he would have just ignored the blond in favor for his thoughts about killing Itachi.

"My own brother betrayed me, betrayed the clan. Nothing that has happened in your life can amount to that!" he snapped, his eyes burning in anger. He wanted Naruto to shrink back, gasp in shock. He wanted his team mate to be shocked into silence. He'd even take pity in order to get that lost look out of Naruto's eyes. But instead, the look intensified, as if someone had just told him that he was unwanted and had no place in the world.

"On the contrary.." Naruto growled, "I was betrayed as well. Someone I trusted with my life. Someone that I called best friend. Someone who ditched me for some ass who though he was gonna rule the world." _And it was you.. _he added silently. Sasuke started to say something but was cut off. "So we've both been betrayed. So stop acting like you're better than everyone else. There's someone out there, believe it or not, that has a shittier life than you."_ And that's me..  
_  
"As if." Sasuke snapped. "I have a brother running round somewhere, probably killing people, and somehow, I'm supposed to become strong enough to kill him. I have no family left besides him. And no matter how much I try, I can never hate him enough to kill him." He leaned back, realizing that once again, he said too much.

Instead of belittling him, Naruto only smiled sadly. "Yeah.. Funny how it always ends up that way." _I could never hate you enough to kill you either._

A little off balance because of the empathy he could see in Naruto's eyes, he managed to mumble out a soft 'hn'. They were quiet for a moment, both reeling in their tempers. Naruto leaned against the window sill, his almost gold hair gleaming white in the moon light. Sasuke drew his knees to his chest and rested his elbows on them.

"The one who died.." Sasuke asked hesitatingly, "What was he to you?"

"Everything." Naruto whispered. "My dad, my uncle, my teacher, my brother, my kid, my comrade... one of my closest friends."

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Sasuke asked in a soft voice. His hand fisted over the front of his heart. "Right here." Naruto could only nod. He didn't want to say anything to break the tranquility, the peace and understanding that ran between them. It eased the loneliness a little. But no one could replace the Kyuubi.

Bright and early the next morning, they were summoned to the meeting hall. Sasuke and Naruto came directly from the hospital, the former a little slower than the first. To make people not realize that Sasuke was actually having a hard time walking, Naruto slowed his pace until it matched his.

Neither boy said anything about it, but the silent 'thanks' in Sasuke's eyes was enough for Naruto.

Sakura was there when they finally got there. She promptly hugged Sasuke, and to their surprise, Naruto. She didn't know what they were meeting for either.

Kakashi, following tradition, showed up forty five minutes late. Luckily, the Hokage foresaw this, and made breakfast for the three genin and himself. It was nice, Naruto supposed, to be able to talk to the Hokage so comfortably. The old man was the ideal grandfather for all the orphans of the village.

"Right.." The Hokage shuffled the papers on his desk. "Your mission..."

Team Seven perked up a little. "You have a choice of retrieving a lost cat, I believe you're familiar with this particular cat," this suggestion was met with groans, "or to weed agarden or to... escort someone to Water Country." Sarutobi rushed through the last choice, trying to make it seem less important.

While Sasuke and Sakura thought it over, Naruto already slapped his hand on the table. "We'll take that last one!" he said with fake cheer. When his two team mates gave him murderous looks, he threw his hands up in defense. "Come on! It's the funnest one!"

"Fun as in.." Sakura said in a dangerous tone.

"Possible life or death experiences!" Naruto chirped. A vein in her forehead throbbed.

"I'm in." Sasuke said. Knowing that she couldn't sway either of their opinions and not wanting to do another D class mission herself, she nodded. _I should go to the library and get that thing then.  
_  
"Alright.." The Hokage muttered, scribbling something down. Even though it was his idea in the first place to get Naruto out of the village, he still didn't feel it was right to move the Kyuubi host from out of his sight. "Tomorrow at the front gate. Eight o'clock. Sharp." he gave a pointed look to Kakashi, who pretended not to notice. "His name is Tazuna of the Water Country. He's a bridge builder requesting for some shinobi to escort him back to his home and protect him from robbers and bandits. Good luck."

Just like that, they were ushered out of the hall.

"Well.." Kakashi said with a yawn. "You guys have the rest of the day to prepare." He poofed off. Sakura immediately turned to Sasuke, her hands clasped in front of her.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun! Want to have lunch with me?" she asked hopefully. Some habits were just too hard to break.

"I'll pass." he walked away. Inner Sakura raged for a moment before subsiding. Sakura turned to her other team mate.

"What about you-" she paused in mid sentence. Naruto was already gone as well. _Geez! Doesn't even say good bye. No manners at all! _Sakura frowned, turning reluctantly to the direction to the village library._ I might as well get it now..  
_

* * *

The second that they were let out, Naruto took off, no real destination in mind. He knew Sakura would be a little miffed, but Sasuke would understand, in his own way. He just had to get away from them.

It was strange, he supposed. The loneliness eating away at his heart made him want to be left alone. The sounds and smells of the village annoyed him, so he took off toward the training areas. When he was completely submerged in forestry and wild life, some of the tension built up inside of him eased.

He kept running, not to escape from his pain, but to feel the wind flow around him, to feel the freedom that was stolen from the Kyuubi. _I told you to snap the seal and escape, you idiot. _he thought. _You didn't have to act noble.  
_  
It was going to be hard to keep up his happy facade. Not when he had just added another name to the list of people who had been directly or indirectly killed by him.

The sounds of someone talking rose him out of his thoughts. He landed on a thick branch, trying to listen in.

"Pathetic. You're not worthy of the Hyuuga name, let alone the main branch." Team Eight and Team Gai faced off. Lee, Kiba, and Tenten looked unnaturally grim. The only show of emotion from Shino was his fisted hands.

Naruto leaned against the trunk of the tree, watching their interaction.

Neji stood in front of his team, coldly glaring at his cousin, who avoided all eye contact. Lee and Tenten looked like they didn't want any part of this, but had to stay to make sure nothing happened. Kiba, however, had to be held back by Hinata.

"You bastard! Don't diss Hinata-chan! She's a hundred times better than you!" he yelled. Lee started to walk forward, wanting to stop Neji before he hurt Hinata any more, but Tenten stopped him with a shake of her head. She knew his verbal assault was not unprovoked, or she would have been on him already.

Neji had been ordered to train Hinata in a vain attempt to see if she would become any stronger. When the traditional fight for the spot as the heiress of the Hyuuga clan took place between Hinata and Hanabi took place however, Hinata lost even faster than she had the time before.

Annoyed that she had been preparing for nothing, Hanabi took her frustration out on Neji by activating his seal. Hanabi had been punished, but Neji could clearly remember the pain of the worst five minutes of his life very easily. Tenten supposed that Neji considered it all Hinata's fault.

"Maybe if you had been kidnapped that one time, this whole village would be better off." he said, ignoring Kiba. From her place behind her team mate, Hinata trembled. Fisting a hand over her heart, she wondered if this was how her family was going to always treat her. _Would you truly be happy if I had died, Neji-nisan?  
_  
Shino took a menacing step forward, the insect life suddenly awakening at his spike in chakra. "Are you done, Hyuuga?" he asked coldly. Neji's eyes shifted from Hinata to the bug user. Out of all of them, Shino was the biggest threat.

"This is Hyuuga business. Stay out of it, Aburame."

"Is Hyuuga business all about bullying your family!" snapped Kiba. "UGH! I hate people like you!" He started forward again, only to be pulled back by Hinata.

"Please, Kiba-kun... h-he's right." she looked down, her hands fisting into the fabric of his jacket. "I have lost to my seven year old sister... eleven times." Hinata bowed her head in shame when her team mates stared at her in surprise.

"..So what?" Hinata's head snapped up, following the voice. Naruto looked at her from on top of a high branch. He had had just about enough of Neji. Friends they had been in the future, but it didn't change that fact that Naruto would very happily rearrange his face if he tried to hurt Hinata.

"The very fact that you're still going on, still being a ninja, makes you a winner in my eyes." He smiled at her, lacking it's normal luster but comforting all the same. "Seems like you're a proud failure, just like me." Neji 'hmph'ed and walked away, his team mates trailing after him. Naruto watched him go, his eyes oddly blank for someone who usually was as easy to read as a book. He hopped off of the branch, landing in a slight crouch.

"Hey guys." he waved to the males of Team Eight. Shino nodded to him while Kiba grinned. "Guess what? Our team was assigned to a C class mission." It was easy. Like an actor, Naruto slid into his part he played, a clever mask hiding everything he felt.

"No way!" Kiba moaned. "That is so not fair!" Naruto grinned for real, the first time he had for the entire day. Some people never changed. For that, he was glad.

"Well, I'm starving. Hinata-chan, wanna come have lunch with me?" he asked. She blushed, looking anywhere but him.

"S-s-sure!" she stammered.

It had been easier than he thought, getting Hinata away from her team. Naruto had wanted to say good bye properly, but after seeing Neji and Hinata interact, reevaulted his plans and invited her for lunch. Naruto didn't know whether she'd accept his odd gift or not, but doubted Iruka would miss baby sitting his apartment.

They walked instead of running. Even though he had been craving for some much needed alone time to sort out his thoughts, this was much better. Just the soft foot falls of Hinata following him were enough to calm down his nerves and help him think straight.

"Hey.." he said softy. "Neji has no idea what the hell he's talking about." Naruto slowed down until he was walking side by side with Hinata. His hand brushed up against hers. She only nodded, staring down at her feet.

When his hand brushed up to hers again, she mustered up all of the courage she had and held it. Naruto looked over, a half smile on his face._ Kyuubi may be gone.. but Hinata's still here. She needs me._ He slid his fingers in between hers._ I can't be selfish and take the easy way out. Kyuubi would kick my ass if I did that._

"Things aren't so good at your house, huh?" he asked. She shook her head.

Naruto stopped, a frown on his face as he searched through his pockets for something. Hinata watched in surprise.

"Son of a- oh, here it is." he pulled out a slightly rusty key and handed it to her. "That's my spare house key. You know where I live, right?" She nodded, staring at the key in awe. Naruto rubbed the back of his head, having never understood girls in all of his years dealing with them.

"Yeah, uh well.. If things get too out of hand, you can stay there for a while. I dunno when I'll be back but.. my home's your home." he said with a smile. "Just remember to water the plants." Hinata closed her hand around the key.

Once again, he was there, trying to help her. Even after all the mess of the rock nin and the nasty rumors going around about him, he still looked out for her. Ridiculously pleased, Hinata hugged him tightly. Naruto stiffened, not used to so much physical contact. Realizing that she must have made him uncomfortable, she started to pull away only to be wrapped up in Naruto's arms. Sighing, she buried her red face in the crook of his neck.

"Stay safe, okay?" he murmured against her hair. "Otherwise I'll have no reason to come back here."

* * *

Neji had managed to get Lee off of his case about his cousin. Tenten however, was a completely different story. She waited until the most opportune moment arose.

It was getting late. Winter always came with short days and long nights, nights where he'd sit in his bed for hours, thinking about the cruelty of fate. Unfortunately for him, he was still outside when the chill rolled in.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and continued on his way home, taking a shortcut into an alley.

It only took a second for him to realize he was about to be attacked. Quickly activating his blood limit with a few hand seals, he dodged the incoming kunai. He grimaced when he discovered that two of the kunai had been henged to look the same ashen gray of the alley. They pinned one of his arms to wall. He only had to look at the custom made kunai to know he didn't need to fight seriously. He deactivated his Byakugan.

When he turned to pull the kunai from out of the fabric of his shirt, several more flew at him, pinning his legs. He sighed in mere annoyance. His attacker had precise aim, only going for capture, not blood.

"I get the point." he snapped, knowing who was the only one who would have attacked him. "Get out here, Tenten."

"Do you really?" she snapped back, emerging from the shadows. "Do you really understand why I'm mad at you?" The indifferent look on his face gave her all the answers she needed. Seething, she punched the wall next to his head.

"She's your family, for crying out loud! No matter how much you hate the main branch, that's no reason to crush her spirits!" Neji didn't blink.

"This is Hyuuga business, not yours." he stated simply. Tenten took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

"I would have thought that the seal on your forehead and the true nature of your dad's death would have been Hyuuga business. Yet you had no trouble telling me about that." she said in a quiet tone. His eyes narrowed slightly, wondering not for the first time whether or not it was a smart choice to tell his team mate so much about his family. "You've got a minute to tell me why I shouldn't be decorating you with scars."

A challenge. He smirked. "You'd never win."

When she gave him a stubborn look that said _'We'll see, Hyuuga' _he smirked even more. Although Tenten was nowhere near as strong as Lee, she still was his favorite battle partner. She was smart, sneaky and wouldn't hesitate to stab him with a kunai. Neji could easily read Lee's attacks and predict the next move(Gai too, but the jonin was too fast for him to beat), but Neji could never guess at what Tenten was thinking. She was the ultimate challenge.

Had he been more of a person to think about those sort of things, he would have said he loved her.

The look in her eyes made him reconsider fighting with her right then and there, for she might do him some serious bodily harm. He sighed, a little disappointed.

Tenten was fun when she was angry.

"I'm looking out for Hinata-sama's best interests, I assure you." he said finally. Neji continued when she looked like she didn't believe him.

"The Hyuuga clan has very specific rules about certain things. Every child must learn several languages besides Japanese. By the time that they are seven, they are supposed to be able to recite the Konoha constitution. Every child is expected to master the Byakugan by the time that they are ten. The Hyuuga clan strives to have the smartest, most well educated, as well as the strongest members of Konoha. And it has been that way since the beginning of this village." He took out the kunais pinned in his shorts and handed them to her. "I have read journals in Latin and in Chinese of my ancestors, about the formation of the seal that binds us to the main family, about the Hyuuga of old. And not that much has changed over a hundred plus years." Neji then took out the kunais pinning his shirt to the wall. "Back then, the clan was only considered as strong as it's weakest link. They killed whoever made them appear weak. What makes you think that has changed at all?"

Tenten bit her lip, taking the kunai out of his hand. She slid them all back into their various hiding places. _What does that have to do with Hinata?_ And then she understood.

The Hyuugas were a proud and powerful people. No matter how sweet and kind Hinata was, she was still a Hyuuga. She was expected to be strong. She was found to be lacking.

"They wouldn't.. she's just a kid!" Tenten whispered. Neji instructed her to follow him with a gesture. She lived only a block or two away from him, where the mansions merged with the simpler two or one story houses.

"Maybe not now.. but later they would." he said grimly. "I'm trying to toughen her up, if you need a explanation. I don't want.." he trailed off. Tenten was probably the only person he'd consider a friend, but he wasn't the type to tell everything on his mind. He frowned._ I don't want what happened to Father to happen to her too. Father was weaker than Hiashi-sama, losing every battle for the head of the clan. Just like Hinata-sama. And look what happened to him.. _

"It would be just better if she stop being a ninja all together." he said. "They would leave her alone then."_ Hinata-sama is part of the main family, I know. At times, I hate her for having the position she does, when I deserve it more. Yet.. _Neji remembered her holding Kiba back. He knew she held Kiba back to keep her team mate from hurting him, despite all the cruel things he had done to her._ I can't hate her_.

"This is the only thing I can do for her. It was not her destiny to be strong. My help may be unwanted but it might keep her alive, by either toughening her up or breaking her so thoroughly that she'll stop being a ninja."

Tenten stopped, her arms crossed over her chest. He did as well, looking back at her. "I see logic in that.. twisted logic." she shook her head with a sad smile. "You are right. It really is none of my business."

Neji frowned a little, darker emotions turning his pale eyes into a darker gray. _I wish that my world was a little more like yours. he thought. A world where I'd think this was a horrible thing to do, instead of a good plan. But that is the fate of a Hyuuga. Never to be understood. And always the last to be standing.  
_

* * *

Ino quickly closed shop, wanting to run over to Sakura's to say good bye. There would be no chance in the morning. Pausing after she closed the cash register, she grabbed a white lily, hoping that it's beauty would make Sakura feel more courageous.

Even with all their epic battles over Sasuke, she still looked out for the best interests of her ex best friend.

Wrapping it in protective paper, she ran out the door, not forgetting to close and lock the door behind. Ino grimaced when she realized she should have grabbed her jacket after all. Deciding it was a lost cause, she jogged over to Sakura's house, her warm puffs of air solidifying in the quickly chilling night.

She only started to warm up when she was within sight of Sakura's front door.

Bouncing from foot to foot, she rang the doorbell. Sakura's mother opened the door and immediately shooed her inside.

"Do you want some hot chocolate, dear?" the older woman asked.

"No. I'm going to just talk to Sakura for a bit then leave. Thanks anyway, Haruno-san!" Ino said from half way up the stairs. She ran up the rest of the way.  
Turning immediately left, she knocked on the door once before letting herself in.

"Forehead girl!" she called out as a greeting. Sakura paused in the midst of shoving a very large scroll into her back pack.

"Ino pig." she stated. The blond smirked, but surprised Sakura when she helped her out by holding open the bag more. Seeing Sakura look at her from the corners of her eyes, as if she expected some ulterior motive, hurt Ino's feelings. However, she immediately pushed the hurt away, never the one who liked being mopey.

After they had finished stuffing the huge scroll into Sakura's back pack, Ino handed Sakura the flower.

"Lilies are put on graves." Ino grimaced when her brain caught up with her callous words. It was too easy to spout out an insult or a threat. Sakura smiled, a challenging gleam in her eyes.

"The Yamanakas may be good at reading fortunes, but you do not seem to have that talent." Her words were brave, but her hands shook slightly when she put the lily in the vase by her bed.

"Hm.." Ino leaned against the wall. "Maybe not." She turned around, preparing to leave.

Why was it every time she saw Sakura, all she could do was insult her? Why did every time they came within hearing distance of each other did everything turn sour? Why was it so hard to admit that she wanted Sakura back as her friend, even if the pink haired ninja won Sasuke? Ino stopped in the hallway.

"..You better bring my Sasuke-kun back safe and sound, ya hear?" Sakura looked up. Ino turned and smiled. Her eyes said it even if her mouth could not.  
_  
'Be safe Sakura'_

_

* * *

TBC_

Preview

That feeling, it came again. Running up and down his spine like a frenzied rodent. He knew it as well as he knew the back of his hand. They were being watched, hunted like a bunch of animals. It had been the same thing every day in the future. Waking up to that awful feeling of not being alone. He slowed his steps, stopping until he was right after Tazuna, but right before Kakashi. He knew what was to happen next. But should he warn Kakashi? Or should he stand there like he did last time, like an idiot who ended up getting hurt, instead there would be no Kyuubi to help him out this time around. _With a flash of kunai_, he thought, _the fate of the world is decided_.


	19. Fated Mission: Start!

Hehe.. Don't worry you guys. I would not have Kyuubi die in such a crappy way. He's too cool for that! -gives kyuubi a 'too kool 4 u' sticker-  
-kyuubi growls and snaps at foxie-  
Eep..  
Disclaimer: .. you all know the drill by now. Naruto is not mine. But this storyline, plot, and random original characters thrown in are.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends  
Chapter Nineteen: The Fated Mission: Start!  
by Foxie

* * *

The mission started out like any other mission. The only differences was that they met at the gate and Kakashi actually showed up only ten minutes late opposed to the regular hour long waits. It was with anxiety that they tried to calm the grouchy old bridge builder, who kept on threatening to take his money back.

Okay, Sakura was the only one worried. Sasuke wasn't a morning person and promptly announced that he did care where the old man 'shoved it' and Naruto seemed to like picking fights with him.

It was, to their great surprise, Naruto who got Tazuna to stop whining.

"Look, you can either wait here for our stupid teacher, or you can walk back to the Water Country without any protection." the blond finally snapped, knowing where to push the old man's buttons. Tazuna quieted, looking a little ill. Then Kakashi had arrived.

After talking with the gate keepers, they were on their way.

For the first hour that they had been walking, Naruto was a pain in the ass.

"Are we there yet? I'm bored. Why are we going so slow? Are we going to fight people? Are there any ramen stands in Water Country? Do you have any kids? What's up with your mask, anyway? It's really annoying. Sasuke, do you use hair gel? What's in your backpack, Sakura-chan? It looks really heavy.." and so on went his endless barrage of question, thrown randomly at the four other people he was traveling with. Kakashi was mostly patient and answered his questions vaguely. Tazuna told him to shut up and Sasuke just ignored him. Finally, the questions ceased coming when Sakura swung her backpack at his head, sending the blond flying into the bushes.

"..What is in your backpack?" Kakashi said in a slightly nervous voice. She gave him a look that told him to keep his mouth shut, even as she awkwardly maneuvered her backpack back to her back. It was clear to them, seeing how strained the muscles in her arms had become, that her backpack was extremely heavy.

Naruto crawled back to them, a large bump on his head. He wisely kept his mouth shut for the rest of the day.

They set up camp a little ways away from the border of Fire Country. Kakashi ordered Sakura and Sasuke to go find fire wood and for Naruto to go catch some fish. They nodded seriously and sped off, surprising Tazuna.

"So.. You can just order this kids around?" he asked Kakashi. He'd love to have a group of youngsters to order around, he supposed, as long as they weren't too whiny._ I'd never have to lift a finger again.._ The jonin smiled, clearing a space for the fire.

"I can't just order them around. They only listen when they feel like it." Kakashi said, lining the spot with rocks. "Even though they are shinobi, they are like every other teenager. Just a little more violent..."

Sasuke and Sakura came back twenty minutes later, carrying huge stacks of wood. Kakashi chuckled at them.

"You didn't have to bring so much..." Sakura blushed, realizing her nervousness over their first important mission had made her look over the amount of fire wood she had gathered. Sasuke was much quicker on his feet, coming up with an excuse that didn't make him look like a fool.

"I think we have just about enough." he stated calmly. "The idiot might accidentally put out the fire." Naruto stumbled into the clearing, his bulging vest hanging low between his knees.

"Who you callin' a idiot, bastard!" he yelled. The blond had used his vest as a pouch to carry five very large salmon, but was having some difficulty carrying the heavy weight all the way back. _Looks like we need some endurance training.._ Kakashi thought.

Naruto handed the handmade pouch over to Tazuna, who immediately face faulted under the weight. Kakashi sweat dropped. _Or maybe not.  
_  
Not seeming to notice the position he put Tazuna in, Naruto got right in Sasuke's face.

"Say it to my face, you ass!" he said in his squinty eyed fashion. Sasuke backed up a few feet, his hand going over his nose. Mistaking Sasuke's retreat as a forfeit, he laughed to himself. "Haha! So you so rightly fear the great Uzumaki, the next in line for Hokage!" He pulled his eyelid down, sticking out his tongue. Kakashi sweat dropped, wondering when his student had become another Gai.

"Naruto.." Sakura said, her expression mirroring Sasuke's. Naruto looked over, his pouty/angry expression turning into confusion. "You reek!"

Naruto frowned, grabbing some of the fabric off of his shoulder and sniffing. _Okay, maybe I do smell a little fishy.._ he thought. Then a wonderful idea came to mind.

"Haha!" he laughed, this time a little more maniacal. "Introduction of my latest kick ass jutsu! It's called..." a dramatic pause, "Smelly no jutsu!" While he waited for applause or some sort of Nobel Prize, Sasuke sent Sakura an accusing look.

"How hard did you hit him?" he asked incredulously. "That sounds almost as stupid as Sexy no jutsu!" Sakura waved her hands in front of her, as if she was trying to defend herself from Naruto's 'ingenious' jutsus.

"I didn't hit him that hard!" she exclaimed. "And I had no part in his creation of Sexy no jutsu!" Kakashi laughed silently. _But of course not. Oh, what I wouldn't give for them to be just a little older.. she'd be so easy to tease..  
_  
"Na-ru-to!" Sakura yelled. "Take a bath right now!" He bowed easily to her wishes, not wanting her back pack to collide with his sore head again.

It only took two days for the pain that Team Seven had only glimpsed at to return in Naruto's eyes. His halfhearted attempts at acting like a moron slowed quickly and finally trickled to a stop.

Sakura thought it might have been the guilt he harbored from attacking his friends under the genjutsu. Although Sasuke's walk became steadier and steadier as the days passed, Naruto always winced at the pale scar on her bicep, a wound that he himself had inflicted. She held no negative feelings about it(after all, could Ino say that she had a scar from protecting Sasuke?) or towards him, but whenever she tried to approach him about it, he'd shy away.

Kakashi thought around the same lines, although he had a sneaking suspicion that the Kyuubi had something to do with it. When the demon held control over his student's body, the demon had been strangely calm, unlike the demon that had been hell bent on destroying Konoha. Kyuubi didn't act anything like how Kakashi thought he would act. And he could have sworn that when the demon mentioned Naruto, a spark of warmth appeared in his red eyes, a warmth that he would have never expected a demon to feel for a human.

Sasuke was sure that Naruto was feeling the pain of the loss of his friend, whoever that person was. He felt empathy for Naruto, even understood to an extent why Naruto was acting so moody. But he could not deny the emptiness in the conversations, in the walks, in everything, where Naruto would toss himself in like a raging tornado, with all of his energy and light. Sasuke found himself missing the old Naruto.

It was actually a bit of all three of them that was bothering Naruto. He was reminded of the pain he inflicted on his friends whenever he saw Sakura's scar, which lead him to think about the Kyuubi, how he would have never survived if it wasn't for him. Then the pain of utter loneliness would attack his heart.

Of course, as he didn't know Naruto all that well, Tazuna thought that Naruto finally got through his head how serious of a mission they were on. Even more serious than he himself had let on.

They were nearly halfway there when they came upon a familiar looking area.

Naruto was suddenly aware of someone watching them, a sixth sense he had developed in his future. When he tried to pinpoint it, it disappeared, leaving him slightly confused and angry.

Kakashi looked to the side, noticing a puddle of water. Strangely enough, he didn't recall it raining the night before, nor did he recall the area having very dewy mornings. _Hmm..  
_  
That feeling, it came again. Running up and down his spine. Naruto knew it as well as he knew the back of his hand. They were being watched, hunted like a bunch of animals. It had been the same thing every day in the future. Waking up to that awful feeling of not being alone. He slowed his steps, stopping until he was right after Tazuna, but right before Kakashi. He knew what was to happen next. But should he warn Kakashi? Or should he stand there like he did last time, like an idiot who ended up getting hurt, instead there would be no Kyuubi to help him out this time around. _With a flash of kunai,_ he thought,_ the fate of the world is decided._

Chains wrapped around Kakashi's form. The jonin faked a gasp, having already made an escape route. The two ninjas chuckled sinisterly, yanking hard on the chains, ripping him to pieces.

Naruto failed to gasp along with the others, knowing that Kakashi wouldn't be dumb enough to leave his back unguarded. He instinctively reached for his kunai, but stopped when a previous observation jumped to the front of his mind.

Pride was a double edged sword, something that Sasuke had fallen prey to. After his many defeats, of Lee, Gaara, the Sound nins, Naruto on the roof, and most importantly, his brother, his pride had deflated greatly. Angered at everyone and himself, he had thrown himself willingly at Orochimaru, what a sane person wouldn't do unless he was Sasuke at his lowest point of self esteem. By the time that he realized that the path he had chosen was the wrong one, it had been too late.

_Sasuke.. he needs this. He needs this win._ Naruto forced his hands to go lax by his side. _He needs this small victory. Even at the cost of my own pride.  
_  
"Two down.." one of the Demon Brothers said softly. Using only pure reflex, Naruto twisted through the gap in the chains, freeing himself even as Sasuke started his assault on them. Naruto came to a stop on his knees, watching as Sasuke used their weapon as their weakness, pinning the chains to a tree. A small smirk appearing on his face, Sasuke stressed the chains with a taijutsu move, breaking the Demon Brothers' deadly weapon.

Driven to angry by their defeat to a mere genin, they ran to kill their main target, Tazuna. The bride builder drew back in fear. Sakura jumped in front of him, a kunai up in feeble defense. Realizing his mistake, Sasuke ran as fast as he could to her, sliding to a stop to act as their shield.

He needn't have worried.

Naruto forgot that he was supposed to be letting Sasuke boosting his ego. His rage was fueled and his mind blanked out when he saw the Demon Brothers go after the person he was supposed to be protecting and the girl he had once given his heart to. Even more so when he saw they were going after his rival.

He jumped in front of the Demon Brothers, hooking his arms around their necks.

He tried to stop them, but he was much smaller in comparison and ended up being half carried. Now thoroughly annoyed, he forcefully put his feet down, using chakra to glue his feet to the ground.

The Demon Brothers ended up being a lot stronger than they looked, his resistance only slowing them down slightly. Sweating, Naruto realized he couldn't allow them near his friends. He'd die before he'd put them in danger._ I can't.. let this happen again!_

Something warm and powerful started to pulse through his veins. He'd later misunderstand it as adrenaline, having never known it, only the Kyuubi and his instincts.

From his hiding spot, Kakashi observed in alarm when the blue chakra around Naruto's feet flashed red once.

The Demons Brothers were abruptly grounded to a halt. Cursing, one tried to claw at Naruto's back, only to end up clawing at his brother when the blond ducked.

A growl bubbling up in his throat, Naruto twisted to kick the Demon Brother that had attacked him, only to find that he and his brother was already flying back from another's attack. When they hit a rather large tree with a loud thump, Naruto turned to look at his ally

"Two to one is hardly fair, don't you think?" Sasuke said with a smirk. Naruto slowly smiled back.

"Let's do this." he said, standing up fully. The two genins ran at the Demon Brothers, the intent to hurt clearly on their minds.

Before they could make well on their promises, they were grabbed by the back of their clothes and lifted into the air.

"What the-" they both exclaimed, flailing in the air.

"It's really touching that you want to avenge me and all, but I assure you, it's not necessary." A voice rumbled quietly into their ears. They twisted until they could see the speaker. "Besides, they're already unconscious."

"You.. you're.. alive." Sasuke whispered, looking into Kakashi's eye. The jonin smiled, his eye curving.

"That was a brilliant observation, Sherlock!" he said, not being able to resist.

Sasuke immediately scowled, having not meant it like that. Naruto smiled at their interaction.

He had been envious and jealous of their relationship before. All he had seen was that the copy nin had both of his eyes focused solely on Sasuke, like everyone else he knew. He had been bitter about, even failing to realize his own self when one of the three Sannin singled him out as a perfect candidate for his tutelage(after much bribing and Sexy no jutsus later). But he was not that person any more. Kakashi had once taken him aside and told him his reasons for neglecting him and Sakura, only teaching Sasuke. He felt he had a duty to Obito, who Naruto learned to be his old, dead team mate, to pass on the sharingan's secrets to the only eligible heir. It hadn't been anything personal.

Now, he could watch them in peace without seeing green. Kakashi had developed a habit of annoying Sasuke whenever possible, something that had slipped byNaruto's gaze before. And he loved it.

"A-are you s-sure that they're unconscious?" Tazuna asked in a slightly trembling voice. Kakashi seemed to remember that they were on a mission, letting Naruto and Sasuke go. _Everything aside.._ Kakashi thought._ My team, although performing admirably, should not have been exposed to realninjas yet. So why were we attacked? _He had a feeling that the ninjas wouldn't talk, and he didn't have enough time to interrogate them properly. He had only one other source of information to go one. Tazuna.

Sakura walked up the ninjas, a move that made Tazuna's mouth drop down to the ground, for he was a father, a father who would have never allowed his daughter so close to that kind of danger. She kicked one of them, confirming that they were indeed unconscious when he only moaned.

Sighing, Kakashi tossed her some rope. "Tie them to the tree. Hunter nins should be able to pick them up." he muttered, his attention already focused on the increasingly nervous Tazuna.

"You." Kakashi's voice was no longer light and carefree. "Explain. Now." Tazuna tried to look innocent.

"What do you mean?" he said, his eyes focusing on anything but the team assigned to him.

"You are not a very good liar, Tazuna-san." the jonin said stiffly. "My team has exceeded my acceptations on how to act when a surprise attack arises, but that does not mean that they are eligible for B or A class missions. You've put my students in grave danger, and I'd like to know why."

Breaking down, Tazuna told them his story. How the greedy business man Gatou was very close in his pursuit of taking over Water Country, and how the bridge he was building was the only obstacle in the way of his dream.

"The Water Country is very poor. Even with all of our money pooled together, we could only afford a C class request. That is why I deceived you all." he bowed, his head hung in shame. "But, you see, I had to. I have a grandson. I don't want him to grow up in a country ruled by greedy and evil people like Gatou."

Kakashi ran a hand over his face. "As sad as your story is, my team isn't strong enough to hold off an army, so I'm afraid we have to go back to Konoha." he murmured.

"I.. understand." Tazuna mumbled, his shoulders slumping. _What am I to do now?_ he thought.

"I don't." Naruto snapped. Kakashi looked over at him, wondering why he sounded so annoyed. "We told the old fart we'd take his mission and at the first sign of danger, we run away? What kind of ninjas would we be if we just abandon him? Could we ever be allowed to take another mission again?" He had never backed down from a mission, and he wasn't planning on starting now, especially with one so important. Not even the threat of Kyuubi not being there to save his ass could make him back down.

"A ninja has the right to decline a mission, Naruto.." Kakashi tried to say as patiently as possible, "we won't lose rank if we say no." _A meaningless death over an impossible mission.. if only this rule was instated a decade ago. Obito might have lived for another year._

"That's not what he's saying." Sasuke muttered. "Not 'would we', 'could we'." Naruto nodded, looking far too serious, opposed to his normally bouncy self.

Sakura tied a triple knot, then stood next to Sasuke and Naruto, physically showing that she was siding with them. "Could we hold our heads up high as ninjas if we walked away as cowards?" she said. Sakura put her hand on her hip. She had gone too far to be done yet. She had gotten used to the rather rough lifestyle of a ninja moving from place to place, and she knew the only she was going to get stronger was if she was thrown out of her safety net. Sakura wasn't about to give up on herself.

"'Those who walk away live for another day.'" quoted Kakashi stubbornly. They don't know what they're getting into. Even for jonins, this is a risky business. _The ever dreaded politics might dictate us signing a contract with this Gatou in the future. IF he takes over Water Country, that is.  
__  
_"Ninjas die everyday, Kakashi-sensei. We're gonna die someday too, either in our line of work, or by old age." she countered just as stubbornly, stomping her foot for extra emphasis.

"You people, you, Iruka-sensei, even the 'Kage, can only guide us so far in our life. In the end, we make our own choices. We make our own paths. Either our choices are good, or they're bad, but they're still our choices. That's the beauty of free will." Naruto said in a rather blunt way.

"I think everyone will agree with me then.." Sakura shared a look with Sasuke and Naruto. They both nodded. "We'd like to stay with Tazuna-san and provide him with protection." They formed a wall of rebellion, clearly stating with body language that even if he had the power to forbid them, they would ignore him to go on with their mission.

_Oh, who am I kidding._ Kakashi thought. _Even if the right to decline had been a choice a decade ago, Obito would refuse to back down, just like them._

"It's our mission." Sasuke pointed to his forehead. "We became adults when we got this forehead protectors. From now on, we make our own choices." _And I, for one, refuse to be treated like a child in an adult's line of work. _he added silently. _If I cannot get past this one mission, than what right do I have to kill Itachi?_

These kids.. Tazuna thought, greatly humbled, _I owe my life to these kids.. no, these adults._

"You realize that they are not the only ninjas Gatou must have hired? And probably not the strongest?" attempted Kakashi one last time, realizing that every word that they were saying was correct. _Stubborn kids.. they're going to get killed before their time._ Even as he grumbled in his mind, he couldn't help but smile. It was times like these that reminded him of his old team.

"So what? We'll kick all the weak guys' asses, you kick all the strong guys'. Aren't you supposed to be an elite ninja? Or are you chicken?" Naruto said, the corner of his mouth twitching up at the end. Kakashi's eye twitched at the obvious barb. _Elite I may be, Naruto, but immortal I am not.  
_  
"Alright, alright. Just don't come whining to me when the going gets tough." Kakashi mumbled. Team Seven celebrated their small victory, stopping only when the jonin reminded them that they needed to get going if they were to continue.

They made camp once more when the sun dipped below the horizon. The ninjas, of course, felt as if they could go quite a bit longer, but Tazuna was an old man. He couldn't keep up with them, turning what would have been a two day journey to Water Country, ninja style, into a two week walk.

"I'm never getting married." Kakashi announced when his students had left to do their duties. Tazuna looked up from unrolling his bed.

"Why not?" he asked the younger man, clearly confused.

"Because I'll have children." the jonin muttered. "I must have aged ten years in barely a month with those kids. Look at all of this gray hair."

Tazuna laughed. "I'll bet."

* * *

Back in Konoha, things were not as well as they seemed. At least, so Ino thought, sitting on her bed, a kunai clutched to her chest. _Just calm down._ she said, giving herself a mental pep talk. _It's not real it not real.._

The mantra did nothing to soothe her, as she kept on glaring at the suspicious shadow lurking in the corner of her room.

"You think I can't see you, you eyebrow less freak.." Ino whispered, letting her kunai sail in the direction of the shadow. "Hah!"

Her prey did nothing, even when she kicked her legs out of bed and ran over to see how much damage she had done. The so called missing nin in her bedroom had been merely her robe lying over her desk chair.

Ino rubbed her temples. "Just a dream.. no, a nightmare! To think I thought I was big forehead girl for a second..." Ino laughed in a fake laugh. Catching the sight of herself in the mirror, she sighed.

"Oh, who am I kidding? I'm scared shitless.. for her more than myself.." Ino slipped on her comfy slippers and sat down on her chair, remembering to pull out the kunai. The dream had been awful. Not in the sense because she had seen it from Sakura's point of view, but from what she had seen in it. The way she had experienced it was much like the way she felt when she possessed someone, but instead of piloting the borrowed body, she was instead just a spectator, seeing through someone else's eyes. The thoughts, feelings, sights, and smells, they all had been so real, felt so real to her.

She remembered trailing after Naruto, even feeling some affection toward him when he turned around to smile at her. Something along the lines of not having seen his smile in the last few days ran through her mind. Sasuke walked next to her, something that would have thrilled her, the real her, but had Sakura feeling a little shy.

An older man talked enthusiastically behind her, the lower tones of her teacher mingling once in a while. Ino remembered feeling a sense of accomplishment when she turned to Sasuke and said "We got Tazuna-san to Water Country unharmed!". Sasuke looked over and smiled (actually smiled! Ino would have fainted if it hadn't been a dream.).

Naruto had suddenly stiffened and come to a stop, causing her to run into him. A brief flash of annoyance had gone through her (too less of anger, Ino thought. If Naruto had ruined her time with Sasuke, she would have killed him), before worry worked itself to the front of her mind.

She had grabbed the back of his shirt, noting that the vest was black instead of the orange jacket Ino was used to. "What's wrong Naruto?"

The blond silently raised his hand, pointing a finger at something he saw. "A lake.." he muttered. The blond looked so shocked at the sight of it. While Ino repeatedly called him a idiot in her head for being surprised at such a normal appearance, Sakura tried to shake him out of it. When she did, he stiffened, yanking both her and Sasuke down to the ground.

They had almost got their heads cut off by a huge blade.

Then from then on, everything got a little blurry and very much confusing. Flashes of Sakura's teacher and a partially dressed man fighting, Naruto and Sasuke jumping in to help while she stood guard over the old man, flew past her eyes.

Then a scene that she would never forget for the rest of her life. Naruto got stabbed through the stomach with a large shuriken that Sasuke had thrown before. He fell into the water, turning the once blue liquid into a dark red. Nearly screaming in anger, Sasuke charged the man, who casually had Sakura's teacher in some sort of water prison. The eyebrow less man grabbed Sasuke by the throat and started to squeeze.

She, despite Sakura's teacher's yells to run and even Sasuke's insistent yells that she get away, ran toward them with a kunai in each hand, gliding neatly on the surface of the water.

Then the scenes blurred and flashed again. Somehow, Sakura's teacher had gotten free and was fighting again. Sasuke was holding her as she cried for Naruto, still floating on the surface of the red lake. Sakura's teacher was knocked back by the use of the same water technique in a row, then the eyebrow less ninja ran at her and Sasuke, his blade back in his hand, his eyes thirsty for revenge.

Their enemy had swung his blade at them too fast for her to see. The last thing she remembered seeing was red.

Ino hugged her knees to her chest. _A dream that was way too real for my tastes.. what could it mean? Am I just getting overly worried and paranoid about Sakura? Or is it a vision?_ She immediately waved it off. _Nah, I don't have those sort of powers. Auntie does, but all I can do is possess people, just like Dad_. Totally writing it off as a nightmare did nothing to soothe her rattled nerves. More than once, she considered going into her parents' room to sleep with them, like how she did when she had nightmares at an earlier age.

Pride threw that option out the window._ If I do that, Dad'll laugh at me!  
_Breathing exercises didn't work. Listening to music only made her more paranoid. Even the mindless actions of combing her hair did nothing for her. It was four in the morning.

"Dammit! That's it! I'm taking a walk!" Ino got up, dressing in her normal outfit plus a jacket. She put on full ninja gear, just in case, even taking her exit by window to not bother her parents. She jumped down to the street, instinctively turning to the left. Ino started walking.

She was starting to question her sanity as the walk wasn't doing anything to calm her down at all, when an Anbu appeared on the roof ahead of her. The nameless, faceless protector of the sleeping village stared at her.

"Can't a girl take a walk!" she snapped at him/her/it. The Anbu stared at her for a second longer, lifting it's shoulders in a slight shrug before disappearing into the darkness.

Puzzling over the Anbu kept her occupied until she had reached the part of the village where houses were more spread apart from each other, either farms or stables taking up space. Realizing that this place looked vaguely familiar, she walked up to one of the houses in a vain attempt to make out the nameplate. A shadowy figure by the fence made her stiffened.

She reached into her kunai pouch, her fingers running over the worn handles when she saw that the figure was too oddly shaped to be the eyebrow less villain of her nightmare. After all, he didn't have four legs.

Ino walked up to it, her steps becoming more confident when she saw it was just an animal. A doe actually.

She pet the docile animal. "You up at this crazy hour too, huh?" The doe looked at her with amber eyes, butting her head lightly against Ino's shoulder. "Yeah yeah. I know. I'm a fool.." It took her two more strokes of the deer's fine fur to realize whose house she was near.

Ino's face soured. "Nara Shikamaru." The lazy bum of her team. The bane of her existence. Her father's drinking buddy's son. The list could go on and on.

Either he was annoying her by not committing to anything, or by his vast differences compared to Sasuke. Sure, after she had ranted for a few hours about his faults, she'd mention he wasn't too bad of a friend, that he had an interesting, snarky sense of humor that she liked, and he was extremely loyal, but they hadn't been on the best of terms for the last week.

Hence the revival of their feuds and the temporary death of their understanding in each other.

Ino looked around, half expecting him to pop up out of nowhere, accuse her of trying to do something stupid. Or worse, him use his shadow bind on her, him being fully aware of her hatred of being immobilized.

When nothing but the doe moved, she decided that Shikamaru needed a wake up call. Giggling devilishly, she climbed over the fence, running all the way to the back of the property where the house was. She knew exactly what window was Shikamaru's, having been to the Nara house once before.

Annoyed that his room was on the second story, she started to climb the bougainvillea growing up the side of the house._ I bet he sleeps with a teddy bear.. or wears silly pjs.._ Ino grinned at all the stuff she could blackmail him for. _Hmm.. I think him being my faithful servant for a month should do.._

Ino silently lifted open the window, sliding with feline like grace into the room. She sat in the corner, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. _Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when Ino comes for you? Bad Shika Bad Shika.._ she mentally sang in her mind.

When they finally adjusted, she saw Shikamaru. She would have said she was disappointed, but the sudden rush of emotions that flooded her when she gazed at him constricted her throat. There was no teddy bear, no embarrassing pajamas, no nothing. It was a regular guy's room, a little messier because of the inhabitant's laziness.

Shikamaru slept the way most people do, half of the blankets kicked off, using an arm as a pillow even though there was a perfectly good one lying not two inches away from his head. A white shirt and gray sweats were all he wore for pajamas. He also had his hair down, the first time Ino had ever seen it that way.

Shikamaru and his room were just so normal. She couldn't explain why she felt so touched. A calmness had over taken her the second she had crawled in, making her wonder if that feeling was really the reason why she had pulled herself out of bed, had went left instead of right, had cut her hands in the bush to get into this room. All thoughts of blackmail flew out of her mind.

_Damn you Shika.._ she thought,_ Must you affect me so?_

Ino didn't know how long she had sat in that corner, staring at Shikamaru's perfectly relaxed face, but when her eyes shifted toward his alarm clock and the red numbers had flashed 4:39 at her, she stood._ I should go.._

Ino rubbed feeling back into her numb legs and went back to the open window. She put her hand on the sill and chanced a look back at Shikamaru, just one last time.

Only to see he was wide awake and looking right back at her. She barely held back a scream. Frozen in place, she could only stare into his brown eyes. Finally he spoke.

"Close the window. It's cold." she started to climb out. "No, with you in here." Ino pulled herself back in, regretting having come in the first place. He'd probably use it as blackmail, make her do whatever he wanted for the rest of her life! Ino was not accustomed to the life of a servant, dammit, she was a ninja!

"No one will ever believe you.." she started to babble. "They'll just think you're a weird guy having warped fantasies about pretty girls like-" A familiar sensation over came her, like water trickling over her, as a strong form of his shadow imitation clamped her mouth shut. Ino glared at him as he sat up and stretched, wondering why she wasn't mimicking his actions. Shikamaru answered her question.

"This is a stronger form of my family's jutsu. What you remember is my shadow imitation. This is a shadow bind." He sat Indian style on the bed, draping his blanket over his shoulders to ward off the cold. "Perfect for shutting up troublesome women." If looks could kill, Shikamaru would have been a pile of ashes under the force of her glare.

He let up the jutsu. "Why are you here?" he asked. "I was going to let you get out of my room without any consequences, even when you woke me up and made me cold, but you stayed here too long. It's your fault that you piqued my curiosity."

Ino seethed. "It's none of your business." she snapped. Shikamaru rested one elbow on his knee, supporting his chin on his hand.

"Really? I dunno if that's a true statement.. After all, you broke into my room at an ungodly hour and continued to just stare at me for, say twenty, twenty-five minutes. I think I have the right to question you thoroughly." he said flatly.

"So the cold woke you up? A real ninja should be able to take the slightest bit of temperature change!" she tried to twist it around on him. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"_A_ _real ninja_ should also be able to wake up when an unknown person is snooping around his room." he said. Ino started to sputter, denying any snooping that she did. "Besides, it wasn't the cold that woke me up. It was the scent of blood." Shikamaru glanced meaningfully to her scratched up hands.

Ino blushed, hiding them from view. She knew he wouldn't let up until he had an answer, and if she tried to escape, he'd send his shadow right after to her haul her back into his room. She bowed to her fate.

"I.." the words were hard to form. If it hurt her pride to tell her parents that she was having nightmares and in desperate need for comfort, telling Shikamaru would brutally massacred it and dump it into the bottom of the ocean. Ino continued in a much softer voice. "I had a nightmare.. and I was really scared. I don't really know why I'm here.. my feet just led me." She couldn't look at Shikamaru, thinking that he was probably gloating over the material he had to hold over her. But she looked anyway.

He had a deeply introspective look on his face, his eyes slightly glazed over. Then they focused on her sharply. "I suppose.." he rubbed the back of his neck in an embarrassed way, mumbling troublesome. "I suppose people talk out their nightmares to get over it. Share the burden with someone else so it doesn't bother them as much." When Ino stared at him in utter surprise, he sighed, patting the spot next to him.

"Get over here." Stiff kneed, she walked over and sat down next to him. He threw part of his blanket over her shoulders, mumbling something about it being cold._ Why am I so embarrassed? It's just Shikamaru..  
_  
Ino curled her feet underneath her body, trying to instill some of her old self into her words. "Tell anyone about this, Shika, and I'll kill you." Surprised that she actually accepted his gift of a listening ear, he turned slightly so he was facing her. His knee bumped hers.

Ino swallowed, the previous fear of her nightmare appearing in one fell swoop. Her hands began to fidget. "Alright, here's how it goes. Some of it's clear, some of it's blurry, but one thing that I know is true is that I thought I was Sakura.." Even as she started her tale, she thought how nice it was to have Shikamaru as a friend once more.


	20. Eyes of the Beholder

Anyone else have their computers acting like asses? Mine won't even let me get to my desktop before it freezes or automatically turns off. So I'm writing all of this in safe mode, whatever that thing is. Only difference between safe mode and normal is there's less bling bling and a lot of my programs decide they don't feel like working. A major improvement over not working, though.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends  
Chapter Twenty: Eyes of the Beholder  
by Foxie

* * *

"Shikamaru dear! It's time for breakfast!" The shadow user's eyes snapped open, an excuse already forming on his lips. His mother, however, didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. She smiled at him, having no reason to be angry at him that morning, a miracle in itself. Besides, his hair looked too goofy in the morning to stay mad for long. Especially that morning, for some reason. "Hurry up before it gets cold."

He let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding, his eyes focusing on a strange blue pillow (he could have sworn it was not his) for a moment. Now, why am I so antsy this morning? He pulled his legs out from under the blankets, stretching out his back. Shikamaru nearly had a heart attack when the pretty pillow on his bed burst into smoke.

"..Really, I'm so glad your mom isn't a ninja." a girl muttered. Shikamaru blinked at her, then reached up to feel the temperature of his forehead. The last time he checked, girls magically appearing on his bed was not part of his usual agenda.

Especially if those girls looked just like Ino. _I must be seeing things..  
_  
'Ino' bounced off of his bed, seeming to be in very high spirits. She started fiddling with the various trinkets lying around his room, somehow finding a home there by either his mother's forcefulness, or his father's laziness. It took a moment or two of just staring at her, but Shikamaru finally remembered why she was in his room.

Somehow, Ino sneaking into his room late at night seemed too much like a dream to be real.

He rubbed his temples, reliving the disturbed feelings he had after she had finished her story. _She said.. gliding on water. Walking on water, maybe? With chakra? It's pretty advanced. No way that Ino could have know enough about that to think about it in her subconscious.._ Shikamaru sat cross legged on the bed, his fingertips touching together in his thinking pose. _Crooked forehead protector, of the hidden mist, huge sword.. Sounds a little familiar, although I can't remember why._ He skirted around that thought when he could gain no more understanding from it.

_Naruto.. dying. Ino has barely spoken three words to Naruto, much less gotten to know him well enough to want him dead. Sakura and Sasuke.. an unsure future, although all signs point to their demise in her dream._ Shikamaru's brain hurt. Trying to find symbolism was hard. Trying to prove that a dream was merely the subconscious acting out its thoughts was even harder, especially with a Yamanaka. He was very well aware of the psychic capabilities of the Yamanaka Clan,her fatherhaving a very loose tongue when he was drunk. Shikamaru thought it was very possible that Ino could see the future. Or at least have the potential to.

Finding out some of your friends are going to die is a very crappy way to learn that you're a Seer, he supposed. That was his main motive for finding some sort of clue in her dream that pointed it out as being fiction, not facts. He'd hate for his fellow genin to die.

Ino's thoughts were as far away from her dream as possible. She had decided, after she had woken up, that it was just her nerves playing with her. Sakura's teacher was some kind of elite genius ninja, after all. No way that the guy would any of his students die, let alone fight an incredibly strong fighter, no matter who they were. Or so she hoped.

Of course, her thoughts had not been on her dream when she had woken up, but rather on the very comfortable pillow she had been snuggled against. A very comfy Shikamaru shaped pillow.

After she realized it was very _very _wrong to be sleeping on the bane of her existence and even liking it, she had jumped off the bed away from him like a cat touched with a hot iron. Ino was shocked, embarrassed, and even a little guilty (she had pledged her heart to Sasuke, after all.), and was about to beat Shikamaru black and blue to make him keep quiet when she realized he was still sleeping. For real.

For once he was saved by his laziness. But his hair, the reason for his mother's amusement, had been subjected to Ino's boredom.

Shikamaru stretched again, deciding to leave the mystery of Ino's.. whatever it was for later. He slid open his closet, taking the first clothes he could grab. Yawning, he ran his free hand through his hair, only to get it caught in something. Tugging, he managed to free his fingers. Shikamaru glanced in the small mirror on his wall(courtesy of his mother). His normally plain looking, shoulder length hair was tied back in dozens of small ponytails and braids. Ino giggled in the background when she saw the pained look on Shikamaru's face.

He sighed. "And you wonder why people say you should wear a bell around your neck.."

* * *

They packed up camp and moved out. According to Kakashi, they were making very good time. Tazuna had revealed a shortcut that even the jonin hadn't known about, shaving at least five days off of their journey.

It only took about five seconds for Kakashi to realize that their team morale was dangerously low.

It could have been when Naruto flung a fresh fish at Sasuke after an extremely biting comment about the blond's stealth skills. Or maybe it was when Sakura avenged Sasuke by knocking Naruto over the head with her sack again. But many events like that had happened in the few hours that they had been on the move.

Sasuke would snap at Naruto, Naruto would snap back, Sakura would defend Sasuke. Then Sasuke would snap at Sakura because he didn't want to be defended, Sakura would be sad, then Naruto would go at Sasuke with triple the force, defending Sakura. Sakura would yell at him, not wanting to be defended either, then Naruto would leave for sometime, the longest absence being about half of an hour. Then he'd return and the snapping fest would start again. Tazuna had run out of aspirin and was seriously considering knocking Naruto and Sasuke out for an hour of peace and quiet.

Kakashi, using his ultimate 'look underneath the underneath' skill, figured out the problem. It was Naruto.

The mood the blond was in always decided the mood of the team, for some bizarre reason. If he was happy, then the team was as close to happy as they could be. If he was sad, so was the team.

The jonin had a feeling that Naruto was sad, guilty, and a little bit angry, creating a mass domino effect on the moods of his team mates.

"If you weren't such a cold bastard with an ego to fill the Hyuuga mansion, I wouldn't have any trouble with you!" Naruto growled, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. Sasuke scowled at him.

"Stop trying to cause trouble, Naruto!" Sakura piped up, swiping at the blond's head. Sasuke ignored her.

"If you'd stop walking around like a kicked puppy, I wouldn't have any problem with you either." the darker ninja said coldly. Tazuna shook his head, having given up on making them be quiet about an hour ago. Naruto opened his mouth to object. Sasuke stopped, pivoting on his foot. He punched Naruto in the face. Sakura yelped, having not expected their fight to become physical.

Kakashi took a step forward, privately surprised that Naruto had only slid a foot back, despite all the force that Sasuke had thrown into it. He was stopped by Sasuke's next words.

"It's not your fault! None of it!" the normally quiet boy roared. "Not the genjutsu, not my back, not the betrayal, or the loss of your friend!" He grabbed Naruto by the front of his black vest. His voice lowered. "Stop walking around in a bad mood because you can't control everything. Stop acting like a bastard because things went out of your hands. Life isn't fair, and you're loved ones are going to die eventually. Get used to it."

Naruto leaned slightly forward, his teeth bared in a silent snarl. _Brat! I went through ten more years of life and death! How dare he talk to me like that!  
_  
"Hypocrite." he hissed out loud. He griped Sasuke's wrist, forcefully tugged it away. "You let your clan's death plague you. Fuck, your dream.. or how did you put it.. your 'ambition' has everything to do about your past.. and Itachi." Sasuke's eyes widened. He didn't remember telling anyone his brother's name. "Don't dictate to me how to live my life or I really will cripple you."

The two glared at each other, hatred burning in their eyes. It was not hatred of each other that kept them at each other's throats, rather that they had to be reminded of their pain so publicly. Sakura looked at Sasuke, then at Naruto. _If this gets any worse.. I might actually need the things in my sack..  
_  
Sasuke looked away first, a nearly inaudible 'hn' accompanying his retreat.

Naruto relaxed his stance, taking a second to glance back at Kakashi. "I'm going to scout ahead." he said in a flat voice. What his eyes said was very different: _I'm leaving to stop from killing one or more of you, and if you try to stop me, I'll burn your book.  
_  
Despite the obvious threat, the jonin had his duties to his team, as much of a pain they were.

"Wait." Kakashi said, sliding his book back into his pocket. "I'll go with you." He turned to the other three. "Stay safe and keep alert." They nodded.

After making sure that they had all of the necessary supplies to defend against an attack, he went after Naruto. The blond kept them at a brisk pace, at least twice the speed Kakashi would have had them at, had he been in the lead. Naruto finally stopped when they were at least a half of a mile away from the others, well out of hearing range. Kakashi jumped on the branch above him to keep from crashing into him after his abrupt stop.

"What do you want." Naruto muttered, knowing that the jonin didn't accompany him for the sake of good company. For he, the demon scum of Konoha, was anything but good company, right?

"The team's morale is low.." Kakashi said vaguely. Naruto suppressed rolling his eyes, the soreness of his cheek still plaguing him._ Bastard.. What right do he have to punch me.. Stupid low life. _Naruto grumbled silently to himself, no real heat behind his words. Sasuke would have to work very hard if he wanted Naruto to hate him. A chidori to the lung and a betrayal later, Naruto still viewed the angsty ass like a brother.

"No shit." he snapped.

Kakashi sighed. "And I think it's because of you." Naruto acted accordingly.

"But of course.. It's always my fault about everything, isn't it." he said venomously. And worse, he even believed it. He stared at his hands. "Everyone gets hurt because of me."

"Naruto.." the jonin muttered. "This isn't about your rivalry with Sasuke.. or even the genjutsu to an extent, is it?" Naruto didn't answer, the only respond to his questions was a slight stiffening of the Kyuubi host's shoulders. Kakashi crossed his arms over his chest. So he was right.

Naruto twitched and stayed silent. _Why can't I tell him? I told Sasuke.. Kakashi would probably understand it better. _But Sasuke had been a rival, a friend, a brother. Sasuke had been a person he looked up to, but in the end, they had been equals. Kakashi, in Naruto's mind, was still up on a pedestal. Naruto didn't want Kakashi to know anything about him that would make him be looked down upon. In his eyes, Kakashi was one of the few people that Naruto had been able to call a precious person, Kyuubi or no Kyuubi, one of the few adults who refused to dehumanize him with insults and hate.

Unaware of Naruto's thoughts, Kakashi shifted slightly on the branch, Sasuke's words still ringing in his head. "Who died, Naruto?" he finally asked. Naruto sighed. _I have to tell him. He won't let me off the hook otherwise..  
_  
"You know.. the thing that whats-his-face used on Sasuke, right? That he used on you and me too?" Naruto asked in a small voice. Kakashi nodded, the transformation that he and the two boys went through wasn't something he'd forget so easily. "You know how it acted so screwy with me because of the Kyuubi." He nodded again.

The Kyuubi hadn't been anything like he expected. The demon seemed more worried about Naruto than anything else, a worry that seemed to be more than what a demon would have about his cage.

"Well, another personality was created inside of me, one equal to my strengths. Kyuubi couldn't do anything to help. I destroyed the genjutsu by using some of my life energy." Kakashi bit his lip. That had easily been the most terrifying day of his life.

Naruto had been slipping in and out of a death like coma. No one at the hospital wanted to help, and even the ones he had threatened into helping his student had neglected him. He had only limited experience with unbalanced life energy, of which he knew lead to the death of it's wielder. It was like losing Obito all over again.

If Shizune hadn't shown up, he doubted that Naruto would have survived. But even the skilled medic nin said that there was something that kept Naruto clinging to life, some thing went way out of her expertise. She said it might had just been the Kyuubi.

"Which reminds me. Never do that again." Kakashi said flatly. A ghost of a smile appeared on Naruto's face.

"Anyway, it was Kyuubi who kept me alive. And.. and.." the smile faltered, then completely diminished. Naruto's gaze dropped down to the ground. "And he.. saved me.. at the expense of his own life." _Saved me from my stupidity, once again! Damn you, you dumb fox! I don't want to live if you're not here to bitch at me!  
_  
He barely noticed when Kakashi jumped down to his branch. The jonin dropped down to a knee to look him in the eyes. He did notice when the jonin hummed lightly in his throat, as if trying to mentally word what he was about to say next.

"I.. am pretty sure you're mistaken." Kakashi finally murmured. Naruto looked back up quickly, fury instantly burning in his expressive eyes.

"Don't assume you know everything!" he shouted, jumping back a step from his teacher. "I know him the best! I have a connection with him! And guess what! His energy has just gone and disappeared and-" Kakashi held up a hand for silence. Habit won over anger, his mouth shutting almost immediately. If the topic hadn't been so serious, Kakashi would have been bewildered that a simple hand gesture could make the ever talkative blond shut up. Years training as an Anbu and many years more fighting in the war had honed his body and mind in a way that even Tsunade couldn't completely explain. He couldn't talk, even if he wanted to, when that hand gesture was used.

"I have reasons for my conclusion. Let me tell you them before you decide to roast me over a fire." Kakashi tried to make his voice sound light, but knew it failed to cheer Naruto up when the genin took a stance and glared at him. Kakashi might have not minded so much if it wasn't the look in Naruto's eyes. They were dim, flat, dull. Even lifeless. He was going through the motions of living, but wasn't really there. Kakashi knew the look. It graced the face of every person who had every lost a person close to them. It would dim over time, but the pain would still be there. It was really a show of Naruto's character for him to be so saddened over the death of a demon that everyone hated and feared. And a show of Kyuubi's character too, for the demon had been someone that Naruto needed in the rough times in his life, which had endeared him to the blond. The jonin sighed, running a hand over his face. He didn't notice that Naruto had relaxed when he brought his hand down.

"When you were.. well, not really fighting, but defiantly involved with the fight against those two ninjas back there," he began, "your first attempts were futile. They, as chuunins, were stronger and faster than you. Using chakra to glue your feet to the ground or not(which reminds me, neither I nor Iruka has taught you that yet, and although it is very interesting that you know how to do it and how to do it right, it is a topic for another time), they had momentum and strength to still move you. You were desperate. I could see it in your eyes." Kakashi smiled. At the time, it had been slightly terrifying for him, to see a look like that on Naruto's face. Such desperation shouldn't have been on the face of the kid who often said he could do anything. But it was born of the love he had for his friends, which what made him happy.

"Something must of hit the breaking point inside of you because.. for just a spilt second.. your chakra was red." Naruto's eyes widened and a small hopeful gleam lit up the blue depths. "The red chakra, of which I was assuming is your, uh, friend's(no human's chakra is red, after all), was much stronger than your own and managed to stop them in their tracks."

The small bubble of hope building up in his chest was smothered by doubt. "That could have been left over chakra.." Naruto said sullenly. Kakashi flicked his head. "Ow!"

"Not finished yet." the jonin said, his eye curving as he smiled. "And onto observation number two. When a body dies, what state of being is he in?" Naruto scowled, sure that Kakashi was just playing with him.

"He's dead, you dumb ass! Everyone knows that!" When Kakashi gave him a silly 'there's your answer!' look, he growled deep in his throat. "What the hell does that have to do with the fox?"

The jonin tsked, a mockingly sad look on his face. "Really, have I taught you nothing? Underneath the underneath!" Naruto continued to give Kakashi an angry look. He merely sighed.

"To 'die' is to part with one's physical body. A soul, a self sustaining energy source, is truly immortal." he said as if it was the simplest thing. Kakashi then became more serious. "What you don't understand, Naruto, is that the Kyuubi couldn't have died when that genjutsu was used. Because he died twelve years ago."

* * *

_Silence was often misunderstood,_ Shino thought. _People who live in a city say it's silent when the idiots next door stop blaring their radio, when it really is not. There's the sounds of cars, of alarms, of a baby crying in the distance. 'Silence' even in a forest isn't truly silence at all. The bees will buzz. The leaves will make their music when a gust of wind hits them.  
_  
He kept his hands in his pockets, a habit formed when a girl screamed at the small flaps of skin(to allow his bugs passage out of his body) on his wrists, quite a few years ago. She was defiantly not silent.

The boy, a man he would be considered since he was of the ninja world, kept at his steady pace. He knew he would reach his destination. All was well and good about speed, but what one really needed was patience. What so many of the people Shino's age were lacking.

_The silence of a person.. that too is often misunderstood._ he thought. _Just because one does not speak, it does not mean that they are stupid. Just because one does not voice their complaints does not mean all is well in their life.  
_  
He had noticed the rapid withdrawal of his only female team mate and friend. One of the few people who would come up to him without glancing around to make sure none of his 'icky' bugs were crawling around. Hinata was generally a quiet person, something that almost made them kin. However, she was much more friendly to people than he was, so when her mood had changed, he had noticed. Not very many others did. Quiet people were generally over looked in the scheme of things.

He was considered a very quiet person himself. Because he was known for not talking, many had written him off as weird.

Maybe he was weird. Being a living host of thousands of bugs was bound to latch that description to his name. _But wasn't everyone weird?_

_Normalcy, beauty, perfection.. all these things that people judge each other by.. they are all in the eye of the beholder. Because the beholder does not understand what his eyes cannot see, we who do not fit his ideas of perfection are often outcasted._

Outcasted in the village with the highest percent of blood limit clans. How sad their fate was.

Shino found himself not caring much for fate. What he was caring about, and very much in comparison to fate, was the well being of Hinata.

As a Hyuuga, Hinata was immediately isolated from everyone else. She was naturally a very timid and kind girl, a girl who would rather grind up herbs to heal a person than to inflict the wounds that would make that person need to seek medical attention. However, the Hyuugas were warriors, not healers.

As most of the people in her life were constantly obsessed with being strong and harming an enemy, Hinata didn't have a mentor in her family that could bring out the strength in her. She was often referred to as weak and shoved aside. But she persevered. Because she did have someone she admired, someone that she wanted to show that she was strong to. Someone that would praise her for her strengths and accept her weaknesses.

It had taken her hero to stand up to Hinata's fearsome cousin for Shino to believe it, but Hinata's hero was none other that Uzumaki Naruto, the number one dead last and trouble maker of the village, in every single way, an opposite to Hinata. During those few moments in time, Shino had seen a completely different side of Naruto, one that Hinata had been able to pick out through the layers of pranks, insults, and coarse language.

_Silence must be in the eyes of the beholder as well. Although that one is louder than even Kiba, he is silent as well. For he wears noise and silliness as a mask and keeps his true feelings locked within. The Naruto an ignorant person sees is an idiot, but the real Naruto that Hinata, and now myself, see is almost as silent as a mute._

Shino did not doubt that Naruto's absence was one of the things that was making Hinata hide away. That's why he had taken it upon himself to hunt her down and make sure she was fine. Kiba was too dense to notice the subtle signals and talking to Kurenai would only make Hinata uncomfortable. He was no conversationalist, he'd be the first to admit, but he truly believed that, out of the three of them, he understood her the best. Or so Kurenai said when they had spoken about it only forty minutes prior.

The rest of their team had been worried when Hinata didn't show up for practice. Instead of working on their survival skills, they sat down to discuss their comrade's health. Or rather, Kurenai tried to wrestle information from Kiba's dense mind and Shino's closed lips. Kurenai had decided, when she had enough information to satisfy her curiosity, that Shino would be the best person to talk to her. He agreed that he was, even admitted that he had planned to do it by himself.

Although he wasn't the one to complain, he really wasn't looking forward to talking to her. Not because he didn't like talking to her, he just didn't like talking in general. Most of the time, he wasn't in a talking mood, so being ordered to talk to someone was enough to make him feel a little cranky.

Shino moved closer to where he could feel her chakra. Over another fallen log (he had decided to walk. It was far too hot to run), around a huge rock..

In a niche, Hinata sat with her legs partially curled underneath her. The rocks on either side of her probably kept her cool in the warm and dying day light hours, seeing as she still hadn't parted with her form concealing sweat shirt. Several scrolls were spread before her, a thin spiral notebook balancing on her legs. There was also a kunai occupying the space that the scrolls did not, the sharp end in the ground as to not hurt anyone. Typical Hinata.

In the perfect position to watch without being detected (if she didn't use her blood limit), Shino stopped and took the chance to read into her mood. Observing her for several moments, he wondered why he felt ashamed at his hope that maybe he could skip the conversation.

Hinata was frowning at something written in the scroll lying right in front of her. She unrolled the scroll a little to read some more, than began comparing it with the scroll lying by her knee. She bit her lip, then scribbled something down in the notebook.

_Is she training?_ He leaned forward, mentally cursing when a twig snapped like a gunshot under his foot. But she was absorbed in her own little world and didn't notice the small lapse in his stealth skills.

After several more comparisons and note writing times, she stood up, rolling the scrolls up. She secured them shut, stacking the three semi large scrolls up against the wall. Shino absently rolled his shoulders, wondering when the stiffness in his shoulder blades had come about. Hinata stood, pulling out the kunai in the ground as she went up

Then she did something that threw all of his ninja senses in alert, had him forget everything he had thought before. All thoughts and reason left him when he saw her slice the underside of her arm with the blade.

Hinata's gaze snapped up when a firm hand griped the wrist with the kunai. Shino himself hadn't even realized when he had moved. He twisted her fingers gently to make the kunai fall to the ground. With both of his hands free, he pushed up the sleeve of her bleeding arm, looking to see how bad it was and if there were any previous scars from the same action. He felt a little relived when there wasn't.

"Shin-" she started to say. Shino reached into one of the pouches on his belt and pulled out the extra roll of bandages he carried around, usually to cover up the select points in his body where his bugs came out. Even people like Shino can be self conscious.

"First time you've cut yourself?" he asked in as close of a monotone as he could make. It still came out a little accusing. Hinata gaped at him, opening and closing her mouth while her brain processed his words. He didn't look her in the eyes until the bandaging was complete.

When he did, her eyes lit up in understanding.

"Uh.. um.. oh! No! It's nothing like that!" Hinata said, realizing what it had looked like. Seeing that her sputtering and protests were making no sense, she gestured to the scrolls.

A half angry frown still on his face, Shino reached over to one of the scrolls, undoing the fastenings.

"'The Theory of Limb Regeneration' by Tsunade.." he read the title out loud. He closed it again, then reached for the next one. "'Herbs verses Jutsu: Which have less of a negative effect on the patient?' A series of essays by..." Shino started to trail off. Things were clicking in his mind.

Hinata, the girl who always hated when people got hurt. The girl who whipped out an antidote to solider pill poisoning for Kiba. The girl that always insisted on treating their wounds, even when it was as superficial as a scrape.

"..You are studying to be a medic nin." he whispered. "And you're practicing on yourself." Hinata put a hand over the bandaged wound, nodding softly.

"Don't tell, okay?" she whispered back, her pale eyes holding a little bit of fear in them. Shino blinked, rather surprised at her reaction.

"Why not? It's good that you're learning the art, is it not? Medic nins are a dying breed." he said. It was true. To be a medic nin, you had to have a certain amount of skills. You had to have precise chakra control and an abundance of chakra. You also had to have pretty good stamina. Hinata took the last scroll from his hands and fastened it shut, resetting it on top of the others.

"I can do a little.." the Hyuuga said instead. She covered her arm with her hand and closed her eyes. A blue glow surrounded her hand, parts of it seeping into her pale skin. The glow faded. She untied the bloody bandages around her forearm, baring the once ugly wound. There was nothing there. "Sorry to waste your bandages, Shino-kun.." she said sheepishly.

"That's.. very good." Shino said, astounded by the skill. His cousin(related by marriage and easily the most talkative person in his family) had been a medic nin for seven years, and she wasn't yet to the level of chakra control it took to take a cut and mend the skin like nothing had been there at all. Hinata was half the age but had at least three times the skill. "You'll have no trouble at all gaining a license."

Hinata slowly shook her head. "Maybe.. but I cannot." she looked miserable.

"And why not?" Shino asked. She was quiet for a moment. He knew that she was considering ignoring the question by the look on her face. However, a change went over Hinata. She bit her lip, stood a little straighter.

"The Hyuuga family, as you probably know, are very prideful warriors." she said in a firmer voice. "Not even before the creation of our village have they ever allowed anyone of their members to be a medic nin." she sighed, fiddling with the forehead protector around her neck. "To them- to us, I mean, a medic is like.. a servant. A medic heals, stays behind the lines and doesn't attack the enemy under most circumstances, thus, he or she is of lesser rank than a warrior. Which is why it is forbidden. For a Hyuuga to be anything less than a warrior would mean dishonor to the clan.."

Shino snorted, an oddly Kiba like reaction. "That is not true. It is, how they say, easier to destroy than to create. Besides, things are different nowadays. Medic nins are often considered the most dangerous kinds of ninjas." Some of the light came back into Hinata's eyes. She agreed wholeheartedly. "But if it is forbidden, why do you still go on practicing?"

Hinata smiled. "Someone I know.. Someone I look up to so much.. He'd never back away from anything, not even if all of the odds are stacked up against him. I wish to be more like him." she clasped her hands in front of her chest. "He'd stand up even when he loses, fight even if it's an impossible fight, and would firmly back up with all his heart what he believes in. That is what I wish to be more like."

"Even with my limited courage, I will become someone that he can respect. Because.. I believe I can.. I know I can. Even if my father looks me straight in the eyes and forbids me to be a medic nin, I will continue on."

Shino had nothing to say to that and stayed quiet the way he normally did. It wasn't until they had almost reached the more urbanized part of Konoha that he finally said something.

"I think that Naruto already respects you, Hinata-chan." _He'd be a fool if he didn't._

* * *

Naruto tossed and turned for the fiftieth time in the last hour. He decided to try his side and drew up his sleeping bag to his nose. When Sand Man failed to lull Naruto to sleep, he cursed at the imaginary creature._ Probably related to Gaara.. Sadistic asshole..  
_  
He flipped over to his back, sighing loudly. What he got for his efforts was a swift kick to the shin.

Sakura was on the other side of the fire, Tazuna was sprawled out underneath the tree Kakashi occupied as the first watch, so the only one who could have hit him was..

"Sasuke bastard.." Naruto hissed. He was kicked again. Growling, Naruto turned to him to see the Uchiha very much awake and annoyed.

"Do you mind, dobe?" With that cold question still ringing in his ears, Naruto dove at Sasuke from his half sitting position. They both kept their fight silent, knowing that Kakashi would douse them in cold water and tell them to walk it off. Realizing that they still were being too noisy, they settled for a thumb war.

They rested their thumbs after Sasuke proved to be the better thumb wrestler.

"Bastard.." Naruto muttered sullenly. He shoved aside his sleeping bag to bare some dirt to the cool night air. He grabbed a twig and drew some intersecting lines on the ground. He made an 'x' in the middle box. "Tic Tac Toe!"

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke snatched the twig and wrote an 'o' in the top left hand diagonal box. "You seem to be in a better mood." he muttered when the stick was grabbed back.

Naruto ignored him for the time being, writing an 'x' in the upper right corner box. Sasuke immediately put an 'o' in the low left corner box to keep Naruto from getting three in a row.

"Something was brought to my attention." Naruto murmured, drawing an 'x' in the highest middle box. Sasuke countered by putting an 'o' in the lowest middle box. "It just so happens that my friend could be alive, that I was jumping to conclusions."

"That's good." Sasuke said neutrally. "It seems more natural for you to be an idiot than acting like your pet rock died." Naruto pouted. But then grinned when he put an 'x' to the right of his very first move. No matter how Sasuke countered, he'd still get three in a row.

"Haha! Take that!" he nearly crowed. Sasuke rolled his eyes, drawing an 'o' in the low right hand corner box. He drew a line through the lined up 'o's. Naruto gaped.

"You got schooled." Sasuke said with a smirk. He expected Naruto to jump at him with flailing fists, but was surprised with the knowledge that Naruto's attention span was shorter than he let on.

"What do ya know about.. self sustaining energies?" the blond asked.

He said self sustaining energies like a child trying out a new word, Sasuke thought. Those are definitely not his words.

"We're ninjas, not scientists." Sasuke muttered. When he was given a pleading look, he sighed and parted with his limited knowledge. "'Self sustaining', meaning that it has and makes it's own energy without any prompting from outside sources. Think of it like the sun."

Naruto bit his lip, still wondering if he should have gone to Sasuke at all. "And what if all.. or nearly all of the energies are used up?" he asked in a tentative voice.

"Like I said, we're ninjas." the darker ninja said in a no nonsense tone. But he began thinking. "But it might start working double time to regain the lost mass if it has a little bit of energy to work on. Maybe if there was some outside influence applied to it, to keep it from winking out of existence even if all the energies were depleted, it would survive."

"Outside influence?" the question slipped out of Naruto's mouth before he could gather his thoughts. Sasuke shrugged.

"Well, I don't know, maybe some kind of technology, or maybe something along the lines of a seal.." he said, thinking that the ninja device would work a lot better than a mass of metal thrown together by a bunch of normal humans. In his experience, normal humans were a lot dumber than ninjas. Especially about their lives and their limits.

_A seal? A seal! Yeah! Kakashi might be right! Kyuubi could have survived!_ Naruto thought, relief rushing through him. Kakashi had spelled it out for him, but Naruto had a hard time believing it. However, when Sasuke said it, Naruto became a firm believer. Feeling bad, Naruto decided to take things that Kakashi said more to heart. But one really couldn't help but understand why Naruto hadn't taken Kakashi seriously. The jonin read a dirty book right in front of his students!

"Any way, that's what I think.. Why did you ask?"

"Oh, no reason. Just curious.." Sasuke frowned at his light answer. There was too much happiness in Naruto's eyes that blossomed when he had given his theory for it to be something as simple as satisfying one's curiosity.

Naruto slid back into his sleeping bag, whispering a good night. Sasuke frowned and mimicked Naruto's actions. He swore he'd never understand what went on in the blond's head, the last thought that went through his head when blessed darkness embraced him once again.

Kakashi looked over with a small grin. What he'd never understand was why they went on like they were arch rivals when it was so clear that they were closer than the bestest of friends could be. A brotherly bond without shared blood.

_I think Sasuke would accept you, even if he knew of some of the darker things that go through your mind._ Kakashi went back to reading._ Even if you'd open up a little, your friendship would grow so much.  
_  
"I'd wish you would stop hiding behind that stupid mask Naruto." he didn't realize he had said it out loud until he received a firm reply.

"The feeling's mutual."


	21. A Curse with a Veneer Shine

I really _really_ hate viruses and spy ware. I swear, someone is just trying to piss me off. I had to have my whole hard drive formatted again. Grr.. Luckily, I was smarter this time, throwing all the Naruto files and my story on a removable disk so they wouldn't be lost in the black hole of nothingness. Sorry about the wait, you guys. I'll try to get another chapter up really soon to make up for it.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Twenty-one: A Curse with a Veneer Shine

by Foxie

* * *

"Oh, wow! We're here, aren't we! In Water Country! This is so-"Naruto was dragged back down, Sakura's hand firmly clamped over his mouth. Everyone else looked around nervously.

"Shut up stupid!" the man rowing the boat hissed. "Why do you think the motor's off?" He was one of Tazuna's countrymen, one of the few who would risk being caught by Gatou and his men in order to get Tazuna and his protection back to the town.

"Water Country is by the bridge I'm building. You'll see the bridge soon." Tazuna said in a quiet voice. "The bridge is the one thing that could bring Water Country some profit, thus power."

"And that's exactly what Gatou doesn't want, right?" Sasuke asked. Tazuna nodded grimly.

"All we have to do is finish that bridge, then our country will be out of Gatou's claws. There's the bridge." Tazuna pointed to the half built bridge that lay just ahead.

"It's huge!" Sakura exclaimed in a low voice. Tazuna grinned proudly like a doting father.

Naruto sat down carefully, slinging one arm over a bent knee. He frowned, memories of the death of a boy as pure as snow running through his head. _All optimism aside.. How the hell am I supposed to do this? Am I supposed to let Zabuza and Haku die? Is it meant to be?_ His fist clenched and he mentally shook his head. _No.. Fate and destiny can go jump off of a cliff, for all I care. This is my story, dammit! It's gonna go my way, or not at all!  
_  
Sakura touched his shoulder. "What's wrong?" she asked, a little put off at the serious look on Naruto's face. He looked back, then managed a goofy grin.

"Trying to remember whether or not I left the stove on back home." The others sweat dropped. The boat stopped right off of the dock. Team Seven jumped nimbly off of the boat, much to Tazuna's envy. He climbed out, muttering darkly about arthritis.

"Alright, this is as far as I'll take you." the country man said seriously. "Good luck." They waved him off.

_Any ninjas that we face from here on out will not be chuunin, rather, jonin or higher._ Kakashi thought, his eye sharp for any suspicious movements in the brush._ I can handle a jonin or two, but anymore and we'll be in serious trouble. The sharingan's more for one on one fighting. Not to mention that it drains my reserves so fast.._ Naruto wasn't the only one with worries.

They walked quietly, Kakashi and Naruto in front, Tazuna in the middle, and Sakura and Sasuke flanking him. Since Naruto was feeling no need to show off, they just missed over a rabbit with the wrong color coat. They were completely oblivious to the cold brown eyes watching their every movement.

_No wonder the Demon Brothers failed._ the owner of those eyes thought to himself. _That's the copy cat nin, Sharingan Kakashi of Konoha. You chose well, old man._ He made a signal with his hand, silently telling his partner to wait. He wanted to observe them a while longer.

With each step, Sasuke and the others relaxed a little more. Truth be told, he was suspecting an ambush when they first set foot on Water Country. They broke formation, Kakashi lingering toward the back to speak with Tazuna while he and Sakura kept their pace behind Naruto. It only really occurred to Sasuke that they all were following Naruto's lead when he turned back to smile at them.

Sakura smiled back. As annoying as she complained that Naruto was, she really felt off balance when he wasn't smiling and causing chaos. Seeing that small grin back in place made her feel extremely affectionate of the blond prankster.

She turned her head to look at Sasuke, who she just realized was walking right next to her. Fighting her embarrassment, she said, "We got Tazuna-san to Water Country unharmed!" Sasuke looked over, offering a smile of his own, a borderline smirk that stated 'But of course, I was here, wasn't I?'

Naruto suddenly stopped, causing Sakura to run right into him. Rubbing the tip of her hurt nose, she growled a little in annoyance before curiosity and worry reared its head. She grabbed the back of Naruto's black vest.

"What's wrong Naruto?" Kakashi and Tazuna came to a stop right behind them, no doubt curious as to what caused the hold up. Naruto lifted his arm, shakily pointing at the body of water in front of them.

"A lake.." he muttered, looking dazed. "Deja vu, I swear.." Neither Sakura nor Sasuke heard his last few words, but Kakashi managed to pick them up with his keen hearing. _Deja vu?_ he questioned himself.

Sakura grabbed his shoulder, lightly shaking it to pull him out of the trance he was in. The slight stiffening of his body was the only warning she got before he turned and pushed not only her, but also Sasuke to the ground. Sasuke cursed when he suddenly got a mouthful of grass.

"Dobe.." he said in a threatening voice. He had barely lifted his head when he saw something large and gray whip by them at tremendous speeds. He quickly ducked his head back down.

Grunting, Tazuna stood wearily to his feet when Kakashi gave him the signal to. The genin followed suit, immediately turning back to look at the object imbedded in one of the trees behind them.

_It's a sword!_ Sasuke thought, reaching for his kunai. A man was visible, casually standing on the hilt as if he weighed not a pound. His back was to them.

_It's him._ Kakashi thought, already pulling up chakra to sustain his sharingan. _It's Zabuza of the mist.  
_  
Zabuza turned to look at them from over his shoulder. His eyes immediately focused on Kakashi, the larger threat of the small party. A malicious grin was hidden by the bandages wrapped around the bottom portion of his face. "You are.. Hatake Kakashi, are you not?"

Before Kakashi had a chance to speak, Naruto stepped forward. "It depends on who's asking and why the hell you want to know." he snapped. He, of course, already knew but needed to buy as much time as possible so he could find Haku's position. He knew that the boy would not leave his mentor's side.

_And if I can expose Haku, then he won't have enough time to figure out Kakashi-sensei's weakness. If Kakashi-sensei can wear Zabuza down faster, Zabuza might be more inclined to join our side when Gatou shows his true face. Kakashi won't feel the need to use a chidori, which means that Haku won't die! And if Haku doesn't die, then Zabuza will feel no need to avenge Haku's death by killing Gatou!  
_  
Zabuza was unaware of the blond's thoughts, and if he even had the smallest idea what was whirling through Naruto's head, he would be shocked that someone would be prepared to go through so much to keep two people he barely knew alive. Instead, the missing nin laughed sinisterly.

"You should keep your brats in check." he murmured. "And I'll be taking the old man." Tazuna started to back away, even as the genins took offense to his remark and took several steps forward. Kakashi held out a hand, stopping them in their tracks.

"Protect Tazuna. Do not engage in a fight." he said quietly. "There is teamwork needed for that." Scowling, the genin retreated back to form a circle around Tazuna. Kakashi exposed the sharingan, much to the hidden delight of Zabuza.

"Hey, Sasuke." Naruto whispered. Sasuke looked over at him. "Keep an eye out for someone in the trees."

"Why?" Sakura asked. The blond shifted from one foot to the other, his eyes straining to see anything or anyone hiding in the bushes around them.

"'Cause I doubt that guy came here alone."

Kakashi and Zabuza dueled with water jutsus, the latter being overwhelmed by the former's abilities with the sharingan. _Is he.. reading my mind or just very good at copying every move I make? Haku, you better be getting this._ Two powerful water techniques collided with each other, sending water everywhere. They had moved out on the surface of the lake.

Scowling, Zabuza started to make the hand seals for a water clone, only to see Kakashi copying him. Instead of one, he made two. Kakashi destroyed Zabuza first clone by ramming a kunai in it's head. The mizu bunshin, only a 1/4 as strong as Zabuza and not even an 1/8 as fast, was helpless but to take the brutal hit. Zabuza attacked Kakashi, only to have the jonin dissolve into water. A kunai appeared at his neck. Kakashi held Zabuza in a vulnerable position. Someone poked his shoulder. He turned only to see another Zabuza.

_This is defiantly not my best day.._

* * *

  
For once, they were doing some productive training. Kurenai had sat in on one of their previous sessions and had much to say about what they were doing, or rather, what they were not.

Asuma and Kurenai had different definitions for training. Asuma's was to spend time with his team. Kurenai's was to work her team to the point of exhaustion. Fearful of Kurenai's wrath, Asuma hastily made his team work on taijutsu so he'd be spared. Satisfied, Kurenai left them in peace. But she had made it a point to sit in every other week, so Asuma's team had no choice but to actually start working.

Panting and sweating up a storm, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji made it back from the jog that Asuma set them on. Pitying them, he said nothing when they dropped down on the cool grass, despite him knowing they'd be sore the next day if they didn't cool down and stretch.

"It took.. ten minutes." an ominous voice hissed. They hastily looked up, Asuma almost tripping over himself when he saw who it was.

"Oh.. heh.. hello, Kurenai-chan." he said nervously. The red eyed jonin grabbed him by the front of his vest.

"Don't Kurenai-chan me, you lazy ass." Kurenai said with an angry glint in her eyes. "What have you been doing with these kids? It took them ten minutes to run a 100 meter dash. Ten minutes. They should have walked! They would have been back faster." Asuma looked toward his team, blinking a few times. He hadn't noticed the time, having slipped into a light nap.

"How come it took so long?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"We stopped a couple of times. Ino said that if we didn't, she'd reek of her sweat." Shikamaru muttered. Ino immediately took offense. That was not even close to the reason why she made them stop. But she didn't want to admit to the rest of them that she kept on seeing the images from her nightmare, especially to Shikamaru. So instead, she focused all of her energy on the fact that he was insulting her. The words traveled fluidly.

"Did not! Haven't you ever heard of the saying 'girls glisten and boys sweat'?" she snapped, flames of anger beginning to grow. It wasn't all that hard to make her infamous temper immerge. And Shikamaru knew what buttons to push.

"That's just 'cause women don't do half of what men do." he countered, but really should have kept his mouth shut. At least, that's what he thought when Ino upper cutted him. Chouji leaned over to look at Shikamaru.

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt.."

"That's it." Kurenai said in a monotone voice. "I'm training them today."

"But they're my team, you have your own." Asuma said with a slight whine in his voice. He liked his team. They were almost as lazy as he was. All he had to do was play Go and chess with Shikamaru and make sure Chouji had enough to eat to make them happy. And let Ino badger him about his and Kurenai's relationship. Sure, he had to face losing every time he played a game with Shikamaru, his wallet was practically nonexistent because of Chouji, and he had to face another female complaining that he wasn't interesting enough, but they were his team. _His._ He'd be damned if he was going to let another take over, even if it was Kurenai.

"Then consider this a hostile take over." she said snappish. Asuma backed away. He wasn't suicidal, though maybe Ino was right when she said he was too passive when it came to her. Kurenai would hand them back once she lost interest, he told himself earnestly. She had always been like that, ever since she was a kid.

"Don't you have your own team?" Shikamaru said grumpily, massaging his chin. Kurenai chose not to answer him, instead clapping her hands together with a smile that made Chouji and Shikamaru uneasy.

"We're going to practice some hand to hand combat." she said. "It's essential for building stamina." Ino was the only one who looked thrilled. Not that she liked doing anything physical, it was just that she found it so easy to slap her team mates around, especially Shikamaru, who refused to hit her because she was a female. _Sexist ass.._ she thought with a scowl.

"I'm fighting Shika first." she said._ Ah, sweet revenge_. Kurenai nodded to her, approving.

Frowning, Shikamaru stood, knowing exactly what was on Ino's mind. Ino faced him, cracking her knuckles in a menacing way.

"No chakra use, no weapons use. Taijustu only." Kurenai said. Asuma sighed, burying his head in his hands. He didn't want to watch. Ino could be brutal when she wanted to be.

Ino slid in a basic taijutsu stance, facing to the side with one hand in front and one in back. Kurenai noted her form was perfect, although she should have put more weight on her back foot. _She might be pretty decent at taijutsu if she trains a bit more.  
_  
Shikamaru frowned even more, the only sign of him preparing for the onslaught was the slight loosening of his shoulders and spreading of his feet. _He's going for defense so early?_ Kurenai questioned herself. _Odd..  
_  
"Begin!"

Ino immediately threw herself at Shikamaru, her fists flying. He countered by taking a step back to dodge her first punch, then blocked the other three with his arms.

_He has speed._ The fourth punch was low. He knocked her fist upward with his palm, leaving her side wide open. Shikamaru then took two steps back and waited for her to recover. _And he's going through all the right moves to expose her weaknesses. But why isn't he acting on them?_

"Go Shika!" Chouji cried from the sidelines. Asuma lifted his head half heartedly. It never lasted. He'd always block Ino's attacks, but end up letting her win anyway. There was no use watching.

"Shut up, you fa-" Ino started to yell, but was surprised when Shikamaru grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back. It hurt, in more ways than one.

"Don't call him fat. I really don't feel like trying to run away from a Meat Tank, or scraping your remains off of the ground." he muttered in her ear. Ino, for the first time feeling strangely uneasy with him so close, stomped hard on his foot. He let go of her arm in surprise, then got an elbow in the gut. Ino spun on her heel and kicked him as hard as she could. Shikamaru slid back a couple of feet, a hand briefly touching where there defiantly was going to be a bruise the next day.

Kurenai came to a shocking realization. _Her form on that last move was sloppy. He could have dodged it. _Kurenai's red eyes narrowed on Shikamaru's bored looking expression. _He's letting her hit him!_

Kurenai wasn't the only one who noticed. "Hey! Fight me, you damn coward!" Ino shouted. Sighing, Shikamaru halfheartedly threw a punch in her direction. It barely grazed her shoulder.

She rolled her eyes, about to spout out another insult when a strange expression flashed over her face. Her vision blurred. All she could see was Naruto's pale, lifeless body floating on the surface of the lake. Her hand flew over her mouth. Worried, Shikamaru closed the space between them, automatically reaching out to her.

"Ino? What's wrong?" he asked. Her blue eyes met his darker eyes for a moment before glazing over. She tried to say something, but then rushed for the bushes, emptying out the contents of her stomach. Shikamaru followed her steps, even pausing to kneel down next to her.

"Eww.." Chouji said, backing away. Bile rose to his throat when the putrid scent reached his nose. He covered it with a hand.

Asuma and Kurenai kept their distance, echoing Shikamaru's previous question. Ino was quiet, focusing instead on the mindless circles that Shikamaru's hand was drawing over her shoulder blades in an attempt to comfort her. She doubted he even realized what he was doing.

She braced her hands on the ground, trying to slow her breathing down to normal pace_. Why? Why does this have to happen to me?_ The images she had been getting all morning were all disturbing. Several times, she knew she had been looking through someone else's eyes. Ino could feel their thoughts, their emotions, as they reacted to the situation in front of them.

Once she had been Sakura, trying to get past a league of water clones to get to Sasuke and her teacher.

Another time, she had been the teacher. Panic had welled up inside of him when he realized he was captured but it had dulled considerably when he realized that his team was refusing to abandon him. Instead, cold hard fear for his students had arose.

Then she had been Sasuke. Sasuke had stared down at the lake as it turned red from Naruto's blood. He was in shock, but by the time the water turned red underneath his fear, he had been shaking with fury. Ino got a flash of memory, of a shadowy figure standing over the corpses of two people.

Then she had been an old man, trying to convince Sakura not to go and fight. Sakura had shook his arm off, telling him sternly to hide. And then she left.

But what had most disturbed her was when she had felt and seen through Naruto's eyes. Strangely enough, Ino felt more comfortable in Naruto's mind than any other. There was a sort of calmness there that she normally associated with adults. With mature people. And as far as she knew, Naruto was anything but mature.

Even when the huge shuriken went through his stomach, he kept his wits to him. He felt the pain, but pushed it away. After he had fallen under the surface of the murky lake, he had made several hand seals. He spilt into ten different Narutos. All but one sped off into different directions. The one Naruto that didn't move kept sinking, kept bleeding.

A different sort of calmness settled over Naruto's mind, one that made her think that he was accepting death. Then she saw enormous red eyes.

"Ino." Shikamaru prompted her quietly. She sighed, a hand going over her stomach.

"I've just being feeling very sick.. even since the beginning of this practice." she whispered, too low for Asuma and Kurenai to hear. "I just want to go home.."

_Well, that explains why she made us stop so many times. And why she was extra bitchy..._ Shikamaru looked back at the jonins.

"I'm taking Ino home. She's sick." he said in a flat tone, leaving no room for arguments. He let Ino lean against him in her valiant effort to get to her feet. When her trembling became so much that he himself could feel it, Shikamaru slung one of her arms around his neck and lifted her off of her feet.

Both surprised by Shikamaru's chivalry, they mutely nodded.

"Bye Shika, Ino." Chouji said quietly as they left. Asuma elbowed Kurenai, gesturing to their retreating backs.

"You.. you don't think... morning sickness?" he asked. Kurenai stared at him, slowly shaking her head.

"Does the word _twelve_ mean anything to you, baka?" she said, surprised that he'd say such a thing. Asuma shrugged.

"Kids grow up so fast these days, we old people can't keep up with them anymore." he said in defense. Kurenai rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Who are you calling old?"

* * *

"Alright, alright." Ino said wearily. "Put me down." Now that she had gathered her wits to her, she could protest quite realistically. She hated being treated like a child, she reasoned to herself. But he wasn't treating her like a child.

He was treating her like he always did, a low grumble of annoyance barely audible but worry in his eyes. A friend who acted like she was so much trouble for him but really cared about what happened to her. She almost wished he would be more impersonal. That she would understand coming from him, after all, she was often cruel to him. Shikamaru put her down.

She straightened her clothes, taking the time to try to infuse some confidence back into her movements. "You're.." she trailed off, trying to find the right word for the mystery that was Shikamaru. "You're a masochist."

Shikamaru shrugged. That sounded about right.

They continued walking, ears filled with the buzzing sounds of the square. They headed for the flower shop's general direction, both secretly pleased that the square was quieter than normal. It wasn't tourist season and although it was fun to rip the foreigners off, they lost their appeal really fast.

Ino stopped. Shikamaru frowned, and turned around. "What, you don't want to go home?" he asked, wondering if she had faked it all. If Kiba could burp on command and Ino could cry whenever she wished, he did not think it was impossible that she could force herself to throw up. She slowly shook her head.

"No. I want to go home and sleep the day away but.. I have a feeling that's not where I'm supposed to go." she muttered, playing with the hem of her skirt. Ino sighed, deciding to tell him. "I've.. been having daydreams.. just like that nightmare. And they're making me feel sick to my stomach." Ino hugged herself, suddenly feeling very small and alone in that square. The faintly annoyed look that almost constantly graced Shikamaru's face eased a little.

"Where does the strongest Seer in your family live?" he asked abruptly. Her head snapped up, her eyes displaying her confusion at his seemingly irrelevant question.

"Aunty.. She lives.." she pointed to the west. He nodded grimly, taking a firm hold on her upper arm. Shikamaru dragged her toward the west.

"Hey!" Ino tried to tug her arm out of his grasp. She could not recall a time where he had been more pushy than he was being at that moment. Usually, he was passive and slow to anger. He'd whine and complain but he'd never do anything about it. This was an entirely new side to him that Ino had never seen.

"Don't write it off as a simple dream, Ino." Shikamaru said sharply. "You know better than I that it very well could be something else." She knew he was right. She was angry about that too, and guilty that she had selfishly stored it in the back of her mind because it had upset her. Ino felt like she was betraying Sakura and Sasuke, and Naruto and their weird teacher too, by paying it so little mind. But every time she thought about it, that missing nin's cold brown eyes scared her away. Fear, she knew, was over clouding her judgement. But she still pulled away from Shikamaru, from the possibility that it could be true.

Who knew that a man that she had never met could terrify her so much?

"No.." she whispered.

Shikamaru gave her an exasperated look and turned to leave, the stiffness of his shoulders telling her what he would not say_. Fine. Have it your way. I give up._ Ino grabbed the back of his shirt, suddenly terrified she was going to be alone.

"I.. it's.." She steeled herself. "I know a shortcut." She cleared her voice, stepping purposely to the north. "One of Aunty's neighbors always lets me cut across her backyard to get to Aunty's. It shaves off a lot of time walking." Shikamaru silently followed.

_I don't wanna do this, I don't_ _wanna do this.._ she kept chanting in her mind. Her father's sister(younger sister, to many of the villagers' surprise) had endured much mental pain because of her abilities. She remembered her aunt once saying that it was a curse with a veneer shine to it. She had said while it was great to see what was going to happen so one could bend it to their will, some things were written in stone and could not be changed. No matter how much one tried or hoped. That was why her aunt had once taken a kunai to her eyes in a desperate attempt to make them go away. It hadn't worked.

Ino bit her lip. She loved her aunt, but she did not want to be like her aunt. She broke out into a light jog when they reached the more suburban parts of Konoha where houses were in most abundance, only slightly aware of the quickening foot steps behind her.

_What would Dad say if I had Aunty's capabilities? What would Mom say?_ she thought, absently waving to the elderly lady that always let her take her property as a shortcut to her aunt's house._ More importantly, what about Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto? If what I saw was a vision and my sickness was the signal that the vision was coming true, could one or more of them be dead already?_ She shook the horrible images out of her head._ No, I refuse to believe it!_

Ino slid to a stop in front of a cheery looking yellow house with a porch swing that swung with the slightest breeze. Shikamaru paused, not quite sure what he was expecting.

A drearier house, maybe. A black cat would have almost been welcome, accessorizing his morbid thoughts quite nicely. Instead, carefully tended for flowers and a rather silly looking garden gnome stared at him. The laughter of children two or three houses down met his ears instead of the creepy music he had been expecting to hear.

Shikamaru sighed. At least there was an oak tree.

Ino crossed the lawn slowly, then stopped again. She whipped around to pierce Shikamaru with a diamond hard stare. He took a step back, wondering what he did wrong now.

"A few things you need to know before you can come inside." Ino said. Laying down the law would help ease her ruffled feathers and give her a moment or two to calm down. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded slowly, as if he wasn't sure what he was getting himself into.

"One, my aunty's name is Yamanaka Maemi. She only likes to be called Mae. Don't ask me, 'cause I don't know why. Two, Aunty's blind. She can see auras and chakra, in a sense, but cannot see as we do. Three, she has a habit of finishing your sentences and knowing what you're about to say before you even say it, so don't you dare start sighing and being an ass." Ino wagged a finger in front of his face. "And last but not least, don't ask her why's she's blind." The blond turned around and walked up to the porch with a confident spring in her step.

"Isn't it because she's old?" Shikamaru had to ask. Ino paused, her hand barely an inch away from the door bell. She bit her lip, shaking her head sadly.

"She's my dad's younger sister. She's only in her mid thirties." she said quietly. All of her worry came back in one fell swoop. But she was so close. An inch away from the truth, a mile away from comfort.

She rang the door bell. A small looking girl in a maid's uniform immediately answered the door.

"Oh, Nyoko-san.." Ino said. The girl, a total of nineteen years backing her, smiled at the blond.

"Hi!" she chirped. "Come on in. Mae-san's expecting you." Ino nodded, walking into the doorway when Nyoko moved aside. Shikamaru followed, feeling awkward when he realized that Nyoko was looking at him. Not a passing glance, but something bordering on a stare. He sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets. He should have just sent Ino on her way, instead of deciding to come with her to make sure she went through with it.

Ino seemed to know where to go, so he shadowed her footsteps. Down a long hallway and a turn to the left led them into a type of sitting room. And he saw what could have only been the infamous Yamanaka Maemi.

"Hiya, Aunty." Ino said in a subdued voice. The older woman looked up from her book. She had the blue eyes and the yellowhair he knew were of the Yamanaka clan, as well as the peach colored skin. Shikamaru could see she had been a very pretty women when she was younger, but the lines of stress, illness, and sadness had been imprinted on her face and in her blank eyes.

Even with a smile, Shikamaru thought she was the saddest thing he had ever seen.

"Hello, my dear. What seems to ail you?" Maemi had a soft, gentle voice, the voice of a mothering person. Ino looked away, her eyes clouding over. Shikamaru stepped forward.

"Why ask. You already know." he said bluntly. Ino elbowed him.

"Shika!" she hissed. Maemi was not of similar mind. In fact, she was amused.

"A Nara, are you? You act just like Shikato." she said, laughing lightly. When Ino saw that her aunt wasn't offended, she put off throttling Shikamaru later. Shikamaru crossed his arms over his chest.

"I would." he said in that same flat tone. "I'm his son." Maemi chuckled a little more.

"Yes, I know." she said. "As to why I ask, rather than to give a straight out answer, as I'm sure you'd prefer, is that I'd like to have a conversation with my niece."

"I.. Aunty.." Ino tried to get the words out, but didn't know how to say them. Maemi smiled once more.

"You'd rather have a straight answer, like your young friend." Maemi didn't need to see the nod to know she was right. "You wish to know if a disturbing and surprising real feeling dream of yours is a vision. You wish to know why when you're trying to concentrate on your ninja training, sudden random flashes of images render you immobile and make you feel sick to your stomach, not always because of what's happening in those images, but the fact that you can do anything about them." Maemi turned her light blue eyes to Shikamaru. Being forewarned, he wasn't confused as to why her eyes didn't meet his, instead, gazed out beyond him.

"And you are worried about her. You know far more about the Yamanaka clan than any other outsider because of my brother's delinquent tendencies. You know what could happen to her if she inherited the Seer bloodline, both from our enemies, and from her herself. You know the kind of value that she'd be worth to the enemy and to our village as a Seer, but also know it would be a difficult trail to take for her to train her powers." Ino could feel herself getting more and more anxious when Maemi revealed Shikamaru's thoughts. _He knew all of this and still made me come!  
_  
Shikamaru said nothing, no emotion betraying him by appearing on his face. Maemi's voice gentled.

"You didn't want her to come." Ino looked at Shikamaru. He met her eyes. "You knew if she has the blood limit, her life would only be all that much harder. You didn't want that. You wanted her to run around, chase the boy that she's always talking about when you're trying to think, insult you some, in other words, stay as normal as she could be. You wanted her to be happy. You didn't want her to be burdened by such a weight." Finally, his face did betray him. He blushed and looked away from Ino.

"Shika.." she whispered. But Maemi wasn't done.

"But you made her come anyway. Even better than you understood the hardships of the Seers, you understood her. You knew she'd be distracted, held down by what she had seen, even more so by the uncertainty of it. 'Was what I saw real, or not? Am I just stressed out?' And then, you knew, if it truly was a vision, that she'd be so burdened by the guilt, knowing that she knew what was to happen, yet she had written it off as a dream. 'Because of me, so-and-so died. Because of me, someone was hurt.' You knew she wanted the truth, yet was too scared to come. Am I.. correct?"

Shikamaru moistened his suddenly dry mouth. "More than I wished you'd be." He cleared his throat. "All that aside, can you tell us whether or not Ino has the Seer blood, Mae-san?" Ino perked up.

Maemi's gentle smile turned impish. "Nope." The two genins nearly face faulted.

"Aunty.." Ino whined. Shikamaru rolled his eyes. _A true Yamanaka, that she is._ Maemi laughed, getting off of the chair she was sitting on.

"Come. I have a ninja device that will." With that, the other two followed her out of the room and back up the hallway. Shikamaru felt the slightly uneasy feeling that he was being watched. He looked up at the top of the staircase. Nyoko stood there, leaning over to look over at them. She eeped when she realized he knew that she was watching him and disappeared from his sight.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. _Women.._ When Maemi promptly chuckled, he had the disturbing feeling that she could read minds and told her so. It was Ino who cleared his confusion up.

"There's no such thing as a mind reader. Sure, she can skim your surface thoughts if she wanted to, but that's all. A mind cannot be read. It's not just a book you can flip open to a random page and read. It's vastly complex. Thousands of thoughts run through one's mind constantly, some close to the surface, some more deeper and subconscious. Like when you're trying to decide whether or not to show up early for practice so you can get a few more minutes to stretch when you realize that the refrigerator door is open. Still weighing the pros and cons, you go to open it and see some food and realize your hungry. Your subconscious thoughts are more like instincts, like the need to eat or to sleep, but your mind's still thinking. Get what I mean?" Frowning, Shikamaru slowly nodded. It made sense. Sort of. "It's hard to tell what's the surface thoughts and what's not, but the point is, a mind cannot be read."

"Then.. how.."

"Aunty's not reading your mind. She's reading your aura. It apparently uh, fluctuates or like.. um, I don't know how to explain.. Like flares when you're feeling a strong emotion..or.. Aunty?" Ino looked to Maemi for help. They stopped in front of a tightly sealed door. There was no door knob. Maemi hmmed, running a hand over the door. The door slid easily open. Shikamaru knew even a idiot would know that what closed and opened that door had everything to do with magic. Or rather, chakra.

"Think of it like this. When you're sad, your aura turns blue. When you're happy, your aura turns white. When you are filled with hate, your aura turns blackish red." She flipped on the lights and let Ino and Shikamaru in the door. They gazed in awe at the room, or rather, at the floor. There was a huge, complicated seal spell drawn on the ground. "But for me, it's not the colors that tell me whether or not you're happy, it's me feeling what you're feeling. If you feel sad, I feel the heavy weight of that sadness rolling off of you. If you feel angry, the air around you is charged with that fury."

"A-Aunty.." Ino stuttered, "what's all of this?" The room itself was bare, all but a chair in the corner and a huge mirror on the farthest wall. The strange seal, which for a moment reminded Shikamaru oddly of Celtic designs, as his mom used to have a fetish for that type of thing, twisted up and under the mirror.

"It's what I use to make more sense of my visions." Maemi said quietly. "It takes the vision, deletes all the scenes formed from your subconscious mind, opens up your mind, and lets you see what the vision truly is. An image of the future."

"So.. Why-" Shikamaru started.

"Why I'm showing you two this?" Maemi said gently. "It only reacts to a Seer. If Ino sits in the middle-" Maemi pointed to the middle of the seal spell, which was completely bare of any markings,"- and nothing happens, she is not a Seer. But it something does happen.." Maemi didn't need to finish her sentence. They knew what that would mean.

"So!" Ino clapped her hands together, trying to force some cheerfulness in her voice. "All I have to do is sit down, right?" She hurried to the middle of the seal and promptly sat down. "Nothing's happening!"

Maemi chuckled. "I have to activate it first, my dear." she turned to Shikamaru, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm afraid I have to ask you to-"

"-leave. Right?" Shikamaru spun on his heel and walked back out into the hallway. He sat down with his back to the wall. "Tell Ino to hurry up." Maemi blinked, having never been on the receiving end of someone finishing her sentence for her. She laughed, shaking her head.

"You Nara men are so interesting.." she said, closing the door behind her. Ino started to fidget, her eyes locked on her aunt. Maemi moved smoothly, walking to the head of the seal.

"S-so." Ino stuttered, watching her aunt kneel. She wished Shikamaru was still in the room. "How's life?" She mentally kicked herself for asking such a stupid question. Knowing that Ino was merely anxious and not actually interesting in hearing about her life, Maemi ignored her question. Ino tried again.

"You knew I was coming, right? So why can't we just skip this and you tell me whether or not it's real." Ino asked in a last ditch effort. Maemi smiled.

"I only see what images decide to come to me. I saw that you were to come to me and that you were going to bring that charming friend of yours, but that was all. That's the beauty of free will. Things can change, which is why Seers only see the journey, not the destination." The older woman bit her thumb until blood broke past the skin. She smeared it on the ground, her palm pressing into the ground. "You ready?" she asked. Ino bit her lip.

"Y-yeah. Shoot." she muttered. Maemi gathered chakra in her hand, activating the seal with her blood. Ino watched as the seal started to glow. When it reached her, a tingly burning sensation went up and down her arms. _What's going on?  
_She felt something clench her mind, like a tiny mouse in an iron grip. Ino flinched, the mental pain almost becoming physical. Slowly, her mind was squeezed tighter. A soft gasp of pain escaped her lips. _A-Aunty.._ she thought desperately. Then her world turned black.

* * *

Ino's father jerked out of his reclining chair, spilling some of the contraband sake he had snuck past his wife._ I sense Maemi! What is she doing?_ He dropped the jug and ran out of the house, in the direction of his quiet little sister's.

He made it there in record time. Not even bothering to ring the door bell, he came in pushing past Maemi's housekeeper and a bewildered looking Shikamaru. The latter of the two made he pause and turn around to look again. He put the pieces together.

"Oh no.." he walked to the door, about ready to break it down when Maemi came out. She closed the door behind her.

"Where is she!" Ino's father asked, grabbing his sister's shoulders. "Where's Ino!" Maemi looked up, tears brimming in her eyes.

Several decades of pain seemed to fall on her all at once. She had been hoping against hope that Ino wasn't like her. But the seal spell had reacted.  
"I'm.. so sorry, aniki."

* * *

Hey, does anyone know the names of Chouji, Ino, and Shikamaru? Or better yet, the manga chapter or anime episode that reveals it? I can only seem to remember Shikato... 


	22. Dead Man's Lake

Water, wave.. gah, you guys know what country I mean. And I'm going with Inoshi, Shikato, and Choumaru, as that's what most of you guys are saying, until I have concrete proof in the manga or the anime that says differently. I have not seen this data book some of you are mentioning to me, so I'm going with the majority vote. Sorry. Heh, this chapter was fun to write! It's a bit longer too, so enjoy.

* * *

For the Love of My Friends  
Chapter Twenty-Two: Dead Man's Lake  
by Foxie

* * *

The endless barrage of 'whys' ended when Ino felt the pain in her mind slowly disappear. A calm spread through her. She opened her eyes to see waves of endless blue energy surrounding her, supporting her seemingly weightless body.

The energy had no general shape, but Ino could make out shapes in the curves and rolls of it. She was reminded painfully of Shikamaru and his obsession with clouds.

She blinked and the energy began to fade away. In the hazy blue remains of the energy, she could see her surroundings more sharply as it dispersed.

She floated down, surprised to feel solid ground underneath her bare feet. She looked down, seeing dirt, rocks, and a few tuffs of muddy grass. Ino took a couple steps forward, sure that she'd find a weakness in the ground that would signify it as not real.

Really, she did not know what she was thinking. Ino, when she could find no weaknesses, stomped her foot. The ground didn't crumble beneath her. Realizing she must have looked silly, Ino chuckled quietly to herself.  
_  
I would like to thank the ground for not crumbling beneath my greatness and my superior artistic brilliance.. _she giggled quietly, the stress of the day finally getting to her. Ino knocked her head lightly with her knuckles._ Sorry, no one's home._

Her defenses lowered themselves, only to come flying back up when a voice interrupted her monologue.

"You're ignoring your teacher? That's a whole new level of stupidity, even for a blond." Her eyes locked on a familiar looking figure. A figure that gave her nightmares whenever she thought about him. He stood casually, his arm out to the side, the only thing supporting a water prison. A gray haired Konoha jonin crouched slightly in the prison, being tall for it's small space.

The missing nin laughed, seeming genuinely amused. "What a guy.." he murmured. Then louder, he said, "Come at me then!" Almost crying with relief when his eyes weren't focused on her, she looked at the four that he was half glaring, half smirking at.

Her heart almost shattered. _No no **no**.. I can't.. please, not again!  
_  
A dark haired youth and a girl with hair the color of the sakura in the spring stood frozen, fighting the fight or flight battle within their own minds. Ino knew them. She knew that they wanted to help out their teacher, but were afraid of their opponent. Tall, strong, and muscular, Zabuza towered above them, both in height and in strength.

The older man that they were protecting hastily took several steps back until he tripped over a root, landing on his rear. He stared with terrified eyes at the menace before them.

Only one of the four was confident. "You got two legs and a heartbeat, what's stopping you!" Naruto yelled, stomping his foot much like Ino had several minutes before. She immediately ran in front of him, memories of her nightmares of the other blond's limp body spurring her forward.

"Naruto! Don't be an idiot! You'll get yourself-" she made a movement to grab his shoulders, only to go right through him. For the second that Naruto and her were one, she could feel not only her presence in his mind, but also another powerful, yet tempered down presence. It made her shiver, even when she collapsed to her hands and knees to the ground.  
_  
Am I.. a ghost?_ she stared at her hands. Now that her full attention was on them, she realized that they were faintly transparent. She remembered her aunt's seal spell.

"_It's what I use to make more sense of my visions." Maemi said quietly. "It takes the vision, deletes all the scenes formed from your subconscious mind, opens up your mind, and lets you see what the vision truly is. An image of the future. It only reacts to a Seer. If Ino sits in the middle-" Maemi pointed to the middle of the seal spell, which was completely bare of any markings,"- and nothing happens, she is not a Seer. But if something does happen.."  
_  
Something did happen, she realized, a little too late. Feeling despair and pain, she clasped her hands together, hoping that at least one god was sympathetic to her cause.  
_  
Please, anyone.. don't make me see this.. please don't let this happen again!  
_

* * *

Naruto paused. He was sure that something was wrong, horribly wrong. And his gut instincts were usually right. He frowned. The fact that he had found Haku's position hadn't cheered him up any, nor the fact that Kakashi had wore Zabuza down faster then he had the last time. No, his spirits were totally shot. Not that he'd allow it to show on his face.

It had nothing to do with the Kyuubi. Naruto had loosened the seals on his hand shortly after Sasuke gave him his opinion on self sustaining energies, increasing the rate at which his demonic tenant regained his youki. Naruto could faintly feel him in the back of his mind, but when he tried to contact him, all he got were barks and snarls. Kyuubi needed more youki in order to regain his ability to talk mind to mind with Naruto. Naruto could sense the demon's frustration, but wasn't at all put down by the fact that he had to wait a little longer to talk to his constant companion. He was too happy about the fact that he was even alive.

It had nothing to do with his captured sensei. From his spot on the shore, Naruto could see that Kakashi was already unraveling the coils of chakra of Zabuza's jutsu from the inside out with his sharingan. It was only a matter of time before he was free.

No, it had everything to do with the person behind him. He had expected to see Sakura scared, after all, she was a girl and the force of Zabuza's chakra on her own was foreign and probably frightening. He knew Tazuna was scared, could practically smell it. The bridge builder was a normally passive man. He was merely caught in the cross fire in Gatou's regime.

But what disappointed him.. no, knocked him flat on his ass and made him gasp for air, was Sasuke's reaction.

Naruto wasn't being fair, of course. He remembered a Sasuke who cheered them up during the Chuunin Exam by saying he thought it was going to be pretty fun, even after he was easily beaten by the taijutsu specialist, Rock Lee. A Sasuke who risked his life by getting them through the second exam. A Sasuke who continued to fight even though his emotions would activate a curse seal that would slowly corrupt his mind. A Sasuke who realized that the only way to kill his brother was to gain more power, thus courageously and stupidly threw his body at Orochimaru. A Sasuke who realized that beating his brother wasn't good enough anymore, so sought out his once best friend, pretended to be made that the dobe had defeated his brother before him, and had impaled himself on his friend's rasengan, in his own screwed up way of paying for his sins and apologizing to his friend.  
_  
He's just a kid! Only you were dumb enough to run up to an opponent without caring what his skill level was at that age. _he scolded himself.

Zabuza pulled him out of his thoughts, answering his last taunt. "Now there's an idea.." Ten Zabuza clones rose up from the lake. The closet one took a menacing step toward the group on the shore. Naruto's eyes darkened slightly when Sakura pulled him back. The clone reached the shore, then started to fall apart. He took a step back.

"Heh, wearing forehead protectors and acting like real ninjas," the clone said coldly, "but you know what? A real ninja is someone who had survived numerous brushes with death."

"Take Tazuna-san and run away! You have no chance of beating him! As long as he holds me in this prison, he can't move. The water clone can't go very far from his real body. Just run away now!" Kakashi paused just long enough to order. Naruto scowled, pulling his arm out of Sakura's grasp.

"Naruto!" Sasuke snapped. "You heard what he said!" Something snapped inside of Naruto. His whole body stiffened. Looking over his shoulder, his eyes met Sasuke's.

"What's wrong.. scaredy cat?" he said in a deadly voice. Sasuke recoiled, hurt but mostly angry and annoyed.

"What did you say.. dobe?" Sasuke said in a similar tone. Naruto turned his back on him. The cold shoulder was not unfamiliar. Before they were placed on the same team, Naruto had completely brushed him off when he saw him. But the situation and what he could sense coming from Naruto was much different than the time before. Before, he had looked sad and tired, like he was piling more burden than he could handle. But now, he was frustrated and annoyed. Sasuke had a feeling it was his fault, although he did not know why.

"Do you both have arched feet?" Naruto asked unexpectedly. Sakura was about to ask why when he cut her off. "'Cause if you do, you can walk on water real easy with just a simple trick. Concentrate chakra only in your heel and the ball of your foot and you can walk without too much trouble. Just try to not use your toes too much." He looked back at them, quietly surveying Sasuke then Sakura. "You know.. just in case."

"You guys should not be referred to as ninjas.." the clone said, drawing Naruto's attention back forward. The clone disappeared, then reappeared right in front of Naruto. Pure reflex had Naruto ducking underneath the kick.

Pushing off against the ground, he slammed his fist into the clone's jaw. It exploded into water.

"Heh.. just a brat." Zabuza muttered. Kakashi looked up. "Lets see how long he lasts.."

Naruto turned back around. "Water clones are just like shadow clones. A hard tap will make them disappear. But water clones can take a little bit more of a beating when around water." He then left his team and Tazuna on the shore, momentarily surprising Zabuza when he didn't sink underneath the water.

Naruto directed his attention to the real Zabuza. "You and I.. we have different meanings of what it takes to be a true ninja." he slid into a taijutsu stance. "I'm not saying you're wrong.. but I like mine a hellva lot better."

Laughing, Zabuza asked, "Then what is your idea of a true ninja then? Coming from a kid who hasn't been in the ninja world long enough to see half of what I've have see."

Naruto had to smile, knowing that he had. "Three basic principles. To be a true ninja, you don't follow any orders that offend your morals. To be a true ninja, you put the lives of your friend over a mission. To be true ninja, you never back down without a fight." he sighed, closing his eyes briefly. "I have lived by these principles. I know a ninja is a tool, but before it's a tool, he or she is human. I know a ninja must kill. Some people must be killed in order to keep the balance between powers. I am not naive enough to believe I can live without killing someone, but I will not kill an innocent. And even though it would be a damn shame if my village was looked down upon if I retreated from a mission because it put my friends lives in compromise, I much rather have their lives than a successful mission. Even if they ended up hating me. Which wouldn't make much a difference anyway.." he whispered the last sentence to himself. Naruto shook himself out of his melancholy moment.

A frown momentarily appeared on Zabuza's face._ He's just like Haku.. It's going to be hard to kill him.  
_  
"You happen to have one of my friends there." Naruto said. Zabuza regained his smirk, although it seemed a little bit more forced.

"And what are you going to do about that?"

Naruto cracked his knuckles, grinning at the demon of the mist. "I'm gonna kick your ass." He then created several hand seals. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Four Narutos for every Zabuza clone appeared, running towards their own target. They attacked their own Zabuza clone, making sure that they could not interfere. Seven clones were immediately destroyed, five Narutos and two Zabuzas. Three Narutos ran straight through the middle.

The real Zabuza tensed, ready to use his one available arm to do as much damage as possible. But the three in the middle didn't seem too interested in him.

Two of them stopped, turned and put their hands over each others. The third who had lagged behind suddenly started to sprint. He jumped, landing on their hands, then was thrown into the air.

He twisted and curved in the air, turning east when he reached the highest he could go. He immediately began making hand seals. Naruto took a deep breath of air, feeling heat gather in his chest.

"Katon Karyuu Endan!" A dragon made of the hottest of flame issued from his mouth. It roared and sped off after its target.  
_  
That's an impressive technique.._ Zabuza felt a vein throb in his forehead. _Now what would have been more impressive is if he had aimed it in the right direction. _He was mystified and annoyed at Naruto. After making such a powerful speech, the brat should have at least had the decency to be more accurate. He was about to tell Kakashi so when he saw a dark flash in the trees in front of the dragon. His eyes widened, realizing who it was. _Haku! That brat figured out where he was hiding! _Haku sped off, away from the battle field, a very hungry dragon on his heels.

Sasuke followed the dragon with his eyes, feeling inferior._ Now that's what it's supposed to look like.. _He reluctantly realized if he wanted to make his technique any better, he'd have to train with Naruto. Still sore about Naruto's 'scaredy cat' comment, he seethed._ Dammit..  
_  
"I can't just stand here and do nothing.." his mumbling caught Sakura's attention away from the battle. She watched as Sasuke dropped to his knees and started to dig through his sack for something.

Naruto landed gracefully on the water, coughing a little. The attack scorched the inside of his throat_. Gah.. gotta work on my control.. But Haku should be able to outrun that. _He had suppress his chakra, making a weaker dragon than he normally would. He didn't want Haku to die, after all.

Almost all of his clones were gone, but there were only three water clones left. The remainder of Narutos clones retreated to Naruto's side. There were four Zabuzas and seven Naruto's left on the field. The three water clones jumped in front of the real Zabuza and Kakashi.

The six shadow clones spread out, anticipating more water clones. The real Naruto charged at Zabuza. Just as Naruto had thought, more clones formed out of the water. His clones came to his defense, dropping like flies.

Naruto dodged kicks and punches thrown his way. He couldn't get in enough time to make more clones. Soon he was surrounded, using the best taijutsu he could muster up to defend himself.

"Shit.." he hissed, back flipping out of the way. He felt a clone slid up behind him, but didn't have a hold on the water to push away from him. The clone made a movement to grab him, but dissolved into water when something large and metal sliced through him. Naruto turned surprised eyes to the shore.

Sasuke stood there, in the same position he had thrown the shuriken. He had three more in his hand. They were large, like the type novice genin used, shaped like wind mills. Naruto recognized them, having once changed himself into a similar shape to free Kakashi so long ago. He had to smile._ I knew you weren't a chicken shit, Sasuke..  
_  
Sasuke walked out onto the water, discarding his shoes. It was so hard to channel chakra through rubber. His feet sunk in an inch on the first step, but the farther he got in, the easier it became. Channeling chakra to one's foot was difficult, but even more so when channeling it to the entire foot. Naruto's trick accomplished the job so much easier.

He flipped one of the shuriken in his hand, then flicked his wrist, opening it up.

"We are ninjas, whether you like it or not." he said to Zabuza. "We may fear you, but like Naruto said," he raised the shuriken up in front of his face, "there's no way in hell we're going to back down."

He threw the shuriken at him, the four bladed weapon going a little faster than Zabuza would have expected of a genin. He caught it though, chuckling until it died in his throat. There was a shuriken hiding in the first's shadow. _Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!  
_  
His hands were full, what should he do? Smirking, he jumped. The shuriken fell uselessly into the water with a faint noise.

While Zabuza's attention was focused on someone else, Naruto made quick work of the remaining clones, using more advanced taijutsu than he realized would have been suspicious coming from the 'dead last', hoping against hope that no one had noticed him. Luckily enough, no one did. He moved silently towards Zabuza, who just jumped over the second shuriken and mentally kicked himself. _If I had just gone with the original plan, this battle would have already been over! Me and my stupid pride..  
_  
Water clones rose up again, and began to attack Sasuke. He defended as best as he could, using up much chakra along the way. Soon, the clones stood between him and the shore, blocking his one way out. His back was to Zabuza.

"You should have listened to your betters, kid.." Zabuza muttered, flipping the shuriken he caught open. Naruto saw his movements. He didn't need to be a psychic to know what was going to happen next.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi yelled, as the shuriken left Zabuza's hand. Sasuke turned around, his eyes widening at the sight of his own weapon flying back at him.  
_  
Shunshin no Jutsu!_ Naruto thought desperately, the seals automatically forming. He disappeared and appeared in the path of the shuriken.

"Naruto, no!" Sasuke yelled, but it was too late. A strangled gasp escaped Naruto's throat. His upper body felt too heavy to lift suddenly. He nearly fell over, just barely able to keep his balance.

Naruto yanked the shuriken out of his stomach, a little bit of blood and muscle coming out with it. Blood trickled down his chin, even as he grinned at Zabuza.

"Told ya.. you eyebrow less freak." he whispered. "I even put my.. precious people's lives.. over my own." Naruto's grip on his chakra faltered and he sunk beneath the surface of the lake.

* * *

The jar slipped from her limp fingers, shattering and spraying shards of glass and ingredients to an antidote all over the ground. Hinata paused, her hands shaking. Something was horribly wrong, she just knew it.

From the moment she had watched Naruto leaving Konoha to that moment, she had been living in a constant tense state, waiting for the second shoe to drop.  
Hinata went through the motions of cleaning up her mess, her mind focused on Naruto. She didn't noticed the glass that pricked her fingers and made them bleed.  
_  
Oh, Naruto-kun... _she thought. Not being able to take it anymore, she abandoned the mess and ran out of her room. Hinata kept running, nearly tripping over a surprised Hanabi on her way out of the house. Even after the man let her out of the gate, she still ran.

Hinata paused at the Hokage monument when the stitch in her side became unbearable, her eyes lingering on the Fourth's frozen face. He had been a source of strength and courage for the village, but she herself could not find strength in image. To her, it looked like the Fourth was looking coldly down at the village. Coldly down at her, although the sculptor probably had meant to capture him in a regal light. But it still seemed like he was glaring at them, and Hinata already had too many people in the flesh glaring at her. She ran again, her destination unknown.

Hinata supposed that was probably why she found so much strength in Naruto. He looked like the Fourth, but he wasn't even close to the stone figure in the mountainside. He cursed, he fought, he screamed. Naruto was so human compared to the Fourth, although she supposed she wasn't being fair to their previous Hokage, the warrior he was. But she did not know him, thus could find no comfort.

Naruto.. he was the opposite of everything that should have been comforting to her. He was flighty, impatient, easily annoyed, and illogical. He often made people angry with him and he loved attention. Even those who were his distant friends found themselves thrown in the chaos that the blond always brewed in his boredom.

Hinata found herself in front of his apartment building, realizing much later that it had been her true destination all along. _I knew it.. _she thought, walking up the stairs._ I knew I shouldn't have let him out of my arms. _A thought that made her blush momentarily, an image of a chibi Hinata clinging onto Naruto's legs appearing in her mind's eye. She reached around her neck, pulling out a necklace. It had two items on it. A delicately crafted trinket of silver and white and a rusty house key. They were the opposite of one another, but they were the most precious things to her. Her mother's necklace and her crush's key.

She unlocked the door, remembering the few minutes she had been held by Naruto. Of course, he had just smiled and shaken it off, but it had been one of her most precious memories. Hinata closed the door behind her.

She had been in his apartment a few times before, just to water his plants. But now she was there.. why?

Did she really believe if she closed her eyes and prayed, he'd appear from around the corner? That he'd be surprised, then say hello and ask if she was hungry?  
_  
Oh, I'm so pathetic.. _Even so, she still got comfort from his home, inanimate though it was and completely void of hugging power. It smelled.. like him. The faint smell of wildness and forest and ramen. Her hands trailed over the wall, tracing over a small crack that looked suspiciously like a kunai hole.  
_  
Naruto-kun.. Why do I feel like something horrible has happened to you? _She looked out the window.

The only good thing about Naruto's apartment, as cramped as it was, was the view. One window looked straight into another person's apartment, but the other one looked out over the village. Closing her eyes, she could imagine Naruto sitting in front of that window, staring out over the village, a serious look on his normally cheerful face.

Hinata looked, feeling comfort knowing that Naruto had once done the same thing, and gasped. From the window, she could see the Hokage monument. But at the angle the Fourth's head was perched, he no longer looked as cold as Hinata thought he did. The light from the sun softened his features, lessened the tense look he had on his face. The different angle didn't make him smile, rather, it made him look like the Hokage did when he looked over the village children, his children. Not quite a smile, but a warm gaze.

The Fourth was looking over his children.

Hinata clasped her hands together. _Please.. _she silently begged of the Fourth, seeing strength in him that she did not see before. _Please watch over your child, Uzumaki Naruto. Please make sure he returns to us safe.. that he returns to me unharmed._

* * *

Limp, Sasuke stared blankly at the water as it slowly stained red. Visions of his family's brutal death flashed through his mind. Cold, hard fury rose up in side of him, a fury that was matched only by his fury over his clan's massacre.

In his mind's eye, Naruto grinned at him, taunting him until Sasuke would come outside to learn a jutsu. Naruto stood in front of a hospital window, moonlight making him look inhumanly pale, sharing his pain with Sasuke. Naruto frowning childishly when he tried to figure out which section he should put his 'x' in. Naruto looking blank, but his eyes flaming with anger and disappointment, calling him a scaredy cat.

He had failed once again. Another one of the people closest to him died. And all he did was stand around, acting like a coward.

"You.." he whispered, his voice slowly gaining volume. "You.. fucking bastard!" Seething, Sasuke met Zabuza's eyes. Red tinted his vision and his dark eyes flashed a similar color twice before blazing red. A comma like mark etched itself into each of his eyes.

"I will kill you.." Sasuke hissed, unaware that he had activated his family's blood limit for the second time. He ran at Zabuza, only slightly aware that the clones' attacks were suddenly clearer and he could dodge them faster.

He didn't care when a cut opened up in his cheek when one of them swiped at him. He didn't care that he was almost out of chakra and it was suicidal to go any farther. He cared about his team mate. He wanted revenge.

Zabuza was just another Itachi.

Kakashi tried again. "What are you doing! Run away!" he yelled. He couldn't stand the thought of losing another student. "This fight was over the moment I was caught! Our duty is to protect Tazuna-san! Did you forget that!"

Sasuke was close, and still coming closer. "Kiss my ass." the Uchiha hissed, pulling out a kunai. "He was my friend!" He bellowed the last word, dodging Zabuza's swipe. The demon of the mist caught Sasuke's leg when he attempted to hit him.

Sasuke twisted, swinging his body upward. He slammed the kunai into Zabuza's right shoulder, unconsciously realizing that the only one who could beat Zabuza was Kakashi himself. Unfortunately, Zabuza didn't drop the prison. He let go of Sasuke's leg and grabbed his neck instead. He squeezed just hard enough to make Sasuke gasp and know he had the strength in one hand to break his neck if he so chose.

"Your brat of a team mate was in the way." Zabuza said, shaking Sasuke slightly. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke and his budding sharingan glared down at him. "It's nothing personal, just business. I'll let you and your pretty girlfriend go if you leave Tazuna and Kakashi to me. Do we have a deal?"

Sasuke spat in his face. "Go fuck yourself." He didn't bother correcting Zabuza about Sakura. Frowning, the mist nin tightened his grip on Sasuke's neck. He could no longer breathe.

Sakura stepped forward, knowing now was the time to stop acting like a wall flower and join in the dance. Tazuna grabbed her shoulder. "Don't! He'll kill you too!" She brought her hand over his, reminding him that she was no ordinary girl with the strength of her fingers. She pryed his hand off of her shoulder, glancing back at him over her shoulder.

Tazuna felt chills run down his spine at that look. He remembered that she was no grandchild of his, nor a kid of the town that he could pass judgment to. She was a shinobi. And it showed in her eyes.

"Please hide, Tazuna-san." Sakura said tonelessly. It hurt, she realized. It hurt so much. _I wish.. I wish I could have told you how much I appreciate you Naruto.. This.. this is the very least I can do.._

She stepped out on the water, finding easier than Sasuke had to walk. She, after all, had better chakra control than most people her age. Sakura formed seals with her hands, ignoring her teacher's yell to not take another step. She even ignored Sasuke's gasped shout that she should leave. _You protected Sasuke, without second thoughts.. I cannot even hope to be half as good as you are.. but I sure as hell can try. I'll make you proud of me, Naruto!_

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Sakura shouted. Four copies of her ran towards Zabuza.  
_Hm.. my hands are full_. he couldn't make any water clones to quickly finish her off, and didn't want to let go of either Sasuke or Kakashi. _I guess I'll kick her away or something_. He wasn't too concerned with Sakura. Generally, female ninjas tended to be weaker in all aspects of ninjas arts, excluding genjutsu and healing. He was busy trying to figure out a way he could kill Sasuke without giving him a chance to attack, nor letting go of Kakashi when he put his foot through Sakura's first bunshin. The weak illusion disappeared. He waved Sasuke through the second clone. He was wondering whether or not Haku was okay by the time he had demolished the third clone, but his attention was drawn back to the battle when the fourth clone wasn't Sakura, but instead a rotten log that had been floating in the lake a few moments ago.  
_  
Kawarimi no Jutsu? _Sakura appeared in front of him, in the air. _She's too close! _he realized. He couldn't kick her, or block her attack with Sasuke. Sakura twisted and kicked out, her foot connecting with the kunai that Sasuke had stuck in him before. It slid in deeper, scraping against bone.

Finally he reacted, teeth gnashing together in pain. He cursed at her, dropping Sasuke and reaching for his sword that was strapped to his back. Both hands holding the heavy sword, he swung at Sakura, only to miss when Sasuke tackled her into the water.

They resurfaced, coughing up a mixture of water and blood. Zabuza swung again, forgetting in his pain all about Kakashi.

Kakashi didn't hold his sudden freedom as lightly. He kicked Zabuza's side, feeling satisfaction when he felt one or two of the mist nin's ribs crack. Zabuza regained his footing on the water, barely keeping a grip on his sword. He pulled out the kunai in his shoulder with a wince, turning dark eyes to Kakashi.

"Never underestimate my students." Kakashi said blandly. Sakura and Sasuke climbed back onto of the water, feeling slight stirrings of pride. "Go to Tazuna." This time, they listened. They stayed on the water, but stood very close to the shore, just in case Kakashi needed them.  
_  
Well, this went to hell in a hand basket real fast._ Zabuza thought, _I just have to distract them a little longer, at least until I can make a diversion and escape._ He never planned on beating Kakashi in one battle. Where was the fun in that?

He remembered Sasuke's fury at the blond brat's death. If Kakashi was anything like his students..

"Hmph. I never thought ninjas could be so dumb.. especially like that brat." he pretended to muse, eyes careful to watch Kakashi's reaction. "With that attitude, a ninja was bound to come along and put him out of his misery." Kakashi tensed, his eyes turning cold.

"He lived by the principles that should be respected and revered all throughout the ninja community. I will not tolerate you saying anything negative about him." Somehow, he wasn't just talking about Naruto anymore. He made several hands seals, then pointed his right hand down.

_What's he doing?_ was the collective thought of the rest of them. The chirping sounds of many birds met their ears, electrical energy buzzing around Kakashi's hand. He held his wrist steady with his other hand.

"You have no right at all."

A loud screeching roar tore everyone's attention away from the chidori, bringing it instead to the brush where the sound originated. A masked ninja darted out of the bushes and landed on the water. Sasuke recognized the scent of burnt trees, proceeding Naruto's fire dragon.  
_  
It's still here?_ Sasuke thought, in complete surprise. _Naruto's kage bunshins disappeared, why didn't the dragon?  
_  
The masked boy turned around, creating many ice and water walls that the dragon busted through in an attempt to reach him. Finally, with a tired screech, the dragon fizzed out of existence, barely three inches away from his target. The boy sighed in relief.

"Haku." Zabuza said, secretly pleased that the boy was alright. The boy straightened.

"My apologies, Zabuza-san." Haku said in his quiet voice. He observed the color of the lake and the group going against his mentor. He knew the one who unleashed the attack on him was probably dead. Kakashi looked at the pair of them grimly.

"A partner? He had a partner!" Sakura hissed.

"Who did you think Naruto sent the dragon after?" asked Sasuke in a slightly exasperated voice. In a fell swoop, she realized that Naruto was gone. Truly gone. He wasn't going to pop his head up, grin, and ask her out on a date for the millionth time. He wasn't going to turn to Sasuke after she rejected him and childishly scowl and yell at him, as if Sasuke was the reason she said no. No longer was he going to surprise her with his intellect, then do something incredibly stupid the next second.

"Naruto.." Sakura whispered. "You.. damn fool." Sasuke looked over, feeling slightly guilty. He was so sure that she was just going to wave off Naruto's death. He thought she was shallow, thus would not even feel half of the pain he felt at the death of another one of the people closest to him.

He awkwardly patted her shoulder, not knowing how to comfort her. For him, comfort came in the fact that Naruto's killer was going to die. But Sakura wasn't like him. The only thing he knew that would make her happy was to bring Naruto back.

* * *

He knew it was the weight of his clothes and his ninja apparel that weighted him down, but he could not summon up the strength the lift his arm to yank them off. Instead, he kept on sinking until his back hit the sandy bottom of the lake.  
_  
Huh, this lake isn't so deep.._ he thought, surprisingly calm. He could see the light from the sun through the clouds of red that kept coming from his body. I'm.. bleeding. Naruto was completely detached as he watched the wound in his stomach struggling against the water in attempts to heal.

He was unnaturally calm. He laughed mentally at the bizarreness of it. He'd spazz and get all hyped up over normal stuff, but the second his life was in danger, he would be calm.

Maybe he was calm because he knew he could last longer underwater than average humans, even most shinobi because he had learned how to burn off chakra into a substitute for oxygen.

Maybe it was because he was losing too much blood and it was affecting his thought processes.

Either way, Naruto found himself not caring. It was so calm there, at the bottom of the lake. A few fish, here and there, nolarge predatroy onesin sight. He found himself entertained by the play of colors and light ten or twenty feet above him.

In the back of his mind, he knew he should move, get out of the water so he could properly heal himself, but as the minutes ticked past, he found that his body wouldn't respond to his calls.  
_  
Am I going to drown? _he mused. _That really blows.._ Snarls and growls appeared unwelcomed in his mind. It appeared the Kyuubi didn't want him to die.  
_  
I know. It's a bitch, huh?_ He forced himself into a crouching position, the water heavy on his weakened body. Then his legs gave out and his knees gently impacted with the sandy bottom.

The snarls turned into one high pitched whine. Naruto flinched instinctively. He had never thought Kyuubi would make such a desperate sound. Youki suddenly spiked within him, giving him a slight adrenaline high. Naruto felt more awake.

The demon struggled to speak.** Fool.. of a brat... Get off.. your lazy ass.  
**_  
And just where the hell have you been! Here I am, bleeding to death..._ he muttered incoherently to himself. Naruto felt more of his spirit coming back to him. He pulled off his vest, his kunai pouch, and his shuriken holster. The fox's youki spurred his heart into making more blood. Naruto's dizziness started to disappear.  
**  
I'm a being of fire. We're in water. Do the math. **Kyuubi growled. He opened up his own version of the eight gates, making more and more energy flow through Naruto.**Get the hell out of here, kitling. You've friends to save.  
**

* * *

Haku appeared next to Kakashi, grabbing the arm that had the chidori, thus beginning a tug of war between the powerful assassination technique. Zabuza turned to the two remaining genins. They glared back, fury, fear, and anticipation all rolled in one.

The demon of the mist felt little satisfaction when they still took a step back. His shoulder ached, as did his ego. Two genins had managed to injure him. Genins! Two little brats who thought they knew everything about anything. If they had been as knowledgeable as they thought they were, then they would have known that Naruto was merely an obstacle in his way. Zabuza wasn't trying to rile them up. He was looking after his own interests, which was, for the time being, following that sniveling coward of a man, Gatou, until the bastard paid up.

Now they were obstacles in his way. Zabuza rather not kill them, as he was many things, but not a person who enjoyed killing little kids. He had warned them to stay out of their way. Hell, even their teacher told them to butt out. Now Zabuza had to kill them.

He briefly shouldered his sword, trying to roll the ache out of his shoulder, then ran at them.

They tensed, raising up arms. He knew that they had no chance against them, his eyes dark with annoyance at what he had to do for money.

Then the fish attacked.

At least, he thought it was the damn fish. Small compared to him, but big compared to normal fish, several dark blurs tackled him, knocking him away from Sakura and Sasuke. They clung to his arms and legs, trying to render him immobile. Three latched themselves to the arm that held the sword.

He realized that they were not fish, as they had legs and arms, and were steadily pushing him away from the shore. They had wild but wet blond hair, torn up black shirts, and bloodied up green shorts. Zabuza, having seem this jutsu before, was shocked.  
_  
How did that damn brat survive? He was under for ten minutes! _

One last 'fish' rose to the surface of the lake. A vest, a holster, and a pouch hung limply from his left arm.He was bleeding heavily and looked tired, dark circles underneath his blue eyes. Or what had been blue eyes, but was now red.

_N..Naruto? _Tears rose to Sakura's eyes. _Thank kami!_ She had to restrain herself to keep from hugging him to death. Sasuke had a similar reaction, although he was a little more sour about it.  
_  
Idiot probably pretended to die just so he'd look cool. I'll kick his ass next time we spar for making me worry_. Immediately, he reworded his thoughts. _No, he didn't worry me. He, uh, distracted me. Yeah, I'll kick his ass for distracting me. Damn blond should know to let his superiors fight. _

Kakashi lost control of the chidori. It completely disappeared, it's chakra gone, leaving Kakashi feeling completely drained._ Damn.. I shouldn't have used the eye so much_. He watched Haku warily as the ice wielder walked away.

"I was not ordered to kill you." the boy said simply. Kakashi didn't know whether to feel annoyed or relieved. It was decided for him when he saw that Naruto had resurfaced, looking a little torn up but alive. Relief surged through him, exhaustion on its heels. He really needed somewhere to lie down.

Sasuke frowned, his sharingan telling him something that the others didn't notice. Naruto had two chakras in his body, a red one and a blue one. The red one was less dispersed than the blue one, seeming to travel along something other than Naruto's inner coil system. The red energy was mostly around Naruto's middle, but was slowly spreading out, like Naruto had gotten a boost in chakra.

Sasuke had never seen anyone with more chakra hidden in their body than Naruto.

Naruto stretched, letting Zabuza see his stomach stitching back together. The demon of the mist locked eyes with the demon of the leaf. Naruto cocked his head slightly, his red eyes fading back into a more comforting blue. He took several steps forward, until he was only a few feet away from Zabuza.

The poor mist nin was so shocked that he didn't even think about fighting for his freedom.  
_  
That kind of regeneration! _he thought, awe struck. _Who really is the threat of the four leaf nins? Kakashi or this kid?_

Naruto closed his eyes for a moment. Then they opened, his eyes conveying more seriousness than the blond could ever muster in his voice. "You're being used, Zabuza. You're being treated like a tool. And though you may argue that ninjas are tools, the fact of the matter is that missing nins cost too much in the black market." he leaned closer, making sure his voice was low enough so that only Zabuza could hear him. "Do you really think that Gatou, the tight bastard he is, is really gonna pay you? Do you really think in a month or two, you'll still be alive if you keep on working for him? He'll kill you, or at least hire someone to do it for him. He's not gonna roll out the money you want."

Naruto's eyes darkened. "And although you may act like you could care less about your life expectancy, think about Haku. Stop working for that communist bastard."

Dammit, he knew the brat was right. But he needed the money. He was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to steal it. And who knew? The son of a bitch might actually go through with his deal.

"Stay out of my business, kid." Zabuza said gruffly, disengaging himself from the clingy Naruto clones. "Haku!" the boy was immediately at the mist nin's side. "We're leaving." Haku nodded silently.

With a blood thirsty grin, the fanged smiled hidden behind the bandages but the unholy gleam in his eyes still quite visible, he said, "We'll meet again, little leaf ninjas. Kirigakure no Jutsu!" It was only a partial blanket of mist and fog that assaulted their senses, dispersing once Zabuza and Haku had disappeared.

With a tired smile, Kakashi walked to the shore. When he caught up to Naruto, he slung an arm over the blond's shoulders. "So.." he said, addressing them all. "How do you think your first experience with a real ninja went?"

"Like shit." Naruto said flatly. Sasuke had to agree. They all made it to solid ground, the Uchiha pausing just long enough to scoop up his sandals. Tazuna grinned at them.

"That was excellent!" the old man said excitedly. The ninjas merely huffed. It wasn't for entertainment, they had been fighting for their lives.

"Zabuza was just gathering information." Kakashi told his team warily. "That wasn't even a real fight."

"Hell,_ I _knew that." Sakura muttered, picking up her sack from where she had left it.

"Hey hey!" Tazuna said, trying to raise their spirits. "I happen to recognize this lake! We're ten minutes away from my humble adobe! This is Dead Man's Lake." He leaned forward with a grin. "It's infested with alligators."

Sasuke and Sakura immediately looked back. A alligator was on the surface of the lake, sunning itself, proving Tazuna's words to be right.

"Damn Naruto.. You're pretty lucky." Sasuke muttered, curious as to why none of the huge reptiles took a chunk out of Naruto.

"Luck.. is just one of my many skills" Naruto said humorously. He then collapsed into a heap on the ground. Kakashi bent down, checking his pulse.

"He's fine. Just used a little too much chakra." Kakashi yawned, then fell faint on the ground. Sakura's eye twitched as she observed the unconscious forms of her team mate and teacher, secretly envious.

"Oh, hell no.." she muttered, unaware that Sasuke had heard her.

"Oh, hell_ yes_." Sasuke corrected, grabbing one of Kakashi's arms and hauling him up. "You take Naruto."

"And I'll lead you to my home! Plenty of futons! Follow me!" Tazuna said cheerfully. Sighing, Sakura and Sasuke dragged Naruto and Kakashi after him, Tazuna's loud voice the only thing that they could focus on. It had been one hellva day.

* * *

Next chapter- Sasuke takes a leadership role and Sakura gets kidnapped! Meanwhile, Naruto tests out the limitations of his self imposed seal, then decides he wants to see if he could summon a frog. Kakashi sleeps, Inari bitches and whines, and Sakura starts to understand Haku. And.. hmm, maybe an Ino and Shika scene with the Hokage.  
Heh, can't wait for my next update, huh? 


	23. Of Hanyous and Ninja Rules

For the Love of My Friends

Chapter Twenty-Three: Of Hanyous and Ninja Rules

by Foxie

* * *

Inoshi glared at his sister and one of his best friends' kid. They had unconsciously formed a wall against him, keeping from the door that he had no qualms over destroying, and his daughter who was inside.

"That door is very old and very sacred. You will not touch it." Maemi said firmly. "It will not open until the ritual is complete."

"I don't give a flying fuck." Inoshi said shortly. "My baby's in there-"

"And she's trying to deal with something that has been bugging her for the last couple of days. Or did that slip past your sake clouded mind?" Shikamaru was being sharper than normal. Inoshi was used to Shikamaru whining about Shikato, Inoshi, and Choumaru's drinking habits, since he often was the one to drag them home, but never had Shikamaru even hinted that his slight drinking problem was interfering with his ability to parent his child.

Inoshi growled, about to tell Shikamaru(who reminded him too much of his father at times) where to shove it, when the door that Maemi and Shikamaru were so diligently protecting opened.

Shikamaru turned around, his eyes focusing on Ino's weary looking face. She, however, smiled. "Naru.. he's okay.. Damn brat has the luck of a hundred men. Sasuke and Sakura.. they were crazy as hell, but they're fine. Even that weird ass teacher of theirs." Her eyes sharpened, and she pulled away from the wall she had been leaning on. "But we really gotta talk to the Hokage."

Ino pushed past them, waving off Inoshi's questions and worries with a simple 'I'm fine.'

"Why?" Nyoko asked, having been shunted to the corner when the big terrifying Yamanaka man stormed in. She didn't pretend to have even half of the knowledge of the ninja community than most and kept her mouth shut about the Yamanaka affairs, but was curious as to why her boss's little niece would feel the need to speak with the Hokage, the most powerful man in the village.

Ino turned slightly, her eyes filled with worry. "Because Team Seven is in way over their heads. They need back up."

* * *

_Somebody, shoot me._ was Sasuke's stray thought when Tazuna began his lecture on the people of Wave Country and their habits. What had been a ten minute walk seemed to stretch out for a lifetime. The man just wouldn't stop talking! Which was part of the reason why he loathed his fan club so much.

The girls (and a few guys, he was surprised to admit) talked endlessly, as if they would stumble upon a topic that he'd find interesting, thus drawing his attention to them for a few seconds longer than another fan member.

It was sickening. Mostly because they could be so cutthroat to one another.

He glanced to his left, where Sakura was silently carrying his blond friend. Now, she wasn't too bad. After the novelty of having the 'Great Uchiha' on her team wore off, she treated him less and less like a godlike creature and more like an actual person. Sure, Sasuke had seen trace amounts of what he had over heard Kiba name 'the fan girl disease', especially around that blond girl that liked to cling on him. Whatever her name was.

Sakura saw him looking, and instead of a blush like he'd expect from one of his fan girls, she said more practically, "Do you want to switch? Despite being a total ramen pig, Naruto's pretty light." Sasuke arched his eyebrow in an unmistakable questioning look. She nodded toward Kakashi. "His arm's dragging."

Sasuke looked down. Huh, so it was. He declined her offer. "Kind of impossible for him not to." he said in defense. "He's twice as tall as I am." She nodded, knowing it was the truth.

Tazuna never noticed their private conversation, too caught up in his lecture. "..Living in poverty and squalor has changed some decent men into absolute animals. The need for food, for shelter, for money has taken up their entire lives, leaving no room for little things we know as morals." Sasuke and Sakura were only half listening. "So, as a result, many gangs and groups of a similar nature thrive in our humble countryside.. such as the Black Dragons, the Water Beasts, The OFH, which was supposed to be an acronym for their code- Obey, Fight, Honor. Got some old samurai guy as a leader, so that's where the honor was supposed to come in, but they became known to us common folks as the Ogres From Hell. Catchy isn't it?"

Before they could make an attempt to pretend that they were listening, Tazuna called out happily, "We're here!" Past a bend in the trees and there was a village. Suddenly acting like he was ten years younger, Tazuna bounded the rest of the way to his house, waving cheerfully to the other people as he passed. Sakura and Sasuke lagged behind.

"Father!" a woman cried out. Tazuna grinned and ran up to her, scooping her up in a hug. The conscious members of Team Seven stopped. Sakura elbowed Sasuke as best as she could while carrying Naruto. She grinned.

"Now doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?" Sasuke rolled his eyes, but had to smile.

They were ushered in, Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami fussing over them all, Kakashi and Naruto especially.

Tazuna ambled out of the room to go find a futon for Naruto, at his daughter's order, while Sasuke put Kakashi on the one that they had managed to scrounge up. Kakashi flinched, a sure sign that he was in pain, then fell into a deeper sleep.

Sakura shifted from foot to foot, still hadn't put Naruto down. After the hell the blond had went through, she thought it would be cruel to just drop him on the ground and retreat. But her arms were really starting to ache.

The door slid back open, Tazuna bounding in with a futon rolled underneath his arm. He quickly set it down and gestured for her to release Naruto.

She had taken only one step towards him when a voice ran out, freezing her knees. "What's the point? He's just going to die." Sakura turned around while Sasuke slowly stood, both keeping careful eyes on the boy standing in the doorway. He was small, had the dark hair and pretty features that resembled Tsunami, meaning the boy must some how be related. Dark and empty eyes stared back at them from underneath a white and blue hat. Had the boy smiled, Sakura would have found him adorable. Yet the corners of his mouth stayed pointing downward, giving her the chills instead.

"Inari!" Tazuna scolded. A small flame erupted in Inari's eyes.

"You're all going to die!" the boy shouted, making the mistake of looking at his grandfather and leaving his back wide open to Sakura and any advances she might have decided to take. Inari found himself flat on his face when someone bopped him on the head. Hard.

Sakura hadn't made a move.

"Stupid.. bratty.. bitchy.. brat.." Naruto mumbled sleepily, his fist still raised. He allowed a foxy smile appear on his face.

"Sakura-chan.." he cooed, realizing who was carrying him. "You smell lovely today." She promptly dropped him on his rear. Naruto rubbed the bruised muscle, pouting in mock pain. "Sakura-chaaaaan.." he whined.

Tsunami grabbed his attention with the skill of a single parent, ushering him into the futon. She never noticed her son's sullen exit, too worried about all of the dried blood on Naruto's shorts. Naruto, in turn, distracted her with the skill of a fox, making her fuss over Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi instead. They were quite a pair.

Sasuke thought, to himself in the deepest part of his mind where he allowed himself to be weak, that it was nice to have such a motherly character around. Such a person had been gone from his life for so long. He waved off her hands after she bandaged his cheek.

"I'm fine," the boy said gruffly. She patted his head and went to go change Kakashi's cold compress. Sasuke turned accusing eyes toward Naruto, only to find the foxy ninja was already asleep. A small sigh escaped his lips, hinting at his annoyance. The brat was never up when Sasuke needed to vent.

He walked outside, only slightly mindful of the fact that Sakura was following him. Sasuke was exhausted, yet was too alert to allow himself to fall asleep like Naruto did. He had been, for lack of better terms, through an emotional roller coaster, not to mention was suffering from the after effects of his adrenaline boost. As well as a curious drop in his chakra levels. Hm. He'd have to ask Kakashi about that when the jonin was awake.

The beginnings of a headache were forming._ I can see why most ninjas prefer to not have emotions during battle._

He had been terrified, sorrowful, furious, happy, amused, and annoyed all in the span of an hour. At that moment, the only thing that he could claim now was numbness, which was a blessing. But it was slowly drifting away, leaving only traces of the emotions he had felt and a growing disgust over the fact that he had lost control in battle and had attacked Zabuza in a blind fury. _If it hadn't been for Sakura..._

Sasuke stopped rather abruptly, rolling that fraction of a sentence around in his mind. _If it hadn't been for Sakura._ He turned around, facing her. She paused, somewhat hesitant, then took several steps forward.

"Um.. Sasuke-kun," Sakura got a hold on his arm rather gently, "I think you should get some rest." She started to pull him back towards the house, slightly surprised that he didn't resist. Sasuke stared at the back of her head, trying to summon up the words he wanted to say.

He wanted to thank her. Thank her for throwing her life on the line to protect them. Thank her for every time she asked him if he was alright, just to get blown off with a cold sneer on his end. Thank her for every time that when that happened, she didn't decide that he was unworthy of her attentions and abandon him. Funny how such irrelevant things(at least in his opinion) became so clear to him. That's what happens when you have a near death experience, he supposed.

But the words wouldn't come. They were lodged deep inside his throat, blocked by his pride and his knowledge that one day, he'd have to leave the village of his birth to seek the power that would defeat his brother, as he was reluctant to go down the same path as him and kill a friend to gain the ultimate sharingan.

So instead, when her hand drifted down absently to his hand, he didn't knock it away. He threaded his fingers through hers, pretending not to notice when she glanced back, her eyes filled with a mixture of hope and suspicion.

_This is the only way I can show my appreciation. This is the only way I **dare to. **I want you to hate me, so when I leave, you aren't in pain. But I can't stand the thought of you hating me_. His fingers tightened slightly around her hand. _I'm pathetic, aren't I?  
_

* * *

The next morning, while Ino and Shikamaru were walking purposely down to the Hokage's office, Inoshi trailing behind, Sakura was gently prodded awake. She looked into dark eyes blearily. The owner of those eyes quirked a smile at the expression on her face.

"Ten minutes. Meeting. Outside." Sasuke said simply. Sakura nodded, still not awake yet. The Uchiha walked out of the room, about to go wake Tazuna for his impromptu meeting.

She ran a brush through her hair, tripped over Naruto in search for her shoes(who just rolled over and went back to sleep, the lucky bastard), and barely managed to get out of the room because the sheets on her futon started to cling to her legs in a desperate attempt to make her go back to sleep.

**Slave driver.** the harsher version of her hissed. **A girl needs her beauty sleep!** Sakura absently nodded at Inner Sakura's words. She went through the kitchen, grabbed a couple of rice balls, then went outside with four minutes to spare.

Sasuke was already there, burning a trail into the ground with his endless pacing. He looked up.

"Finally." he said, a bit of annoyance trickling in. Sakura scowled.

"Hey! I'll have you know that six minutes is record time for a girl to get ready!" she snapped. When Sasuke looked mildly surprised by her outburst, she clamped a hand over her mouth. Gah! I just yelled at Sasuke-kun!

"Sorry." her apology was muffled by her hand. "I'm not a morning person." Sasuke smirked in that way of his, making Sakura feel like she had not annoyed or angered him, rather, she had amused him. Sasuke was a strange guy.

"I noticed." he said. Tazuna came out then, a cup of coffee in one hand, a large rolled up piece of paper in the other. He smiled, having pulled himself out of the morning haze five cups of coffee ago. He took another sip of the coffee, then crouched down, unrolling the paper. Sasuke kneeled down to look at it. After a moment of hesitation, Sakura joined him.

"Here's the map you asked for." the bridge builder said, looking at Sasuke. "S'not a topography map, but it'll do, right?" Sasuke nodded, then turned his gaze to Sakura.

"Both Kakashi and Naruto are.. well.. not of the best health right now and need rest. We-" he gestured to them and Tazuna, "are the only ones that can actually do something. Since Kakashi isn't here, I elect myself as temporary leader. Does anyone object?" Sakura and Tazuna shook their heads mutely. Sasuke nodded slightly to himself, getting up on his feet.

Tazuna felt ridiculous. Here he was, twice the height and size of the boy in front of him, sitting cross legged like some kindergartner. But in these kids' hands was his survival. So for the time being, he kept his mouth shut and drank his coffee.

"Tazuna has done all he can," Sasuke said, gesturing toward the map Sakura was looking over, "but now it's our turn. What's the first thing a ninja must do when he's in unfamiliar territory?"

"Ninja rule 34: When in enemy territory, familiarize yourself with it so you may use it to your advantage." Sakura rattled off absently, tracing a finger down the path they had taken to get to Tazuna's village. Sasuke nodded, turning to Tazuna.

"We're going to scout around. Is there anything about the land or the animals that you want to tell us to watch out for?" Sasuke asked, bowing down to Tazuna's superior knowledge of their surroundings. The older man nodded, putting his cup down. He pointed to the map.

"As you can see, our village isn't too big. It extends from the bridge out to the beginnings of this mini forest. Past that and even intersecting with, there's some swamps to the west, which was probably where the alligators in Dead Man's Lake came from, some nasty snakes in there, so steer clear.." he cleared his throat, trying to think of anything else. "Uh, there's a huge rift to the north of us, looks like just a little crack, maybe five feet across but hundreds of feet down. We do have poison ivy, but it's less poisonous than the ivy you lot have in Konoha, so I've heard. Rumors of huge frogs in the more swampy of areas, never seen one myself. And watch out for people. Some are not as happy as we are to have you guys here. Other than that.. not really."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded seriously. "Okay, thank you Tazuna-san." Sakura said.

"We'll be back by dinnertime." Sasuke added. "We'll see you then.In the meantime, stay away from the bridge. You can continue working tomorrow." Tazuna slowly got to his feet.

"And what about Naruto?" he asked. Sasuke looked down, remembering the pain Naruto went through. Sakura took one look at his shadowed eyes, then answered.

"Let him sleep."

* * *

Naruto stumbled into the kitchen several hours later, scaring Tsunami for a moment. He smiled at her reassuringly, sitting himself down at the table.

Now calm, Tsunami said, "Would you like anything to eat?" He looked around at their meager home, then shook his head. She caught his look over.

"No, really." she sat in front of him, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. They shook. "You and your team.. you're all doing something very kind. We didn't even pay you, yet you are here, trying to help us to fight against Gatou." Inari paused just outside of the kitchen, listening to his mother's tearful voice.

Naruto watched, panicking when she bowed and started to cry. He was never good with crying women. "Please! Anything you want to eat, I'll make it." When Tsunami started to sob, Naruto finally relented.

"Alright! Alright!" he said, jumping out of his chair to pat her back. "Just stop crying. You're too pretty to cry." Tsunami smiled and hiccupped. Naruto frowned, appearing to think hard about what he wanted for breakfast.

"I want.." he said quietly. She wiped away her tears.

"You want..?" she echoed. He gave her a completely serious look.

"I want ramen." Naruto said in a flat tone. Tsunami choked, completely surprised. Out of all the things she'd expect a kid to want, he wanted ramen? _Ramen!_ Naruto saw the disbelieving look on her face and rushed to explain.

"Ramen's the best! The things that I love and hate most about the world has to do with ramen. I hate the three minutes it takes for it to cook. My favorite ramen is miso ramen although chicken ramen has kinda interesting flavor. Beef ramen tastes stale most of the time, but that's 'cause the ramen people don't make it right. But in Konoha, there's this stand, you see, called Ichiraku Ramen. They make the best ramen there! I know the owners pretty well, there's an old man and his daughter, sometimes an older woman too. If you ever go there, you have to eat at the old man's place. And if you do-" his rant was cut off by Tsunami's low melodious laughter. He rubbed the back of his head, confused. Inari rolled his eyes and went back up to his room.

"I'll make you your ramen.." she said softly, patting his head.

* * *

Naruto left after eating and finding out that Sasuke and Sakura went out to scout around. Feeling lonely, he decided to talk to Kyuubi. After much prodding, he found out more about the seal on his hand and what it did and could do.

It had been a more instinctive reaction when he released one of the points on the seal, which after figuring out which each point did, decided to make things easier by just calling each point a seal.

Each seal, or point, locked up and hid a portion of his power. By activating one or more of the seals with some chakra, he could open it, close it, or completely destroy it. Seeing no point in destroying it, he practiced opening and closing the first three seals.

_Hmm.. How many would I need to open in order to do a powerful jutsu?_ he asked. Kyuubi answered.

**You can do many powerful jutsus with the energy you already have. But if you, say, used four rasengans, that fire dragon thing five times, made a hundred kage bunshins, and your Harem no Jutsu times a thousand, you better open that first seal or you'll pass out.** he said. **You underestimate yourself.**

_How about.. summoning? I needed your chakra to do that,_ _remember?_ Naruto was dancing around the topic he had been curious about to begin with. He could still do all of the things he could before, only with fatigue catching up to him faster. But Kyuubi's chakra was already working on that, sculpting and shaping his body so he could get back to his regular form. But could he still summon? He knew he would need the frog boss sometime in the future.

**Only small traces of my youki is captured in that seal, only the bits that have melded with your own and the youki we used to create the seal in the first place. My doubled youki is captured by the seal that the blond brat put on us. You have plenty of chakra, you don't even need me. Just the first seal needs to be undone, if you plan to summon that arrogant frog lord.**

Damn. He had seen right through Naruto's questions.

Remember what the pervert said. Kyuubi warned, pulling up a memory of the training Naruto got from the frog hermit before the Chuunin Final Exam.

_"Summoning?"_ Naruto had asked with a confused look on his face.

_"Yeah! You sign a contract in blood with various life forms and call them forth with ninjutsu when needed. It's one type of space-time ninjutsu."_ Jiraiya had said enthusiastically.

There was silence on Naruto's end.

**Key words: Sign. Contract.** Kyuubi said flatly.

_Eh?_ Naruto said, a bit confused. What did a memory have to do with whether or not he could summon?

**In order to summon, you had to sign a contract. You haven't signed any contracts.**

_Yes I did! Oh. Oh..OH!_ Kyuubi rolled his eyes.

_I'm getting sick and tired of people telling me what I can and cannot do!_ Naruto raged when he realized what Kyuubi was talking about. _Dammit, I do my own thing and everyone else can go fuck off!  
_  
**I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it!** Kyuubi protested. **I'm saying you _can't!  
_**  
_I know! But what do you know about what I can and can't do anyway? You're used to a demon body!_ Naruto snapped.

**If your argument had was true, then I'd be pushing you, brat! Demon bodies can take a lot more than a weak human body can!**

_**I'm not human anymore Kyuubi!**_ Naruto shouted. There was a pause on Kyuubi's end. Then he spoke, his voice a lot quieter.

**I know. You're not human, nor are you a demon. If anything, you're a hanyou, a mix between the two, though you don't smell like the offspring of a human and a demon.** Naruto sighed. He had been hoping Kyuubi would tell him it wasn't true. He had noticed things, things about him that weren't human like things. His regeneration, for one. His stamina, his teeth(canines were a little longer than most, but smaller than Kiba's.), the way his eyes sometimes became slitted without even turning red when he was relying on his instincts. So many things that were just plain.. weird, even in the ninja world. But he knew one thing for sure.

It hadn't been any mixing of chakra that made him into what he was. The second Kyuubi was tagged on his body, he became a hanyou.

**Sorry.** Kyuubi said gruffly.

_Nah, I would have probably gotten myself killed without you._ Naruto said, inserting a little bit of fake cheer in his voice. Then he dropped the act, his voice lowering and becoming serious. _But you do realize I'm still gonna try it, right?  
_  
There was a brief burst of youki in the back of his mind, Kyuubi's way of nodding. **Just.. don't kill yourself.**

Naruto made an agreeing noise in the back of his throat. _Hoo boy.. Hope I can keep that promise._ He opened the first seal on his hand tentatively, watching the red writing on the first point turn blue. A little light headed from the rush he got from the chakra, he performed the hand seals: Boar, dog, bird, monkey, sheep. He bit his thumb hard so it wouldn't heal as fast, then slammed his palm onto the ground.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he shouted. Something happened to the ground beneath him, but he was too busy being hurled into the air from massive winds and chakra combined to look at it. Naruto landed a few yards away on his back, before doing a back summersault, rolling over to his stomach, his face in the grass.

"Oof.. That hurt.." he mumbled. He waited for an 'I told you so!' from Kyuubi.

**I stand corrected.** Kyuubi said stiffly. **I had originally thought you were the most interesting human I had ever had the displeasure of meeting, despite your questionable place between races. But now I know that you are the most interesting being that I have ever met.**

_Huh?_ Naruto asked in his normal one syllable way when talking to the Kyuubi. The demon was suddenly less stiff and more amused.

**You really don't follow any sorta logic, do you? Space, time? Fuck, gravity? Doesn't mean shit to you, huh? 'Cause you're Uzumaki Naruto.** The Kyuubi must of sensed his confusion. **Turn around, you walking paradox.**

Naruto got to his knees and turned around, his eyes widening at the site. "There's got to be a good explanation for this, not just for me.. but for _him_ too!" he whispered. For what he saw was Gamabunta's massive body, many trees crushed beneath his weight. The frog king's back was to Naruto.

There was a loud booming voice. "Who the hell summoned me! Jiraiya, you perverted bastard, show yourself!"

Naruto hit himself on the head with his palm. His last introduction with the summon hadn't gone so well. How was he supposed to explain to Gamabunta that he was summoned on a whim, and not just that, but he was summoned without any usuage of contracts?

"I'm so screwed," he groaned.

* * *

Sakura would realize later, tied to a chair and gagged, that maybe reading while one was supposed to be on the look out for enemies wasn't the smartest thing to do. But the woods were peaceful, nothing had happened so far, and she was bored. She decided to multitask, and pulled out a scroll.

Several weeks ago, back in Konoha, she had borrowed a large scroll from the library. It was a rather complicated scroll on medical jutsus, a subject that Naruto had gotten her interested in when he had taught her one so long ago, in that classroom. It contained simple jutsus, only genin and chuunin level, from diagnostic jutsus to simple ones for healing cuts, much like the one that Naruto showed her. However, it was hard to read, so when everyone else was asleep, she took out the scroll and started writing notes.

She looked over them then, deeply involved in the rather complicated aspects of a diagnostic jutsu for detecting poisons. Sakura didn't notice the wire she stepped on, but several people noticed her.

They followed her, less agile than a ninja and not as silent, but very familiar with the land.

Sakura paused, her attention drifting away from her notes, a sixth sense urgently whispering to her that she wasn't alone. She looked back, sure that she'd see someone following her. Then that someone surprised her by jumping out of the bushes and clamping her arms at her sides. She immediately dropped her scroll when she was hoisted into the air.

Panic filled her mind when she realized her stalker was larger and stronger than her, but quickly retreated when she realized that it wasn't Zabuza. It was some burly man with more scars on his face than most ninjas had on his entire body. There wasn't an absence of fear, just more calm than she'd feel if it had been Zabuza instead.

Sakura kept twisted and struggling in his grip, even more so when she saw more men come from out of nowhere. She got one arm free and immediately slammed her elbow into her captor's face. The result was instantaneous. He grunted and dropped her, covering his nose with his hands, trying to stem the flow of blood. Sakura landed in a slight crouch, turned and swept his feet out from under him with her leg.

His comrades formed a circle around her, some shouting 'you're gonna get it now brat!' Realizing her need for a quick retreat, she darted at the smallest man, her foot colliding with his chest. He fell back, leaving a gap in the circle that she took advantage of. She disappeared into the brush, much to the men's annoyance.

_Ninja Rule 84: One of two things must happen if a ninja suspects he or she is going to be captured._ she thought, a good distance away from the men who ambushed her. The woods were alive, it seemed, no doubt with other members of the mob she had seen. _One must either kill themselves to keep the secrets of their village secret, or one must hide the fact that they are a ninja._

She spied a small crater in the earth, probably from a moved rock. Sakura moved toward it, digging into the soft dirt. She pulled off all of her ninja accessories, dumping them into the hole. She took off her head protector last, her bangs falling over her forehead. Putting the last accessory down slowly and gently on the pile of items, she stared at her reflection in the metal surface.

_I'll get free. she promised herself. I have to tell Naruto that I really do respect him as a ninja.. and as a friend._ Hearing the shouts of her soon to be captors, she quickly shifted the dirt back over it, stood, and ran toward the voices, wanting them to keep away from her things.

Twenty men stood around, trying to find a trail in the ground that would hint at her route. They wouldn't find it. She had gone from tree branch to tree branch. She dropped to the ground and hid herself behind a tree trunk. Frowning when she realized that she had lost her way, she saw the value of the grungy looking men. They could help her find her way back to Tazuna's village. Unwittingly, of course.

Sakura knew she could probably keep them running around for a few hours, but she was lost and knew whose territory she was on. Now or later, she'd get caught. She'd prefer to get caught now with them in a good mood, than later with them in a bad mood. It wouldn't do if she got them so riled up that they'd kill her right off the bat.

She was guessing(more like hoping and praying with the zeal of a devote religious person) that they would prefer to sell her for profit instead of their own.. uses. _Oh please don't let me be wrong.._ Sakura wanted to stay a virgin until she was married. _How do I get myself in to these types of situations!_ She shuddered.

_I find out where I am, then I'll go back._ she took a deep shuddering breath. _Here we go._

Sakura walked from out behind the trunk, pretending that she hadn't seen them. Turning, she let out a feminine shriek, grabbing their attention. They ran towards her, and she fought them off, just not as hard as she had before. A blow to the back of her head made her crumble and loose consciousness.

"But.. I coulda sworn-"

"She ain't a ninja, you were just seeing things. She's normal.. and kinda pretty. She'd make good money if we sell her as a slave. Feisty though.."

Several minutes later, a masked ninja walked by and saw a half opened scroll lying on the ground. He paused, picking it up. Guessing that the writing was female, with all of its loops and curves, he slid it into his robes and began walking again.

* * *

When Sakura came to, she was tied up tight to a chair and pissed off. They only gagged her when she tried to take a bite out of one of them. For once letting go off her darker side, she cursed at them fiercely through the thick cloth.

The room that she was in was empty and smelly. Her back was to the door. Mold and moss grew in the corners while water damage made the walls look like a strange mix of light gray and dark. She immediately sneezed.

_Dust and pollen, oh my._ she thought sarcastically._ I'm either gonna die here or catch a cold.  
_  
They left her alone for awhile, time she used untying the knots of the rope that kept her to the chair. A rusty nail on the hard wooden chair was delaying her escape though, grabbing on to the rope as if it was its last lifeline.

When Sakura heard the door open behind her, she craned her head back as far as it would go, glaring at the man who entered. They all looked the same to her, raggedy clothes, thin and sickly looking. She very faintly remembered Tazuna saying that poverty made monsters out of men.

This one held himself differently. Sakura knew just by reading his body language that he held more power than the lackeys that she had fought. But not any smarter. She very nearly started to laugh at his incompetence when he failed to notice the loosened rope.

"If I take off your gag, will you promise not to bite?" he asked in a slightly scratchy voice.

Sakura cocked her head, a wry grin forming underneath her gag._ Sick, are you? Serves you right._ She nodded, thinking she might get a disease if she bit the one in front of her.

He took it out of her mouth. "So you bit one of the men, broke another's nose, and kicked the crap out of the rest. Are you a ninja?"

Sakura scowled at him. "There's no ninjas in Wave Country." she said sourly. He nodded, chuckling a little.

"That's right. Who taught you how to fight?" She took a breath, knowing that she now had to lie straight out. She was horrible at lying.

"My brother and his friend."

"What's their names?"

"Naruto and Sasuke." Naruto was more of a sibling like person to her than Sasuke was. It wasn't a total lie. That's the only thing that kept her from turning red and letting him know he was being lied to.

"You're not a Wave Country native. I can tell from your accent. Where are you from?" he asked. Sakura blinked._ I have an accent?_ She then mentally smacked herself in the head. _Of course! The Wave Country men and women have a bit of a drawl and I don't. It must sound really different to him._

"Fire Country." He scowled. Again with the lack of specifics. She was really irritating him.

"Why are you here?"

"Visiting an uncle."

"His name?"

"Tazuna."

"Why aren't you telling me everything?" Sakura's eyes darkened.

"Maybe you're not asking the right questions." she said in a cool tone.

"Maybe you're being evasive." he countered.

"Maybe you're being overbearing."

"Maybe you're the captive and I'm the captor." he said proudly. Ha! Beat that!

She leaned forward. "Maybe the reason why you're asking so many damn questions is 'cause you're afraid of me." Sakura pretended to lunge forward, snapping her teeth together. The man jumped back and she started to snicker.

"Why you.." he said, advancing on her, a fist raised. The door opened. Another man peered in awkwardly.

"Uh.. that business agreement that the boss wanted to handle... It's here." the man tried to be as vague as possible, seeing an outsider in the room. The man interrogating Sakura waved a hand impatiently.

"Let 'em in here. Let 'em see how we run things around here." he chuckled.The second man shrugged and stepped out of the doorway.

A familiar masked boy walked in. Sakura stiffened, her head turned toward him. Haku paused for a brief moment, recognizing her too.

"You're from Gatou?" the man rasped. Haku nodded. Sakura felt his gaze on her even though his face was pointed toward the man. She wondered if he was going to say anything, but was vaguely disappointed when he continued his conversation with the man as if she wasn't even there. Haku had just turned to leave when Sakura realized that something had hit the chair she was sitting on.

The man exited, probably to go boast about his negotiation skills(although, in her opinion, Haku_ totally_ worked him.) and she was once again left alone, too terrified to look down, fearing there'd be a kunai or something of the sort sticking out of her leg.

The curiosity was too much. Sakura looked down to see a senbon sticking in one of the front legs of the chair. It had cut through the last of the rope. She was free.  
Sakura stared at the senbon, in shock. Then in a flash, she stood up quickly, pulling the senbon out of the wood absently, and used it to pick the lock. It clicked and the door popped open, music to her ears.

The lot of them were incredibly lazy and lax about security. She found a score of men lounging out in the hallway, all deep in a drunken slumber. She pilfered a map off of one of them, then jumped out the open window.

Glancing only once over her shoulder, she saw her temporary prison had been a simple hut. _Damn.. I'm gonna be the laughingstock of Konoha_. she thought miserably. _Caught by a bunch of normal people! Gah.. I'll never hear the end of it. What if Sasuke finds out! I was supposed to return half an hour ago!_

When Sakura was far enough away, she opened the map. It was much like Tazuna's, only difference was that some sections of the maps were colored differently. _Territories maybe?_ It was simple for her to figure out where she was and the quickest way to get back to her team.

Then she felt Haku's chakra. She looked at the senbon that still rested in her curled hand, then at the direction she'd have to take to get back. Then towards Haku. She bit her lip.

"Damn.." she whispered, going after Haku. "I have a reason. I have to." She glanced back down at weapon in her hand.

Sakura wondered if what she was doing was another of her not so smart ideas but the need to hand Haku back his senbon was overwhelming. It was of course aided by the fact that she was very much interested in the boy. He had spared Kakashi and saved her. Yet he was a bad guy. Wasn't he?

She slowed, seeing a stationary Haku through the trees. He sensed her probably even before she had caught up to him, being the genius ninja he was. Probably even waited for her, but kept up the illusion that he was looking out toward the horizon, which was reddening as the day went on.

"Hey," Sakura said, silently letting him know that he could acknowledge her presence. He didn't turn, and for a moment, she thought he was going to ignore her when he spoke.

"You should be gone." Haku said quietly, so quietly that his voice was almost carried away by the wind. Sakura wondered how someone who seemed so fragile could be a ninja.

"I know." she said, biting her lip.

"We are not allies."

"I know." she said again. Haku frowned behind his mask, cocking his head slightly.

"Why are you here?"

"To thank you.. and to give this back." She offered the senbon and bowed at the same time. Haku turned, a little amused at strange position that Sakura was in. He grasped her wrist instead of the senbon, reaching into the folds of his robes. His hands were cold.

She stopped bowing and started to panic. Did she violate some sort of bubble law and she was going to loose her hand because of it? Haku waved away those nonsense notions when he revealed what he was searching for was not a knife, rather, a scroll that looked familiar.

"I believe you dropped this?" Haku asked, flipping the thin scroll between his fingers. Sakura nodded mutely and reached for it with her other hand.  
Haku released his grip on her wrist and retrieved his senbon as Sakura retrieved her scroll.

"An eye for an eye.." the boy murmured, walking away.

Sakura hugged the scroll to her chest, staring at his retreating from. "W-wait!" she called, running after him. He stopped and turned around.

"Why?" realizing she was being vague when Haku cocked his head to the side, she rushed to add, "Why did you save me?"

Haku shifted from one foot to the other, an oddly nervous gesture. His hand came up in front of his mask. Griping the edges, he pulled it off.

Sakura stared into warm brown eyes. A faint smile appeared on Haku's face, making him appear younger than he actually was.

_How can someone work with a guy like Zabuza.. yet have such innocent and kind eyes?_ Sakura asked herself.

"Because.. I was not ordered to kill you." With that, he slipped back on the mask and walked away.

Sakura stared after him. "Because.. he wasn't ordered to kill me." she echoed quietly.

_"I know a ninja is a tool, but before its a tool, he or she is human."_ Naruto's previous words whispered in her head. _"I know a ninja must kill. Some people must be killed in order to keep the balance between powers. I am not naive enough to believe I can live life without killing someone."_

_Ninjas are tools._ she thought. _Mere playthings in the wrong hands. I'm a tool. That boy is a tool. But he's in the wrong hands. He must know that.. but what keeps him in those hands? What thing, what emotion allows him to be used by Zabuza without any regrets?_

Sakura came into a risky situation with many questions and had emerged with them answered, but had formed more questions. _Some things cannot be rushed._ she thought, turning around and walking back to the area where she had buried her stuff. _I will find out later why he is the way he is. But for now, I want to be with my precious people._

_

* * *

Next Chapter- Naruto starts to explain to Gamabunta why he was summoned and who he is only to get the shock of his life. And Ino talks to the Hokage about the need for back up._


	24. Of Frogs and Protectiveness

Heh, couldn't slip that by you guys without you noticing, huh? At least six of you guessed correctly about what I was planning on doing. Either I'm not subtle enough, or we have similar thought patterns. I vote for the former.  
And don't worry, Naruto isn't gonna have immortality or partial immortality. He's just going to have the ability to stay alive longer than most other people in similar situations(ex-his insane healing rate, almost unlimited stamina, Kyuubi power, etc.). He will have a longer life expectancy than most of people in his village because of that. But seriously, in that profession, life expectancies would be pretty damn short as is. Obito died and he couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen. Nawaki, Tsunade's little brother, died around twelve or thirteen. Haku didn't look all that old either, nor did the Fourth, Zabuza(I say, maybe in mid-thirties, which isn't that old), the Sound genins(who were _all _were killed off, to my original surprise.), the Sound Five, and Dan the Man, Tsunade's boyfriend back when dinosaurs roamed Naruto land(jk). So, a lot of people in Naruto Universe died at a pretty young age, but Naruto, due to his abilities and not his questionable position between races, will live much longer than that. I owe him that much. : )

* * *

For the Love of My Friends

Chapter Twenty-Four: Of Frogs and Protectiveness

by Foxie

* * *

Tazuna couldn't keep still. He was a working man, dammit! He could not be happy unless he was making something with his hands. Even with boredom and sorrowful sighs coming out of him every time he looked in the direction of his masterpiece, the half completed bridge, he valiantly resisted doing anything that might isolate him and make him an easy target.

But when the wooden watch tower collapsed(really the only thing that protected their small village. It was sixty-some years old), he just couldn't help himself.

Within three hours, he had a crew of men chop down some trees and had a new and even sturdier watchtower in place of the old one.

He grinned proudly, just looking at it. One of the men who helped him lightly punched his arm in a friendly way.

"Hey! Why don't you be the first one to go on top of it? It'll be like.. special, you know?" The others egged him on, cheering when Tazuna relented and started to climb up the latter. One of them hastily slung a pair of binoculars around his neck, telling him to leave it up there for the watchman who wanted to go back to his post. Twenty, thirty feet up in the air, he reached the small landing.

He made sure every nail was put in the perfect spot, that the flag was in the correct position. He looked straight down and waved at the workers who waved back.

Then he made the mistake of looking out to the woods. Quite a ways away, something huge was in the woods. _A building? _he thought with naive innocence. Tazuna grabbed the binoculars from around his neck and looked out at the blur.

He focused close on the building, making out some symbols on the oddly colored object. Then it moved. Slack jawed, Tazuna watched as the object soon had more familiar features. If anything, he'd say it was a frog. A huge one. He remembered his words to Sakura and Sasuke just before they left.  
_  
"We do have poison ivy, but it's less poisonous than the ivy you lot have in Konoha, so I've heard. Rumors of huge frogs in the more swampy of areas, never seen one myself."_

He had been jesting, only faintly remembering stories his grandfather used to tell him about gigantic frogs and the warriors who used to ride them. Feeling faint, he dropped the binoculars down, then very quickly climbed down the latter. He didn't think of telling the others, some how knowing that they would not believe him.

He waved off the questions and concerns, making his way back to his house. Tazuna only grunted when his daughter asked if there was something wrong, grabbed some aspirin, and went to bed.  
_  
Damn.. Now I know I'm gonna die._ he thought grimly. _'Cause I've seen damn near everything!  
_

* * *

Naruto coughed once. Twice. Three times, trying to get the frog's attention. Gamabunta did not respond, nor did he turn around, not hearing Naruto. The blond's temper flared.

"Hey dumb ass! Turn around!" he bellowed, at a surprisingly loud volume for someone who had such small lungs. Finally, the massive frog craned his neck around, almost cross eyed as he looked down his nose at Naruto's small form.

Naruto gulped. "Uh.. hi." he squeaked. Clearing out his throat, he tried again. "Hello. My name is-" Gamabunta's tongue shot out suddenly, wrapping around Naruto's waist. Hoisted into the air, Naruto barely had enough time to yell before he found himself sitting on Gamabunta's nose. In his shock, he barely realized that the frog boss was yelling at him. When he finally heard, he almost became deaf.

"You foolish punk! Are you really as dumb as you act! I sure as hell hope not or your world is in a lot of trouble!" Gamabunta yelled. Naruto yelled back, his hands covering his ears.

"Tone it the fuck down before you make me deaf!" Breathing heavily, Gamabunta surprising took Naruto's advice. He spoke again, much quieter and each word carefully pronounced.

"If that damn fool of a demon had anything to do with the shit you pulled.." he hissed in a deadly tone.

"Huh? Whaddya mean by that?" Naruto asked. Gamabunta's temper flared.

"The kinjutsu, you damn fool!" Naruto jumped to his feet, pure shock written across his face. Someone knew about the jump in time he had made what seemed like so long ago? How was that possible? He had slipped a few times, but he was pretty sure no one knew about his travel.

"Wait! How the hell do you know about that!" Naruto shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the frog boss. "I never fucking told anyone about that!" Gamabunta gave him a shocked and bemused look.

"You mean to tell me.." the summon said with a shaky voice, "A-after all these years using me and my kin.. you never understood the difference between us and humans?" Naruto's hand drifted back down. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, looking away. He had always thought that summons were like demons, only that they worked for humans and were user friendly. But now as he looked back, he realized that they weren't alike at all.

The guilty look on Naruto's face told Gamabunta all he needed to know.

"I'll refrain from knocking you back to Fire Country because I know it's probably all Jiraiya's fault." Gamabunta said sullenly. "Listen now punk, for I am only going to say this once." Naruto sat up, listening attentively.

"We summons live on a different plane of existence, where you humans' time doesn't touch. We come into to your world, solidified by the bond between human and summon, using powerful ninjutsu. We aren't affected by wars or events that pass by in this world because we don't belong to it until our summoner summons us. The only connection to this world that we have is the summoners. The bond between summon and human(or demon or hanyou as it may be) is of blood and of spirit. Three lifetimes ago, you were a frog summoner. In this lifetime, you were most likely to become a frog summoner and didn't even need to sign a contract to summon. You understand?" After a moment of digesting that bit of information, Naruto nodded.

"So.. my soul has a connection with frog summons. You summons live in a different realm where time doesn't exist. You watch the summoners as they progress through life, them being the only connection you guys have to this world. And I didn't need to sign the contract because.. I already had a bond with you guys and that was what the contract established. So pretty much.. the contract signing was just for my benefit because it.. um.. maybe strengthened the bond thingy? At least between the body I have now and you guys. " Gamabunta nodded, sending a cursing Naruto flying into the air. He was glad that the blond had at least gained some intellect so he wasn't as fool hardy as he was when he was twelve the first time. Naruto landed back on Gamabunta's nose, glaring childishly at the frog. _Maybe he has become smarter, but hardly any more mature.  
_  
"Now, I know about your fuck up because I wasn't watching the flow of time, punk, I was following your soul's path. Imagine my surprise when you suddenly jumped back through time." Naruto frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. It made sense, in an odd otherworldly way. Literally.  
**  
Huh, is that so.. We demons always were curious about the summons, who could some times equal our strength in battle. **Kyuubi said in an offhanded way.  
_  
You mean, you didn't know about this either! _Naruto asked in shock. He was surprised that there was something that the eons old fox didn't know about. Kyuubi decided to ignore Naruto's question, feeling as if he had already answered the question.  
**  
Demons are powerful and all, but we are nothing compared to summons. **his fiery companion said with a mental swish of one of his many tails. **We are called immortal because we can live for a long time. We, like the summons, are rarely, if ever, effected by the flow of time. But there is very important difference between a summon and a demon. Demons can be killed, summons cannot. Summons are truly immortal.  
**  
"Summons.. never die?" he said out loud, not noticing the silence that had formed between him and Gamabunta because Kyuubi had grabbed his attention. Gamabunta's rumbling voice shook his out of his haze.

"Nope. Sure, if a summon is defeated in a brutal way-" Gamabunta started to say, but was interrupted by Naruto.

"Like when a snake summon swallows a ninja and that ninja blows him apart by using Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?" Naruto could clearly recall doing something along those lines during the Chuunin Exam when Orochimaru had spilt Team Seven up. Gamabunta laughed at the mental image, not being too fond of snakes himself.

"Personal experience? Anyway, a summon can die, in the sense that his body is destroyed. Then the next time he is summoned, he'll simply be smaller and less powerful. The longer a summon lasts in your world, the stronger and the bigger he will get." Gamabunta puffed out his chest in pride, being the largest and most powerful of all the summon frogs. Naruto hid a smile behind his hand.

The frog lowered his head, allowing Naruto to jump back on the ground. "So why'd you summon me?" he asked. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah.. to see if you could do it, huh?" The blond nodded.

"I kinda figured I'd need ya soon, so.. practice makes perfect..?" Naruto said in a hopeful voice, then slumped over. He decided to tell the truth. "Alright. I kinda wanted to see what guns I still had in my arsenal." Gamabunta chuckled at the response.

"I suppose. Going into battle without knowing your strengths is suicidal, punk. When do you think you'll be graced with my presence again? And not for some dumb training exercise. I want to fight if I'm summoned. Summon me without a fight, punk, and I'll sit on you." Naruto ignored the threat and thought hard. He suddenly knew without a doubt who he'd need the summon for.

"Gaara." he said in a quiet voice. Naruto wouldn't stand a chance against him alone. Gaara was the type of person that if you didn't fight to kill him, you were bound to be killed. No matter what he was at that very moment, in his heart, Gaara was still very much one of Naruto's best friends. A brother, in the sense that both carried a similar burden. A brother, in the sense that they were as close, and sometimes even closer than blood kin. Naruto couldn't stand the thought of killing Gaara, so fighting Gaara with his all was not an option. He needed Gamabunta's help.

"Ah.. the Shukaku host." the frog laughed, a slightly dark sound of a being who thrived for battle. "That should be fun." Looking up, Naruto realized that the day had flown by fast. They exchanged their good byes and the frog boss disappeared in a large cloud of smoke. The second he left, Naruto dropped down to his knees. He bowed over, clutching his head.  
_  
What am I going to do?_ he thought miserably. _How much danger am I putting people through, just to meddle in something that humans, hanyous, and demons are supposed to keep their noses out of? _Being private thoughts, Kyuubi could not intrude with an answer. Instead, he comforted Naruto silently, wishing, not for the first time, that he had never attacked Konoha in the first place. His need for vengeance had burdened down a pure soul. And that, not his massive killings sprees, not the villages he ripped to pieces, was what made him feel the most guilty.

* * *

Sasuke frowned, his arms crossed over his chest. _There's probably a logical reason why she's late._ he reasoned to himself. _She isn't Kakashi! _He withheld the urge to go after her, his eyes silently following the trail he told her to take on the map.

"I should have given this to her.." he mused out loud. But he had felt.. well.. more important, as silly as it sounded, with a map in hand. And now she was probably lost because he was being childish.

He paced the clearing they had stopped at before parting each other's company, the place they were supposed to have met at forty-five minutes ago. Thinking back to what he had faced on his small journey in the northern most areas, he was regretting and kicking himself again for suggesting that they spilt up.

The men had been nothing compared to him, but Sakura wasn't a physical, or even a ninjutsu type. She was best at genjutsus(he'd find out later that she was even better at medical jutsus) and didn't have the stamina or the amount of chakra and experience that Sasuke or even Naruto had.  
_  
If she got caught.. it'll be all my fault. Just another screw up. First Itachi(how could I not see he was turning dark?), then Naruto(how the hell did that dobe surpass me!), and now her?  
_  
Guilt made him turn to the rustling in the bushes, hoping to see Sakura immerge, but the more realistic side of him made him pull out a kunai. It was most likely another gang member trying to get the better of him.

It turned out to be neither.

Yawning, Naruto gave him a cranky look, making Sasuke feel a little better. As long as he wasn't the only one in a bad mood...

"Where's Sakura." Just a flat statement, formed like a question, Sasuke observed. He didn't add -chan to the end of her name like he always does.

"I don't know." Sasuke said in the same flat tone. Naruto stared at him.

"You let a pretty girl like Sakura-chan go out all alone?" Naruto said incredulously, some of the life returning back to his voice. "Man, you really are a heartless bastard." Sasuke flinched. Naruto pretended he didn't notice. He continued to ream him.

"Don't you know any better? Do you even have a clue what is going on that does not directly involve you?" Sasuke's eyes flashed.

"You have no right in saying I'm clueless. Because I'm not. If anyone is clueless, it would be you." Sasuke thought of Hinata and shook his head, feeling sorry for her. Then he smirked. "Chibi."

Naruto actually took several steps back, mouth flapping but no words coming out, a hand on his chest as if Sasuke had mortally wounded him. Sasuke couldn't help but smile. Naruto was such a fool sometimes.

"Go ahead!" Naruto finally sputtered. "Make fun of the short guy, why don't you! You damn racist, uh no.. sizist person!"

"Sizist?" Someone else tried out the strange word. Sasuke and Naruto turned to the bushes, watching as Sakura calmly smoothed her dress down. "Sizist?" she said again. "Is that really even a word?" Naruto had the courtesy to blush.

"Yeah.. uh well.. when we fight.. I really don't think." he said, slightly embarrassed. Sasuke started to insult him again but stopped, not when he realized it was too easy, but when he saw dark red marks on Sakura's wrists.

Naruto and Sakura started to argue over whether or not sizist was a word. Sasuke didn't pay any attention, eyes dark in guilt and rage. _Those are rope burns. She must have been caught. Who tried to hurt her!  
_  
"Ugh! Sizist is not a word!" Sakura said. "You can't just make up words because you're vertically challenged!" She turned on her heel, leaving for the house. Naruto stayed back, a faint smile hidden by a pout. As soon as she was gone, the faint smile on his face dropped.

"You noticed it." Naruto said. Sasuke looked over, seeing the feeling of guilt that he himself was feeling, so clearly displayed in Naruto's eyes. He nodded. Naruto looked grim. "I never wanted to see her hurt."

Sasuke nodded again. Naruto started to follow Sakura, stiffness in his shoulders and stride loosening with every step. "Ya know, Sakura is like a tightly closed box about her weaknesses and things like that.. but.. if I find out who did that to her, I'm gonna kick his ass." Naruto glanced back, a half smile on his face. "You game?"

His answer was a smirk and a determined nod.

* * *

In a building not too far away, a man was in bed, unconscious from a tough battle. He was a powerful man, with much chakra and very good chakra control, but his stamina wasn't as powerful. Especially after being sick for two weeks before hand with a rare and more deadly version of the common cold that was frequent in Wave Country.

He was a man that had many enemies and even allies who wouldn't mind killing him. He only had one that he would trust his life with. That single person, his precious friend and partner, sat next to his bed, keeping a watchful vigilance.

"Zabuza-san.." Haku whispered, abandoning his mask for a while. "Gatou and two men with great fighting auras are coming." It was slight, but Haku could tell that Zabuza was awake. He had always been a light sleeper.

The double doors were flung open, the loud bang of the wood hitting the walls would have woke up Zabuza even if Haku didn't. The mist devil opened his eyes, briefly exchanging a look with Haku. The boy nodded.

"So even you have come back defeated. It looks like the mist nins are pretty pathetic." Gatou strolled in, two tall samurai guards at his sides. "And you call yourself a devil? Don't make me laugh."

Zabuza said nothing, entertaining a mental picture of slicing Gatou's head right off, the pompous asshole. The guards loosened the ties on their swords and brought the hilts in front of them.  
_  
An attack? _Haku questioned, prepared to defend. Gatou held out a hand, a smirk on his face.

"Hold on for a second." he walked toward Zabuza. "Hey." He reached out a hand. "There's not need to stay silent." The businessman reached for Zabuza's mask.

Haku caught his arm in a firm grip. "Don't touch Zabuza-san with your dirty hands." the boy hissed. Gatou cried out in pain when he felt his ulna and radius being crunched together. The samurai reached for their swords. Their hands had barely begun reaching for their swords when they felt cold steel against their throats. Zabuza finally reacted, a slight turn of his head to look at the guards, cold amusement in his eyes and a fearsome grin under his bandages. Gatou lost feeling in his legs and fell to the ground, staring open mouthed at Haku and his guards.

They sweated nervously, recognizing their own blades. _He moved so quickly!_

"You shouldn't do that." Haku hissed. "I'm not in the best of moods now." Gatou remembered that he was supposed to be the one giving orders and quickly stood. Holding his arm gingerly, he hastily walked out, his guards following.

"One more time!" He shouted. "If you fail one more time you won't be welcome here anymore. Remember that!" The doors slammed shut behind them. Zabuza looked at Haku, who was a little flushed from his anger.

"Haku, you didn't have to.." he lifted his blankets, revealing his hidden kunai. Haku smiled.

"I know..but it's too early to kill Gatou. If we cause a commotion here, _they_ will be after us again." Haku didn't need to explain who _they_ were. It was understood by the both of them that it was the hunter nins, coming after Zabuza and his head. "We must be patient."

"Yeah.. you're right." He sat up, rolling his stiff shoulders. Haku looked out the window, a frown drawing his face inward.

A girl had run after him, hugging a scroll to her chest._ "Why did you save me?"  
_  
A determined boy stood down Zabuza and sent a dragon of fire, his worst enemy, after Haku to keep him from interfering.

Another boy defended the first by throwing shuriken, then in rage over the first one getting hurt, ran at Zabuza and attacked him.  
_  
Such emotional, yet innocent people. Why? Why indeed. I like to know that myself, girl._ The faces of those children flashed over and over in his mind's eye.

Zabuza looked up, not recognizing the look on his subordinate's face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, straight to the point. Haku glanced at him from the corner of his eye.

"I have a request." the boy said, looking both serious and worried at the same time. "If I can.. isolate Hatake's subordinates-"

"You don't want them to die." Zabuza guessed. "Or.. you don't want to kill them." Haku nodded, looking shamed. He was in a business where one was needed to kill on command. Emotion were not needed. He bowed his head.

Zabuza looked at him, an unreadable expression on his face. Then he gave Haku his command. "You shall, how did you phrase it.. isolate Kakashi's brats." Haku looked relieved. "But if they get free, I fully expect you to kill them." Haku nodded.

"Thank you. And I'm sorry." he bowed his head again. Zabuza hesitated, then put his hand on Haku's head, like how he used to when the boy was merely a child.

"Don't regret the fact that you're more human than me."

* * *

Ino paced. And paced. And paced so much that she was kicked out of the kitchen by her mother. Then she went into her father's study, where he kept his scrolls and extra ninja weapons, and started to pace there. Inoshi would have nothing of that.

"Shoo you." he said, pushing her out of the house. "Go play with your friends."  
She turned to yell that the only ones she wanted to talk to were outside the country_ getting themselves killed! _But he had closed the door.

Ino scowled, sticking her hands in the pockets of her skirt and starting walking over to the Nara house. None of her old Academy friends, nor even Chouji would understand her predicament better than Shikamaru, who had been with her the entire step of the way.

Even to the Hokage's office.  
_

* * *

Flashback_

* * *

Inoshi had barely been able to convince Ino to wait until morning to start banging on the Hokage's door, screaming about visions and the such. At six thirty, Ino and her father were up and on their way to their leader's office, a sleepy Shikamaru following close behind.(He had slept over.)

When they reached the main building, Ino walked with a stride full of purpose up to the desk. "We're here to see the Hokage!"

The bored looking chuunin glanced at her, then looked back at his magazine **Ninja Weekly. **"Do you have an appointment?" before she could say anything, he answered. "No, you don't. Because the entire morning has been cleared for Tsunade-sama and Hokage-sama's weekly update. Leave a message and we'll clear a spot for you later on. Maybe."

Ino was aghast. When she had regained her wits, she slammed her hand down on the desk. "You prick!" she ignored her father's gaps at her language. "This is a life or death situation!"

The chuunin waved a hand at her. "Yeah, life or death, so you say. You have to-" he made his voice high pitched like a girl's, "'change teams so you can be with Uchiha Sasuke, or else you'll just** die**!' Tch. I know your type. Get 'em everyday."

While Ino fumed, Inoshi took a step forward. "Look, punk. This is a real life or death situation." he said seriously. The chuunin looked at him, recognizing the jonin uniform.

"Emergency or not, you're not important enough. Tsunade-sama's appointment is next." With that, he closed their conversation.

"What kind of society do we live in!" Ino hissed to Shikamaru, who shrugged. The shadow user took a step forward.

"Is there anyone in there?" he asked in a dull tone.

"Yes, the Hokage and Tsunade-sama."

"You're protecting the privacy of the Hokage, are you not? What does that entail?"

The chuunin puffed out his chest. "It means that I fight to protect their privacy with my life!" he said proudly. Shikamaru 'hm'ed, looked at the door, then at the skinny chuunin.

"Besides you, there's no other defense?"

"They don't need any other defense!"

Shikamaru nodded once, then looked over at the Yamanakas. "Lets go in."

"Wait! You can't, I just said- What the hell!" the chuunin started to protest and stand, only to find his feet glued to the ground. Shikamaru didn't look at him, just pushed open the door and kept it open for the two blonds.

"Shadow bind. Useful, is it not?"

Tsunade and Sarutobi looked curiously at the three in the doorway. Ino and her father shuffled uncomfortably, having never met Tsunade before. Shikamaru just couldn't summon the energy to care.

He closed the door behind them, latching the shadow that kept the chuunin immobile to one of the shadows in the room. "If you don't mind, Ino has something she needs to tell you." Shikamaru turned to Tsunade. "It should only take a moment."

Tsunade's eyes fixed on him for a brief moment, then she sat back into her chair. "Take all the time you want."

Sarutobi folded his hands together and smiled gently. "Ino?"

Shikamaru and Inoshi nudged Ino forward. She shyly met Sarutobi's eyes. "Um.." she mumbled. "You know Aunty.. I mean, Maemi.. right?" The Hokage nodded. "Then.. you must be aware of her abilities. We have reason to believe that I possess the same power."

Tsunade arched her eyebrow. **Huh, visions and premonitions.. poor girl.  
**  
"Our clan has ways of confirming this. I'm sorry, but we cannot reveal those ways to you, but she does have the.. gift.." Inoshi nearly chouked on the last word. It was then that Shikamaru realized how much he really was privileged to know about the Yamanaka clan, things that they weren't even willing to tell the Hokage about.

"And uh.. I s-saw.." Ino bowed her head. A moment went by. Sarutobi didn't pry, having went through much of the same experience with Maemi. She looked up finally, her eyes filling with tears. "Sakura and her team! They're in way over their heads!"

She got a reaction out the Hokage. "But.. it's just a C class mission." he said, shaking his head.

"Does a C class mission involve fighting missing nins!" she said in a higher tone than she meant to. "They just barely got out of the last skirmish, what about the next? Maybe next time, Naruto will die instead of just faking it! They need back up!"

Sarutobi looked at her for a long hard moment, then reached for something inside his desk. He pulled it out, revealing a orb. He rested his hand on it, appeared to pull out some blue chakra from deep inside of it.

"Come here." he said. Ino walked forward. "This is what I use to look over my village when I am in here. But if you put some chakra into it, and focus really hard on what you saw, the orb will reflect it. Can you do that for me, Ino?"

She nodded, placing her hand where his just was. The other three moved forward to look over her shoulder. Ino concentrated, the orb glowing blue with her chakra and her thoughts. Feeling a little exhausted, she took several steps back and let them see. It showed some snap shots of what she had seen in what she dubbed as Maemi's 'Vision Room'.  
**  
"You got two legs and a heartbeat, what's stopping you!"** Naruto yelled, stomping his foot. Her heart ached, having memorized the way he'd toss his head and shout like the rebel he was. Knowing that he was fine for the time being wasn't helpful at all.  
**  
What a fool. **Tsunade thought.** Though.. he looks like Nawaki.**

Moron. Shikamaru thought.  
**  
"Heh, wearing forehead protectors and acting like real ninjas," **the mist clone said coldly, **"but you know what? A real ninja is someone who had survived numerous brushes with death."  
**  
"Zabuza of the mist." Inoshi murmured. "A real devil, that one." He and the Hokage exchanged grim looks.

Ino flinched when she heard Naruto's proud speech. "**Three basic principles. To be a true ninja, you don't follow any orders that offend your morals. To be a true ninja, you put the lives of your friend over a mission. To be true ninja, you never back down without a fight." **he sighed, closing his eyes briefly. **"I have lived by these principles. I know a ninja is a tool, but before it's a tool, he or she is human. I know a ninja must kill. Some people must be killed in order to keep the balance between powers. I am not naive enough to believe I can live without killing someone, but I will not kill an innocent. And even though it would be a damn shame if my village was looked down upon if I retreated from a mission because it put my friends lives in compromise, I much rather have their lives than a successful mission. Even if they ended up hating me. Which wouldn't make much a difference anyway.." **

Sarutobi both smiled and frowned. **What a great Hokage he'll make.. if only we'd accept him, Kyuubi and all.**

Heh, the idiot knows what he's talking about. Shikamaru thought with a faint smile.

Ino turned around, knowing her least favorite scene was around the bend.  
**  
"We are ninjas, whether you like it or not."** Sasuke said to Zabuza. **"We may fear you, but like Naruto said," **he raised the shuriken up in front of his face, **"there's no way in hell we're going to back down." **Ino hugged her arms.

_**"Naruto, no!"** Sasuke's yell made her flinch, as did the sound of metal hitting flesh. Sarutobi's hand dropped, hitting the table suddenly. **Naruto!  
**  
Tsunade looked away when it became bloody, still hadn't gotten over her fear of it. Shikamaru turned slightly green while Inoshi's face became impassive._

"Don't worry. He's fine." Ino said. Kakashi's tight and angry voice proceeded after.  
**  
"He lived by the principles that should be respected and revered all throughout the ninja community. I will not tolerate you saying anything negative about him."  
**  
The orb flashed between scenes, a pair of large red eyes behind bars. Shikamaru took note of it, as did the other adults.

Ino then turned around, watching Naruto immerge and fight Zabuza off away from his two team mates. She didn't need to look at Sarutobi to see his relief. The demon of Konoha and the devil of the mist exchanged words, then the latter of the two left. The orb went black.

"You see? They need back up!" This time, they couldn't help but agree.

"Yes. I'll send a team after them right away." Sarutobi said. "A low leveled chuunin team or high leveled genin team. We need as many hands on deck as we can get for the upcoming Chuunin Exam, so we can only spare them."

"Maybe Gai's team." Inoshi added in helpfully. "They've got the Hyuuga."  
_

* * *

End Flashback_

* * *

They had been shooed away after that. Inoshi had stayed behind and helped make preparations but remained close mouthed about it, even to her.

Ino stopped on the hill, looking out at the village. _My vision, my decision to tell them.. and I still get the worst end of it! They won't tell me a damn thing! _She smiled sadly, bringing a hand over her eyes._ Who am I kidding. I don't care about that at all. All I really want.. is for you guys to be back. So please.. just hold tight till reinforcements come. Don't do anything stupid._

_

* * *

Next Chapter- Gai's team is assigned the mission. They have one day to prepare. Neji finds out about Hinata's special training and has a surprising reaction. Kakashi then tries to teach his team how to walk on trees it becomes diffcult when Naruto tries to sneak off._


	25. Of Blood and Backup Plans

I noticed something rather interesting when I read chapter 258 of Naruto. On page six or seven, when Naruto and his group are fighting Itachi, his(Itachi's) forehead protector is curiously unslashed. Now, I recall him having a slashed forehead protector, as he did betray Konoha by killing his clan(or however you want to phrase it), but the Konoha band was scratch free. A mistake of Kishmoto's, perhaps, a faulty scan... or maybe something else altogether? Oh well, I guess I'll be looking for this scratch free Itachi again in the next chapter.  
first couple of sections are short, but then we get a huge chunk of Naruto and crew, and then a bit of another Uchiha and a slightly different way of looking at the Uchiha massacre.

* * *

For the Love of My Friends

Chapter Twenty-Five: Of Blood and Backup Plans

by Foxie

* * *

The Hokage pinched the bridge of his nose to ward off the impending migraine. Out of all of his subordinates, Gai was certainly the most energetic.

"Team Seven has been given an assignment that was improperly graded. Where we had thought it was a C class mission, it is really a B or even higher class. We can't spare too many people, so your team will go back them up. You understand?" He regretted having to send another genin team, but with Gai and Kakashi there, it would fit the requirements for a two man team for an A class mission. The genins would simply have to stay on the sidelines.

"Rival Kakashi needs me! And when I save him and his students.. wait.. Kakashi actually passed a team?" Gai broke off his rambling rant, looking rather confused. "That is not like him."

Sarutobi rested his chin on his hands. "Yes, I believe that he was surprised about that too." He remembered Kakashi walking in on the jonin meeting for Kurenai, Asuma, and himself(an hour late), a half dazed, half happy look on his face, announcing that he finally had a team.

Gai looked like he had been told it was Christmas in July. "Then we are to go save the rookies and Kakashi! And then, and then! We'll have our teams spar together! And then, and then-"

"A simple yes or no would work just nicely, thank you."

Gai saluted the Hokage with one of his patented grins. "Yes!" Sarutobi ruffled through some papers then pulled out a file and handed it over to Gai. Gai opened up, frowning when he saw a picture of Zabuza up in the front. Him!

"You have one day to prepare."

* * *

"He's late." Tenten stated in a flat tone, looking at her wrist watch. She sat in one of the trees, feet lightly swaying. Lee frowned and stopped practicing.

"Perhaps he's taking a leaf out of Kakashi's book." Neji said in an equally flat tone. He leaned more into the tree he was sitting against.

Tenten shuddered, remembering exactly what Kakashi considered good reading material. "I hope not."

Lee stood up for his mentor. "You truly have no faith in Gai-sensei! We must believe in him!" The genin struck a pose.

A disembodied voice floated around them. "Those who believe in me, believe in the power of youth!" Gai appeared in a cloud of smoke. "My unfaithful students and Lee, I have managed to get you all a mission! A mission where your youthful efforts and strengths will be rewarded-"

"Oh brother." Tenten muttered, tuning out the rest of Gai's speech. After ten minutes of staring at one of the trees blankly, she turned to Neji.

"Recap."

He opened his eyes. "Mission. High leveled C class because there will be two genin teams. Backing up Team Seven. The one with the Uchiha. Wave Country. One day to prepare." he said in a monotone. She thanked him, not having the attention span or patience he had to listen to one of Gai's speeches.

"Yay! I get to save Sakura-san!" Lee's eyes morphed into hearts. Gai grinned, putting a hand on Lee's head.

"Ah, young love!"

* * *

Neji walked back to the mansion, deep in thought about their next mission. They knew that there was at least one missing nin involved, who either Kakashi or Gai had to defeat while he and the other genins were merely damage control.

He went through the gate. Half way in, he saw Hinata. She was partly hidden by a screen door. Pausing, Neji watched her silhouette lift something up, then drag it across her outstretched arm. He immediately started to frown. _I didn't know she was a cutter._ he thought, scoffing. _How pathetic.  
_  
His stride quickened as he went up the stairs and into the mansion. He turned for his room, hoping that no one would notice him. Luckily, no one did. He would have peace until he had to show up at Gai's house.

They were supposed to sleep at his house the day before a mission. It was to improve the group's dynamic, apparently. He sighed, knowing it would be a sleep less night. Lee talked too damn much! But Tenten had said the last time they had slept over that her father(who owned the only weapons shop in Konoha) had gotten some pretty powerful sleeping poisons that were meant to be used with a special weapon he had in stock and wouldn't it be _so nice_ if she used some of it on Lee?(Did she have to ask?)He had agreed wholeheartedly and hoped she remembered.

His door slid open behind him. "Neji-nisan?" someone said tentively. "May I come in?" Neji looked over his shoulder at his cousin, remembering what he had seen.

"If that is what you wish." he said in a monotone. Hinata stepped into the threshold of the room, looking out of place.

"Um.. I.. w-well.. I h-heard you have a mission.." she stuttered. Neji kept packing, his face impassive. "N-Neji-nisan! I have something for you!" Finally, he turned around, staring at the small brown jar that was being offered to him.

"Um.. When you wear your bandages.. y-you know.. Your skin get burned and stuff from the friction.." she gulped. "This is for the burns." Neji frowned. It made sense. He did occasionally get burns from wearing the fighting bandages, but usually ignored the pain. He hesitatingly reached out to it.

When he registered the weight of the burn balm in his palm, everything started to click together. The thick smell of herbs around her room. The cutting. All the times she came home late, well after he knew her team practice was over. The books and scrolls she started to cart around. The jar in his hand. He reached out and grabbed her wrist, flipping it over to look at the underside of her arm.

There were no scars or any signs of recent cuts. Neji fixed the suddenly nervous girl a blank stare.

"You should be more careful." he said. Her eyes widened, realizing what he was talking about. "It is not allowed in this clan. Leave my room, if you will." Terrified, Hinata ran out of the room. After a moment, Neji continued packing. He walked over to his closet to retrieve his spare explosion tags, eyes occasionally straying to the brown chest on the top of his closet. Sighing in defeat, he put aside the tags and reached up for the box.

_Hyuuga Hizashi._ The name on the chest had been carved in by hand. He put the chest down on his desk and undid the latch. Inside, there were pictures and various other trinkets his father had collected, bringing a faint smile to Neji's face.

However, it was not time to mourn the past. He reached under the photographs and pulled out a book._ I suppose you'd be happy that someone else is following your footsteps, Father._

* * *

Dazed and terrified, Hinata wandered around Konoha without a destination. _Will he tell Father? Will I be forbidden to continue, or disowned?_ She had tripped and stumbled a few times, mumbling quiet apologies, too into her thoughts and fears. _Will Father take away my right to be a ninja?_

After thirty minutes of wandering(strange, it seemed like it had been a lifetime), she turned around and walked back to the mansion. _I might as well face it.. the ground doesn't look like it's going to open up and swallow me anytime soon.. nor is Naruto going to appear magically to save me. _

Scurrying up to her room like a mouse who feared that she would be stepped on, Hinata was relieved when no one looked at her like she was some kind of criminal. No half impassive, half 'you're in trouble' looks from anyone.

She closed the door behind her, not wanting to jinx her good fortune. _Maybe Neji-nisan didn't tell anyone?_ she thought hopefully, then stiffened when she saw something on her futon. It appeared to be a book. With trembling hands, she picked it up and opened the cover. Hinata sneezed, correcting herself.

It wasn't just a book, it was a very old book. It was about ancientmedical techinques used by the founders of the village.A thin scrap of paper slipped out of the pages, but before she could thing to retrieve it, her eyes focused on the writing inside the cover.

_This belongs to Hyuuga Hizashi._ she read. _My uncle? Neji's father?_ She remembered Hizashi quite well. He always gave her treats and smiled at her even when she was failing horribly at something. When in his presence, she had wished that she had been his daughter, even if she would have been in the branch family. Eyes moistening in remembrance of her beloved uncle, she reached for the note.

It was rushed and to the point: _Father would have been proud.  
_  
Outside the Hyuuga estate, Neji took one last glance at the place he had always hesitated to call home. _If that is the road that you wish to take in order to become strong, Hinata-sama, then I will not stand in your way.  
_

* * *

Naruto yawned, flashing long canines at his companions over the breakfast table. Only Inari was unsettled by the sight.

Kakashi ate heartily, having woken up from his coma like state a few hours prior, only to get chastised by Sakura, who threw rule after rule in the masked nin's face about chakra depletion and _how you're not supposed to do it_. Kakashi merely smiled, happy that someone was worrying over him for once.

Sasuke glared at Kakashi. Only Kakashi could eat without showing off the lower portion of his face. He entertained thoughts of knocking the milk carton(which was _rudely_ obscuring his view.) and seeing what his teacher looked like underneath that damn mask once and for all. Of course, he wasn't curious, he assured himself. But when a rice ball went missing and Kakashi looked suspiciously happy, Sasuke relented, admitting the truth. He was curious.

And hethought it was completely unfair that of all of them at the table, Naruto was the only one who had theopportunity to see Kakashi exposed.. yet the blond wasn't doing a damn thing about it.

Not evenone twitch of the eye towards Kakashi. Hell, the guy didn't even look over at his sensei, either too tired or insanely interested to see what was at the bottom of his ramen bowl.

He wondered if it was the fact that Kakashi knew that Naruto wouldn't be too interested in the morning, or if it was because the jonin trusted Naruto not to make a big deal out of it that he let the blond sit in the best angle to catch a glimpse of his face.

"Well! Whatcha guys planning on doing today? Going to see if you could catch any giant frogs?" Tazuna asked, too cheerfully. At this, Naruto flinched. Kakashi looked interested, in a vaguely bored way.

"No. We're training. Whoever finishes the training first will escort you to the bridge." Kakashi said, securing his mask. Sasuke, and Sakura as well, began to scowl. Naruto brightened.

"Then send me! I don't need to sit in for the tree climbing!" Too busy smiling, he didn't notice the suspicious look Kakashi cast his way.

_I don't recall telling him that we were going to do that?_ the jonin rubbed the back of his head. _A good guess? Or something else all together?  
_  
"Hm. Nice try, kiddo." Kakashi muttered absently, smiling when Naruto pouted.

They left the house, Tsunami's final 'Be careful!' as well as Inari's cold stare staying with them as they walked. (Naruto retaliated by sticking his tongue out at the boy, who seemed surprised that they knew he was watching)

Kakashi stopped in a clearing he had noted when he had departed(more like was dragged. Stupid Sasuke.) for Tazuna's home. The clearing wasn't really that great of a clearing, a small ten feet gap between trees, but he hardly cared about the space. He was looking at the trees themselves.

They were tall and thin, but not too thin where a strong wind would blow them away. The branches only really started up at the top, which meant his students wouldn't be faced with the temptation to sit down and rest a moment.

Being genins, he knew that their chakra control needed some extra polishing and excluding Naruto(whose stamina was so crazy that it could hardly be described in words), the team was also seriously lacking in endurance. Speaking of the blond, Kakashi realized with a strange sense of amusement that he was bored. Naruto's foot kept on tapping and he kept on sighing, fixing the jonin with an annoyed look that he recognized all too well.

It was Obito's patented 'Why the hell are you wasting my time and _why the hell haven't I killed you yet!_'. It was enough to make Kakashi grin. Strange how random thoughts of his old deceased team mate didn't hurt as much anymore.

"So.. we're going to climb trees?" Sakura said, looking highly doubtful. "I don't see how that will help us too much.." _Actually, it sounds downright boring..._

"It's going to help you three because you are only going to use your feet and your chakra. Like so." Kakashi walked up the side of the tree, much to Sakura and Sasuke's surprise. He stopped when he reached the branch and walked out on it, mentally grinning at his student's surprise. He made the mistake of looking down and almost dropped when he realized Naruto was still bored. _Keh.._ Kakashi thought rather childishly. _what a hard to please guy_. He pouted, tossing three kunais down in front of their feet.

"You try. And use these to mark your process." he said neutrally, making his way down.

Sasuke grabbed one of the kunais and stared the tree down, as if it was an enemy ninja preparing to strike. Sakura grabbed one too, looking a little confused. Naruto picked up the last one, bored as hell, his eyes flicking from side to side, looking for an opening. Kakashi made it to level ground. "It's best if you give yourself a running start." Some grumbles (all Naruto) met his ears, but his students took several paces back. "Alright.. Start!"

Sasuke's foot immediately shot off of the bark, burning it a little in the shape of his foot. _Dammit!_ The momentum of his run allowed him to go up a little, but he could feel the bark cracking and slipping beneath his feet. He slashed the kunai against the bark, then flipped backwards, landing gracefully on the ground.

Sakura didn't put enough chakra in her feet and ended up slipping. Flushing, she realized she hadn't been paying enough attention, her mind wandering back to review the memories of the last few days. She got up, rubbing the small of her back. _Get it together Haruno!_

Naruto hadn't moved. He had crossed his arms over his chest and was frowning at the ground. Figuring that he was thinking of the best way to walk up the tree, Kakashi let him be.

"Too much chakra, you'll destroy the tree. Too less of it, you won't even stick." Kakashi said helpfully. "You have to find the middle."

Sasuke frowned, thinking quickly_. Maybe I'll use that thing that Naruto showed us. Decreasing the surface area should help with my control._ Concentrating, he focused energy into his heel and the ball of his foot. Trying to scale the tree again, he found himself flailing barely two feet away from the ground. Instinctively, more chakra shot out of his foot and wrapped around the trunk. It only slowed his descent slightly and scorched the bark even more.

Wincing at the dull thud of Sasuke hitting the ground, Kakashi said, "Creative, but no. There is a reason why you have toes. It's to help you walk. Using that trick of his won't help. You need chakra in your toes to stick to the trunk." He switched his gaze to Sakura. The genin stood up straight, one foot on the trunk. She was testing how much chakra would make her foot stick to the bark. When her foot suddenly shot off, putting her off balance, he guessed that she put forth too much chakra. He didn't have any objections to her experimentation so he turned to Naruto. Who was suddenly being very loud.

"Hey hey! Why don't we sing a song?" the blond bellowed, bringing everyone in the clearing (and probably everyone in a mile radius) to focus on him. Kakashi sighed, then narrowed his eyes. Something wasn't right. His head tilted slightly to look behind him. _You really need to work on your stealth, Naruto._ he thought, eyeing a small tan blur that was tiptoeing away. "Everyone with me! _For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow_.."

Sakura twitched, turning a glare of death toward him. _He's breaking my concentration!_ Naruto squeaked when he saw the look in her eyes, but continued singing. Sasuke eyed his kunai rather longingly.

Kakashi frowned and threw a rock at Naruto from his blind spot. Oblivious and still singing, Naruto exploded into a cloud of smoke. Sakura gaped, mouth opening and closing without any noise.

"A kage bunshin?" Sasuke muttered, looking confused. Meanwhile, Kakashi was on the prowl. Silently following the tan creature in front of him, his hand darted out and grabbed the creature by the back of his neck. Immediately whining and whimpering, he tried to break Kakashi's grip. When the jonin kept walking, he went limp, accepting the evitable.

Blinking owlishly, his other two students watched as he held a rather adorable fox by the back of his neck. The fox almost looked like it was pouting.

"Look familiar?" Kakashi said in a bland voice, lightly shaking the fox. The illusion dropped, showing that he actually had Naruto by the back of his vest. He was hanging in the air, his face twisted in a half scowl and half pout expression.

Despite her annoyance, Sakura had to smile. Naruto was such a kid sometimes.

"Naruto, Naruto, Naruto.." Kakashi said, tsking. "Here I give you a perfectly good training exercise and you attempt to ditch us? I'm wounded. You're going to make me cry." Naruto turned annoyed eyes toward his teacher.

"I told you already, dammit! I already know how to do this!" Naruto shouted. Kakashi sighed.

"Well, sensei.." Sakura said, sticking up for Naruto, "Isn't water walking similar to tree climbing? Naruto did that just fine."

"Yeah, but the trick he told us didn't work on the trees." Sasuke countered. Naruto made an impatient noise in the back of his throat and wrestled one of his sandals off while still hanging from Kakashi's hand.

"See?" Naruto announced, sticking out his foot. Kakashi quirked an eyebrow.

"No.. but I can smell.." the jonin said humorously. Naruto flailed, hitting Kakashi in the leg with his sandal for the insult.

"I have flat feet, you dumb ass! That trick doesn't work for me!" Kakashi rubbed his chin, contemplating over what Naruto had said.

"So.. the only way you could have walked on water is if you knew the correct way to walk up a tree."

"Yeah."

"You didn't trip, slip, or fall until you were injured."

"_Yeah_."

"And that was why you wanted to leave, because you thought it would be a waste of time to relearn it."

"Yeah, already. Geez.." Even as Naruto grumbled, Kakashi quickly came up with a plan that would benefit himself greatly.

"Well.. Practice makes perfect." the jonin said too cheerfully, dropping Naruto on his rear. "If you know so much, then you teach them. I will, on the other hand, accompany Tazuna to the bridge." Whistling, Kakashi left them there.

Naruto grumbled. He wanted to go to the bridge that had been named after him a lifetime ago. Turning, he realized that Sasuke and Sakura were looking at him expectantly. Something that would have thrown him off awhile ago, but since he had taught them a thing or two before, it felt more natural.

"Well.. um. Okay! Believe it or not, this stupid exercise is actually very good. It not only fine tunes your chakra control, but it also increases your stamina. To walk up a tree, it actually takes a very small amount of chakra, but that chakra has to be all throughout the foot and very precise." Naruto said. He couldn't remember a time he had been away for one of Iruka's chakra lectures, but he had been retaught the basics during his time with Jiraiya. "The foot's supposed to be the hardest place to gather chakra(I dunno about that, for me, it's always been my left pinky). So if a guy-" he glanced at Sakura. "or girl, you know, gets a good handle on this, they are supposed to be able to learn more difficult jutsus."

Sakura's eyes lit up. _Maybe I will finally be able to perform that diagnostic jutsu for poisons!_ Sasuke looked intrigued, but only slightly. His back was still sore and his ego was bruised from his clumsy slide down the tree.

Naruto shrugged, pointing at their kunai. "Just keep trying it."

Completely focused now, Sakura got all the way to the top on her second try. She sat in one of the upper branches and stuck out her tongue, forming the sign for victory with her two fingers. Naruto clapped. Sasuke frowned, looking at the gash in the tree. It was barely two inches above the first.

"Okay, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled up to her, "Try building up your chakra by running up and down the tree!" She nodded, lifting herself off the branch and began her descent, which she found was a little harder. A soft scratching noise met Naruto's ears, making him turn his attention to Sasuke.

Five marks marred the tree, all several inches away from each other. _Hmm.. He's improving pretty quickly._ Naruto thought. _I guess it's the shame of being the last one in the group to finish something is what spurs him on._

The hours went by quickly, which Naruto spent giving out advice, making jokes, and catching Sakura when she exhausted all of her chakra.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto said, helping her stand on her feet. He wisely kept his mouth shut about her fall. "You're tired. Walk around to cool down, then go back to Tazuna's." She nodded, barely conscious. The girl exchanged brief good byes with her team mates, getting a hearty return from Naruto and a grunt from Sasuke. Once Sakura had left, what had been a very noisy exercise suddenly became very quiet.

The sun dipped below the horizon. Naruto leaned against the tree he was supposed to be climbing, looking serene even as the increasing darkness threw shadows over his face. He titled his head to the side, watching Sasuke continue to labor.

There were many more scratches on the tree reaching up to a good twenty feet, but that was barely half of the tree. Sasuke paused, trying to breathe. _He has better control than I do and more stamina than Sakura-chan. _Naruto observed. _The only reason why I never have any problems with this sort of thing is because I'm used to it. It's like riding a bike, once you learn it, you never forget how to do it._

"Hey." Naruto said, his voice loud and piercing in the silence, although it was meant to be softer. "I gotta trick that helps you get into the rhythm of it." Sasuke gave him a half hearted scowl.

"Another trick?" Naruto nodded, a mischievous smile on his face. **Foxes are full of pranks and tricks.** Kyuubi rumbled absently.** He should know that by now**. Naruto smiled even more.

Wary of the strange, giddy look on his friend's face, Sasuke stood straighter. "Alright. Show me." he said, crossing his arms over his chest. Naruto gave him a mock bow.

"As you wish.." Sasuke blinked, and suddenly Naruto was in front of him. The breath was knocked right out of him when Naruto nailed him in the stomach with his hardshoulder, proceeding to pick the slightly taller boy up.

"Naruto!" Sasuke protested, not liking being carried around like a sack of potatoes. He was ignored, as Naruto was too occupied with climbing up the tree with such speed and carelessness that it made Sasuke's head spin. Naruto didn't bend to gravity, slide down the tree and land hard on the unforgiving ground, instead, he kept going up the tree until they reached the highest branches.

Carefully, Naruto let Sasuke down on the thickest branch. Sasuke, finding his legs, smacked Naruto in the back of the head for not warning him in advance, then had to grab the back of Naruto's vest to keep him from flying off the branch.

"Hey! Watch it, asshole." Naruto said in a cranky voice. "I can get down from here. Can you?" Sasuke put his hands up in defense at the thinly veiled threat.

"Alright..." Naruto said, accepting Sasuke's retreat. "Now, back to business. The reason why tree climbing so damn hard for you is 'cause your trying to get your damn foot to become attracted to the damn tree so you'll stick, and let's be blunt here: There's no chemistry between the two." Sasuke smiled involuntarily. Naruto had an odd way of saying things "So, not only are you tryin' to force a relationship that is in the dumps, you're also tryin' to fight the big daddy, gravity. But but but!"

Naruto pointed a finger down to the earth below them. Sasuke looked down at the ground, so far away from where he was right then. Feeling woozy, he backed away from the edge of the branch and toward the trunk.

"Now we're up here, instead of down there." Naruto said slyly. Sasuke's eyes widened, knowing exactly what Naruto was going to pull. "The tree and your feet won't have such a hard time being friends if you don't have to fight gravity, right?"  
Sasuke turned to Naruto, instinctively clinging to the trunk. "No no no.." he protested. Naruto grinned, peeling Velcro Sasuke from the trunk and pushing him off the branch.

"Bon voyage, mon ami!" Naruto said gleefully. He faintly heard Sasuke cursing him to hell, then realized that Sasuke wasn't as resilient as he himself was to taking damage. Sighing, he jumped off the branch on the trunk of the other tree and zoomed down, prepared to heal wounds, or scrap any remains off the ground.

The first thing Sasuke did when he felt the surface beneath his feet disappear was try to cling to the tree with feet charged with chakra. He slowed down, but was still was going pretty fast. The first impact of his foot against the trunk made him wince, but the second was easier. Adrenaline and blood rushing in his ears, all he could hear was his quickened breaths and his own heart beat. For a second, running down the tree, the wind blowing through his hair, he realized he loved it.

The speed, the rush, the slight fear, the knowing that if he tripped, he could die. It was over too quickly. He found himself crouching on the ground after skidding on his knees, panting and trying to disguise the slight shuddering of his shoulders.

"See!" Naruto said proudly. "You ran down the entire tree! Isn't it better to go with gravity than to fight against it?" His response was a clump of dirt thrown in his face. "Hey!"

Sasuke stood slowly, which was when Naruto realized that Sasuke was pretty shaken up about being tossed off a branch nearly fifty feet away from the ground(which was nothing to Naruto, having been thrown into a seemingly endless ravine in a last ditch effort for his youki to emerge and finally be able to summon a mature frog summon.). For a moment, Naruto felt bad. Worse than he had felt for a very long time. Sasuke wasn't like Naruto. Just because Naruto thought it was fun didn't mean that others would find it as enjoyable. He had a hard time remembering that he was much different than anyone else he had ever met, save Gaara.

Then it disappeared in the uttering of one simple sentence from his rival/friend/brother figure. Sasuke looked over his shoulder, a faint smile on his lips. His knees were bloody from skidding on the ground at the end of his run. His face was dirty, sweaty, and a faintly flushed from all the exercise. His normally guarded eyes were open and filled with something Naruto would have described as enjoyment if he wasn't talking about Sasuke.

"Lets do that again."

* * *

Around that same time, another Uchiha was walking the streets of his old neighborhood. The abandoned section made others terrified and scared at the heavy presence of pain and fear that lingered after death, but Itachi felt as if he was being welcomed back home.

Features hidden beneath a henge just in case someone else was in the sector, he paused outside of what had once been his uncle and aunt's home. Closing his eyes, he remembered his aunt's initial warm welcome, then the rapid paling of her face when she noticed his bloody katana. He had killed his uncle only minutes before.

_"Why?"_ he had asked her, making her the first of four Uchihas to see him at all that fateful night._ "Why did you let him go on with it?"_ She had opened her mouth, then closed it, tears running down her face.

_"I.. I don't know, Itachi-chan."_ she had whispered.

Feeling bitter, he kicked in the door. He had held his father's sister as her breathing slowed and finally stopped that night. All doubts and pangs of guilt disappeared after her death. He had went on to the next house, taunted his father with the knowledge of all the deaths he had been responsible for. His father became angered. His father disowned him, saying coldly that Sasuke would be the one to carry on the dream of the clan. Then he attacked Itachi with a deadly blow, which was countered when his mother threw herself in between them.

_She dropped to the ground, bleeding from her husband's attack. Itachi, feeling returning to him once more, reached out to her, his hand shaking. He had planned to spare her and Sasuke, the only two oblivious to the darker dealings of the clan. She smiled, whispering that she loved all of her children, no matter what they did._

Instead of getting a doctor, which Itachi would have allowed him to do, his father ignored the wounded woman at his feet.

"You bring dishonor to the clan." he said, gaze not straying from Itachi's angry red eyes. "Because of you, your mother dies."

"She doesn't have to! Go get a doctor, now!" Itachi snapped. He hated his father with all of his heart, but Itachi would risk getting caught by the other Anbus and charged for treason for his bloody acts to get his mother to safety. He reached out for her again, but then withdrew when a kunai was thrown at him.

"And have you escape with all the knowledge of our plans? I think not. What I do is what's best for the clan." his father said coldly.

"But she's your wife!"

"Merely a vessel for my heirs. Easily replaceable." Itachi watched his mother stiffen slightly, but that was all he saw through the red haze of anger. He leapt at his father, the advance form of sharingan taking over. The older man didn't stand a chance. Itachi slit his stomach open, then slammed his blade to the hilt in the clan leader's heart.

Heart still pounding, he watched coldly when his father fell to the floor on his mother. Blinking, he started to pull him off her when she gently pushed his hands away.

"Mother.." Itachi whispered.

"No. I wish to stay.. with him." his mother said quietly, in her last few breaths. Angry that she stillloved him although his father had clearly stated that she meant nothing to him, but respectful of her wishes, he watched her die. His face was hidden in shadow, his katana still loosely held in his hand.

The door in front of him was pushed in and his brother ran in, pale and shaken, calling out for his mother and father.

The dream of the clan had been simple. To take over the village. Itachi had been used as a spy, having a very influential position in Konoha as an Anbu.

Itachi didn't know when he changed from being his father's tool in their secret rebellion to actively destroying it with his bare hands, but it must have had something to do with Shishi's ordered assassination. His father wanted someone in their clan to have the advanced blood limit, and he wanted that someone to be his heir.

Shishi's blood had coated his fingers, and then Itachi knew without a doubt that he hated his father. The pain that came with the emerging sharingan had nothing to do with the pain of losing his friend. And then his father had to look so proud, saying that it was what he had expected of his son.

For him, that fateful night had never ended. His goal was to kill every last Uchiha that had dipped even a pinky into their sinister plot to take over Konoha, and it extended to the spawn of those traitors. Only his mother and his brother were pure in his eyes.

But Itachi was involved in the plot, meaning that his goal was never achieved. Let his little brother think that Itachi killed everyone to measure his strength, but Sasuke.. his little brother, so full of hate, wanting to hurt him so badly, would actually save him, be his salvation, the justice that he himself had started serving out, the salve to the pain that the advanced sharingan gave him day after day until all of the cells in his eyes were killed off.

Itachi drifted out of memory lane when he heard the not so disguised clanking behind him. He looked, seeing a rather plain face villager looking back.

"So?" Itachi asked.

"The brat ain't here." the villager's voice was rough, but it was no doubt Kisame under that illusion. "But I did find two of the three legendary old farts."

Itachi's eyebrow quirked. "Is that so.."

"Yeah, and the Chuunin Exam is comin' up soon." Kisame said, his eyes straying to the brown mark on the wall that had not faded away from the rain. "Comin' back to the scene of the crime?"

Itachi ignored his question and posed one of his own. "Why would I care about the Chuunin Exam?" he asked, his dry tone clearly stating what he thought about watching children kick the crap out of each other.

"That sand youkai kid.. heard that they were gonna send him. And there's a good chance your fox brat will be there too."

Itachi looked impassive, carefully running through what his partner had said. "Then.. we will return for this exam." He turned around and started walking away, fully expecting Kisame to follow.

_Silly, foolish little brother.._ Itachi thought, knowing that if the Kyuubi host went to the Chuunin Exam, his brother would too. _Even after all these years, we're slaves and tools of our father. I'm killing and giving the Uchiha name a powerful reputation, and you are going to kill me to avenge his death. It couldn't have played out better to his wishes even if he wrote the script himself. But brother, you were always the soft one, so much like Mother while I took after our father. That's why I have a backup plan._ a small dark smile curved his lips._ If you cannot kill me, I'll make sure the Kyuubi boy will._

* * *

Bon voyage, mon ami- Something in french along the lines of "Good travels, my (male) friend."  
Next Chapter: Team Seven supervises Tazuna, Team Gai runs into a bit of trouble, and the final battle between Kakashi's team and the mist duo starts to rear its head. 


	26. The Beginning of the Isolation

I never really accepted that 'measuring his capacity' or whatever was Itachi's motive for killing so many people. Because if that was the case, he would have just killed the people who had the sharingan, 'cause most people in the clan didn't have the potential for awakening it, thus were no challenge. But he killed everyone. An idiot with a gun can kill many defenseless people, so it wouldn't make sense if Itachi did the deed with measuring his strength in mind. Itachi isn't dumb.  
I kinda like my theory. People with power want more power(as shown with Sasuke and Orochimaru and countless others), and the Uchiha clan was powerful. I just want to make it clear that I wasn't saying that Itachi isn't a bad guy, because, lets face it, he is(Akatsuki, anyone?). I just gave him a reason.

_This chapter is late because I was away from my computer on the day I usually set aside for this sort of thing. Sorry for making you all wait._

* * *

For the Love of My Friends

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Beginning of the Isolation

by Foxie

* * *

Three days later, Team Seven was all done with the training exercise, although Kakashi advised them to keep up with it to increase their control and stamina. The jonin was surprised when Naruto had called his bluff and taught Sakura and Sasuke, and not only that, had been telling the truth when he said that he already knew how to scale trees with only his feet.

So when Naruto came up to him and said that they all knew the basics of tree climbing, he let them come with him to bridge, no questions asked. Kakashi owed Naruto that, for doubting him.

Wood, stone, plastic, nails. Everything that one needed to build a bridge was somewhat disorganized and placed randomly along the nearly completed bridge. Wood structures were created as a skeleton of the bridge and were later replaced by stone and cement, it being much sturdy than plain wood. Tazuna even had railings up on the sides of part of the completed bridge. He had some how gotten his hands on a crane to complete the heavier jobs. Noticing Naruto's suddenly gleaming eyes fixated on the massive metal contraptrion, Tazuna immediately said the age limit for using it was eighteen and over.

For a moment, it seemed like the blond had forgot he was twelve, but when he remembered, he immediately started ranting that he handled dangerous things everyday and he was a responsible ninja. His argument would have been more impressive if he hadn't tripped over a wire and fallen into the water below.

The others had a good laugh at his expense, although Tazuna took pity on him and gave him a towel to dry off, after he swam the distance back to the shore.

The bridge was coming along well, Tazuna was proud to say. Although the wood that Tazuna barely had enough money to buy hadn't showed up yet, they were almost half way done with the 'Bridge of Dreams'. Or 'of Courage'. They were still arguing over what to call it.

Personally, he wanted to call it the 'Super Cool Bridge Tazuna Made!', but the others wouldn't go for it. Even his daughter gave him that look of 'what, are you nuts?'.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto's voice rang out in the silent morning air. Several pops of displaced air announced the arrival of Naruto's crew.

When the blond had noticed Tazuna's rapidly diminishing crew on the first day, he had asked the older man why less and less people were showing up for work.

Tazuna had replied soberly, _"It is because they fear for their lives and the lives of their families." _he had smiled, and clapped his hands together._ "But I have you guys! So I'm going to continue making this country's lifeline!" _Naruto had only watched Tazuna laboring under the weight of the cement that five or six men should have been carrying with him for just a moment before he started up with his shadow clones.

The coming along of the bridge went much faster with twenty Narutos, one Tazuna, and a handful of villagers working. After day two, Sasuke and Sakura started to help out, both being stronger and faster than the villagers. Kakashi stayed on guard, good naturedly taking the jabs at his ego when Naruto told one of the workers that the jonin was 'too old' to work.

Sitting on top of one of the large metal crates on the bridge on the third day, Kakashi kept a closer eye on Naruto than on possible appearances of Gatou's hired force. Despite the genin's attempts to hide it, it was clear that his strength was wavering and he was quickly becoming sick.

Kakashi knew what was wrong. It was a phenomenon that no medic or doctor could fully explain called Repetitive Jutsu Sickness. When a ninja used a single jutsu over and over again, he was bound to get a bit of a shock to his metabolism from his inner coils, which naturally resisted being used the same ways several times. Some got sick, some passed out, while others just got hungry. It depended on the person, their resistance to diseases and what they were trying to do.

Two days at the bridge and already Naruto was suffering from it. Then again, he performed Kage Bunshin no Jutsu once in the morning, made them go away during the break times then resummoned them afterward, and refreshed the jutsu by making twice as many Narutos appear at the end of the work day so they could get the last minute things done quicker._ Three breaks, once in the morning, once times two in the afternoon.. _Kakashi mentally calculated. _And then times that by two.. Oh, and add one for the batch he just made... Thirteen times he's made the shadow clones._ He frowned, both surprised that Naruto didn't begin showing symptoms on the first day and worried that Naruto would pass out and end up dropping a two ton box on himself.

Even from a distance, the jonin could tell that Naruto wasn't getting sick as people normally thought consisted of being sick, like sneezing and coughing and other various flu like symptoms. He was actually getting sick in the way that he was so tired that he could sleep for days on end. And that, on this mission especially, was extremely dangerous for a ninja.

He hopped off of the crate. "Naruto..s." a little hesitatingly, he made the name plural. Twenty heads looked up. "Finish what you are doing, then come over here." The Narutos finished their duties quickly, handing off drills, powdered cement, and the works off to other workers. Quickly, and surprisingly silently, they surrounded them, identical looks of questioning confusion.

"Which one of you is the real Naruto?" Kakashi asked. He had lost the sight of the real one when the others had bustled around to finish their jobs. He really didn't expect them to know which Naruto was the real one, and decided he'd bop every other Naruto on the head until one said 'ow.' But it didn't come to that.

After a pause, the blond who had been handling a drill stepped forward. Looking innocent, Kakashi beckoned the unsuspecting boy toward him. "I have to tell you something. It's a secret." Naruto walked over, still looking faintly confused.  
Kakashi bent down and whispered in Naruto's ear. "You know.. I think you should sleep." Naruto's eyes widened, but before he could pose a question, Kakashi had tapped a nerve in his neck, making him pass out. He caught his limp student before he got a mouthful of concrete. The boy was warm and hadn't exploded into smoke. So he was the real one..

"Hey! What the hell did you do that for!" the remaining kage bunshins yelled. A bit surprised that they were still there (as it took massive amounts of pure skill and practice to keep a jutsu up when unconscious), he addressed their questions carefully.

"He's getting sick. I can hold off RFS from doing too much damage if I can cut down his usage of kage bunshins." he expected blank stares but was once again surprised when they nodded seriously.

"I told him that he needed to take a break.." one of the kage bunshins to the left said, shaking his head. Another shot him a glare worthy of the Hyuugas.

"Why the hell would he listen to you if he wasn't listening to himself!" the second one snapped. The first one lost his sage like countenance and fired up his temper.

"So _frigging_ what! We are supposed to be his voices of reason, dammit!" he snapped, pouting in a very Naruto like way.

"We _are_ him, stupid!" another one yelled.

"You wanna fight about it?" the first one said, grabbing the third one's vest. The third one reflected the gesture.

"Yeah, bring it on, sissy boy!" he said with a feral grin.

"Fine! Let's take this outside!" the first one snapped.

"We're already outside!" a fourth one shouted, one of the seven trying to tug the two battling Narutos away from each other.

"Then we'll_ take it _inside!" the third one said, pushing the others off of him and lunging at the first. In five seconds, half of Naruto's kage bunshins were poofed out of existence. The remaining ten looked at Kakashi sheepishly.

"What the.." Sakura silently mouthed the word she wanted to say. Sasuke turned, a smirk on his face.

"It seems like Naruto doesn't like himself." he said, finding that rather amusing. "Maybe he finally sees in himself what others see and don't like."

"Sasuke-kun.." Sakura said in a chastising voice. It was a wonder really, how she didn't jump in to insult Naruto as she would have before to impress Sasuke. It was only a small sign of her developing and more positive character. If she had seen the faint smile that Sasuke sent her way, she would have wondered why she had ever thought that insulting Naruto was the quickest way to the reserved Uchiha's heart.

"Or maybe he just likes picking fights.." Tazuna grumbled, although a faint twitch of the corner of his mouth gave away his amusement, both at the boy and the girl, and the many blonds hanging around.

Kakashi looked over the rest of the kage bunshins, as amused as the rest of them. "So.. How long will you guys last?" he asked, genuinely curious. If Naruto had been using the forbidden jonin jutsu even as half as long as Kakashi thought he had, then he'd know how long his clones lasted, and thus, they would know.

They looked at each other, then back at him. "Two hours, three maybe. Tops." the one in the middle said. "Us being around won't effect me.. I mean.. Naruto. We are independent of him." Kakashi expected that slip. The point of the jutsu was to confuse the enemy and make him confused about what enemy was his real enemy, but the reason why the jutsu was outlawed was because the clones and the ninja themselves rarely knew which one of them was the real them. Ninjas of more questionable character ended up having clones that were trying to assassinate themselves. It had gotten to be a real mess.

"But we are him." one said quietly, gently persuading. It was truly strange how one could see all the different aspects of a ninja's personality just by watching their clones.

"No, not really. Kinda like a.. imprint, you know? His conscience, his morals, his thoughts and feelings.." another murmured, arms crossed over his chest.

"There's two differences between the real Naruto and us." the first one said carefully. His eyes shifted to Sasuke and Sakura. "We don't have organs in our body and have no body temperature, and..." he looked at Kakashi meaningfully. Another clones finished his hanging sentence.

"You know what the other difference is." the one on the far left said.

Kakashi nodded seriously, giving them the order to continue their working and ignored the questioning glances that Sakura and Sasuke gave him. Such strangely intelligent clones. Which, of course, means that their creator is as intelligent. Most kage bunshins didn't know whether or not they were the real one, as the creator never really thought about the differences between a clone of shadow and a living human. Naruto, having the Kyuubi, would know whether or not he was the real thing because he'd feel the demon's presence if he was. He could stretch youki over to his fellow blonds, but he couldn't extend the Kyuubi himself. Being a soul, a gathering of controlled, self sustaining energy, naturally resisted any type of cloning.

But for his clones to know that there was more than one difference between the fake and the real Naruto.. either someone had pointed it out to him, or he was in a situation where he had figured it out on his own. Which made Kakashi realize something important.

Over the last couple of weeks with his students, he felt, up till then, as if he had gotten a grasp of their characters. He knew Sasuke tended to be moody and quiet, but being in a group opened his personality up, especially with Naruto hounding him and firing up his temper. He knew Sakura tended to get a little crazy around Sasuke, but had become more subdued after they faced their first real ninja, Tessai. Naruto hadn't changed much from the first moment that the jonin had met him, sooty faced and blood all over him in a classroom so long ago. Sasuke and Sakura both hated when it rained, the former probably having a bad memory connected to the rain, while Naruto liked it, stubbornly insisting that it smelled so much nicer after it rained. Sakura like western foods, Sasuke liked traditional foods, Naruto liked anything to do with ramen. Sasuke thought that the Elder Council were a bunch of old farts with more power than they knew what to do with(Sakura and Naruto agreed) and that more should be done about eliminating their (few) missing nins (Sakura agreed, but Naruto opposed, saying that some missing nins were just too strong and would end up eating at their village's ninja resources, which ended up hitting a personal note and made Sasuke pissed.) Sakura liked red and pink, Naruto liked orange and black, Sasuke liked blue and black.

Even with all of their similarities and differences, somewhere in Kakashi's mind, they all were assigned a part, one he had, until just then, believed described their personalities.

The Fool, the Prodigy, and the Fan girl. Obito, Kakashi, and Rin. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. It was a never ending circle, always coming back to his old team. But Naruto, who so enthusiastically said that his dream was to be acknowledged, wasn't Obito, who dreamed of beating Kakashi. Sakura, who loved Sasuke openly, wasn't Rin, who had loved Obito secretively. Sasuke, who wanted revenge, wasn't him, a guy desperately trying to cling on to the memories of the happier times of his tragic youth.

What he realized was that he just really didn't know them at all.

* * *

The sky was stormy, the air was muggy and heavy. The villagers of the border town between Fire Country and its neighbor were not in any better spirits. Their whole livestock had been lost to a flash flood. Only quick relief aid from the Hokage had kept their village alive.

"No, the trail is completely submerged." the village head said patiently for the fifth time. "It would not be good for your health if you continued." The man in front of him crossed his arms over his chest(What a hideous green it was), and seemed to think for a moment. The three children behind the green ninja shifted their feet.

Frowning, as the ninja in front of him demanded his undivided attention and he really needed to get back to helping his people, he said, "The water level will be down in a day.. you might get sick, but if you absolutely insist on continuing to Wave Country.." he waved a hand, gesturing his indifference to the subject.

"Then.." the other man said quietly. The village head cringed, resisting the urge to cover his ears, as it would be impolite. The other man's voice level rapidly increased. "Then my team and I shall help you repair your village! In one hour, it will be even better than it was before! Or my name isn't Maito Gai!" He struck a pose. One of the boys behind him(he could have sworn he and Gai were related) struck a pose as well.

"Yeah! If we can't finish it in an hour, I'll run around Konoha two hundred times!" the boy shouted, bringing what little attention that wasn't already fixed on their group to him.

"Oh no, not again.." the girl muttered. The boy with white eyes shook his head lightly.

"And if Lee can't do that, I'll run two hundred times around Konoha, on my hands!" Gai shouted, getting into the spirit of things. Lee looked at his teacher with tear filled eyes.

"Gai-sensei." he said adoringly. Gai fixed him with a similar look of pride.

"Lee." he said, grabbing the younger boy's hands. "I could not be any more prouder of you than if you were my own child!"

"Gai-sensei." Lee said, moved beyond words. His tears fell freely.

"Lee."

"Gai-sen-"

"If you say each others name again, I'm going to scream!" Tenten snapped. And thus a heart warming and frequent scene was broken, reminding them of their duty to help out the village. In the back of their minds, they hoped that the other genin team would hold on just a little bit longer.

* * *

Several hours later, Tazuna called it an early day after his last worker left. After the kage bunshins disappeared, no work was really getting done. Still cheerful, as there was only a twenty foot gap between his bridge and the other end(which he had built much earlier), he waved off their apologies. But he had a question he was dying to ask, and was too afraid that he'd jinx the good luck they had been having. He asked anyway.

"Why are you guys still here?" he asked, sitting next to Sakura on Kakashi, who wanted to do some bizarre form of push ups with only one finger. "Even after you knew that I lied about the mission."

"Abandoning a duty because it wasn't going exactly how I planned is not something I practice, nor an attitude I wish to pass on to my students." Kakashi said, attention not straying from his task. "It is not morally right and is a clear sign of a coward. This was something our previous Hokage taught me."

"That is the way of the shinobi, the true shinobi. Ninjas don't move for money alone." Sakura said, kicking her feet lightly. Kakashi smiled.

"Yes. A ninja is a tool, but a ninja is still human." Kakashi looked up at Sasuke, who was sitting there and watching them. "How's Naruto?" he asked, stopping his exercise. Tazuna and Sakura got off of him.

"Sleeping like a baby." Sasuke said dryly. "He'll probably be like that for a week."

"I don't think so. Maybe a day." Sakura said, smoothing out the wrinkles in her skirt. "Naruto and I talked a bit about his recovery rates while we were working on the bridge. It's_ fascinating_."

"Recovery rate?" Tazuna asked, looking confused.

"Yeah. Naruto said it's kinda of like his own blood limit. Didn't you see him on the lake? It didn't take very long for him to heal." Sasuke nodded, agreeing with Sakura. He had been a bit closer to Naruto than she was. He had been relived, awed, and jealous. If only his sharingan would develop...

Of course, it already was. Sakura had seen, but had not recognized it for what it was, Naruto was too used to the sight to make any comments about it, and Kakashi had been a little preoccupied at the time. So Sasuke wallowed in his envy, not realizing that what he was jealous of was merely a side effect of a curse that no one would want inflicted upon them.  
_  
A blood limit?_ Kakashi thought. _Is that what he's calling it? Pretty clever. _Sakura went off into a lecture about blood lines and limits to Tazuna, who was interested in the subject.

Sasuke, for the most part, was silent, his elbows resting on his bent knees and his back to the wall. Deep in thought, he was only partially aware of the door sliding open next to him. His eyes shifted toward the new comer when the bridge builder called out his name.

"Inari!" the old man said with a warm smile. "Where have you been hiding?" Inari stared back at him, eyes blank and cold. Tazuna's enthusiasm dwindled under the boy's frosty stare.

"I don't understand you." the boy said in a carefully controlled voice. "Everyone has gotten it in their heads that going up against that man is suicidal.. but you still continue on. Are you just senile, or stupid?" Tsunami had walked in through the other door and gasped at her son. Tazuna looked down at his hands, his shoulders slumped. Sakura bit her lip. "You all.. are pathetic." he spat, turning to leave.

The door slammed shut right in front of him, before he had a chance to cross the threshold. He glared at Sasuke, who had one hand on the door, keeping it shut.

"So he speaks." Sasuke drawled, fixing the boy with a cold stare not unlike the one Inari had thrown at Tazuna.

"Get out of my way." Inari snapped. Truly, he was fearful of the dark ninja, so unlike his more light and bubbly team mates, but he didn't let it show on his face. "You're just hired help. This is my house. You have no right."

Sasuke's head tilted to the side, inviting the challenge. "Not entirely true.." he said in that same nonchalant, yet piercing tone. He had caught on to Inari's fear. His voice darkened, his hand twitched as if it longed for a blade. "I'm hired help.. who can kill you."

"Sasuke." Kakashi said sharply, the unmistakable command to let it go. Like the Uchiha he was, Sasuke ignored it.

"You throw your hateful barbs at your family. You try to make your coward nature seem less visible by getting off on their pain, their retreats. You act so big and macho because you can boss your family around. You are as much of a coward as Gatou is, who uses his hired guns to intimidate people, then has the gall to pretend that it was by his hand that this country is falling down on their knees and begging for mercy." Sasuke said, every negative word drawn out. He pointed to Tazuna. "You want to see courage? Look at your grandfather, whom you so hatefully detest, if one was to interpret your words literally. He is the one fighting Gatou, maybe not with weapons, but with his bridge. He is the only one who continues to stick by his dream for this country. He is not the one trying to foster off his own guilt and pain on to someone else. He isn't you. He isn't a stupid brat who assumes he knows everything about anything."

Inari seethed, his hands clenching into fists. Sasuke waved a hand at him, a gesture he himself vaguely remembered Itachi doing when he wished to be left alone. "You only have one family, if you're lucky, some grandparents and siblings. You may cry about the loss of your step father, but the loss of the rest of your family would only make that sorrow all the more stronger. So don't waste the time you have being a brat."

Pissed off and trying to suppress tears because he knew Sasuke's harsh words were true, he stormed out the other door. The eyes that followed his exit swung over to Sasuke.

Sasuke's head tilted down, his face hidden by his bangs and the shadows. Blunt nails dug in the palms of his hands, one fist on the door, the other by his leg. He was angry at Inari's blindness_. If I could have just one more day with my family, _he thought,_ I would appreciate every second of it. There would be no harsh words, there would be no hate, only the bonds of a family. You never really know what you have until it is taken from you.  
_  
An image of his family flashed in his mind. Itachi and his father always looked so stern, while his mother was more passive and open. She'd smile at him and wrap her arm around his shoulders, asking in that gentle voice of hers how his day was. His father would glance at him out of the corner of his eyes, as he often seemed to do. Itachi would turn, dark eyes and face so much like his father's, but a small smile that seemed almost unnatural on the normally impassive face, but was there because Itachi made an effort for him. An effort to be the brother that Sasuke wanted. To be the one that Sasuke wanted to overcome.

And was now the person that Sasuke had to kill, had to overcome..  
_  
Damn you, Itachi. Why? What did Father do that pissed you off? Was it because the clan was growing more isolated from the village? Was it because you believed us to be too weak? _He closed his eyes, taking a deep, relaxing breath, then looked toward Tazuna and Tsunami.

"My apologies." he said in a subdued voice. He pushed himself up. Quiet for a moment while he reigned in his emotions, he slid open the door. "It pisses me off when I see someone with so much throwing it all away." Sasuke had no idea how ironic Naruto would have found his excuse for snapping at Inari. After all, the blond remembered a time where Sasuke threw everything he had made in Konoha away to go after Orochimaru and the power to defeat his brother.

Instead, no one felt that there was anything off with his statement, and let him leave unhindered. Kakashi fisted his hand, then reopened it, looking at his gloved palm._ I'm almost back to normal, I'm ready for Zabuza. But.. are my students ready?  
_

* * *

Not far from the village, a mist nin mediated quietly, waiting for his student to arrive. When the biting cold of the evening air once again made him want to shiver, he cursed. He hated Wave Country. Well, that really wasn't saving much. He hated nearly everything, but there was just something about stuff that was cold that bugged him.

Only one thing good had come from his experiences with cold, and that was Haku.

"Zabuza-san." the boy was nearly silent in his approach, something that Zabuza himself was proud of. Why, just a few years ago, he had been a little, sad eyed brat on the side of the road with a collar around his neck. Now he was a deadly ninja.

Just the image of Haku being collared like a common dog royally pissed him off. Such a waste of ability, a discarded item that Zabuza had picked up, polished off, and let loose on the world. After all, they did say 'One man's trash is another man's treasure'.

"We will attack in the morning." Zabuza said firmly. "You have three hours to find, capture, and isolate Kakashi's brats. After that, you will report to me. Then we will take on Kakashi and finish our mission."

"And Kakashi's position in the late morning?" Haku asked, not recalling any moment in time where they had the chance to learn the jonin's schedule. He, being the quietest and best at stealth, would have been sent out. Gatou must have not thought that he could trust Haku anymore. _Such excellent observation shouldn't go unrewarded._ Haku thought darkly, remembering how easily the businessman's bone had crunched together in his hand. It was all too clear that Gatou was using Zabuza and wasn't going to back up his side of the deal, and the mist devil seemed to know that. So Haku bowed his head in defeat. What his precious person wanted was what he was determined to make sure his precious person got.

"Those hired blades were good for something after all." Zabuza said in explanation for Haku's unasked question. He was surprised that the two samurai weren't caught by the skillful ninja from Konoha, but then again, the village was very poor. It was most likely that they paid someone from the village to give them information about Kakashi. "He will be guarding Tazuna at the bridge, as he has been doing for the last couple of days now."

Haku nodded mutely, already thinking of how to isolate the genins. The girl would be easy, the boy with dark hair a little harder, but who would be most difficult would be the boy with the fire jutsu. It was a well known fact that ice was easily defeated by fire. But the boy had shown no remarkable speed, except when his friend was in danger. Haku would be much quicker and would simply have to overwhelm the boy with his speed.

"Haku." Zabuza's voice stirred him out of his thoughts. His mentor looked very serious. "Remember what you must do if they escape." Haku bit his lip, for once thankful that his slightly uncomfortable mask hid his face, thus his emotion. He remembered all too well, the fate of what was to come of the escaped genin(s). Which only made him all that more determined to make sure that they didn't get free.

"Yes.. Zabuza-san."

* * *

The next morning, Naruto awoke, feeling as good as new. He refrained from tackling Sasuke awake, his much preferred way of saying good morning, choosing to instead look outside at the sun light that shyly peeked through the quickly approaching clouds. He stretched, then stood.  
_  
The air is heavy and it is not of coming rain._ Naruto thought, tying his forehead protector around his head._ It is heavy with knowledge of what is to come.  
_**  
Yes. **Kyuubi rumbled. **Nature, she is an immortal being, untouched by time herself, wounded only by those too careless to take care of her. **Naruto reached down, attaching his kunai and shuriken holders to their respective places.

Feeling tense and a little bit gloomy, the fox whispered a small request to Naruto to cheer them up. Naruto smiled, having nothing against doing it. He leaned out the window after opening it, grabbed a bucket from outside, made a quick detour to the bathroom...

"AHHH! _NARUTO!_"And thus the rest of the household was rudely woken up at the sound of Sasuke yelling. Tazuna, the only one awake enough to witness the event, watched as a soaked and thoroughly pissed off Sasuke chase a laughing Naruto outside, looking murderous.

Several crashes and random chaos later, Kakashi gave his team some errands to complete, in an attempt to give them a bit of a holiday off of working on the bridge. Naruto was to go buy some food for the next week, Sasuke was to get some fish from a local stream, and Sakura was to go search for some cooking herbs. Kakashi must have noticed Tsunami's struggles to not only feed her family, but also Team Seven.

"And you can get _some_ ramen, but remember that not all of us are as big of fans of it like you are." Kakashi said, pushing Naruto along. Naruto scowled, pocketing the money that the jonin had shoved in his hand.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." the blond said, walking toward the nearest store in the heart of the village. The rebelling look on his face started to crumble, and eventually dropped at the sight of such poverty. People slept on the streets, women and children begged. All people alike stole from one another.

Instead of letting the sadness overwhelm him, Naruto only got more determined to see the building of the bridge through. He strode purposely into the store, noticing that they barely had anything in stock. He paid for what he came for, pretending not to notice he gave the store keeper more money than he was supposed to.

He saw something out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to face it, it had disappeared. _Huh.. Am I being followed? _he questioned, then brightened. _I'm important enough to be followed! YES! _Naruto mentally cheered in his mind._ I'm being stalked!  
_**  
Since when has being followed been a good thing? Silly brat. **_  
_  
When he ran into a small, dirty looking girl, he broke up one of the loaves of bread that he bought and gave some to her and her four little brothers that slunk behind her. She took his hand and shook it, far too mature and tired for a six year old, then dragged him off to meet her mother. Naruto juggled the groceries with one hand, then tied the bags together and slung it over one shoulder gently when they came to a stop, promptly forgetting about his would be stalker.

"Mommy!" she said, her small hand nearly engulfed by Naruto's. "Mommy, I want you to meet our new friend, Naruto-kun!"

The woman behind the jewelry stand smiled tiredly at her daughter, then looked up at him. "Not from around here, are you, boy?" she said in the subtle Wave Country drawl. One of the little girl's brothers grabbed her doll from her frayed pocket and ran. The girl ran after him, half yelling, half laughing.

"How could you tell?" Naruto said, his normally loud voice subdued.

"You aren't hardly as skinny as the rest of us and you have a rather unusual appearance. We don't have very many blue eyed blonds in this here country." she said, with a bit of an impish grin on her face. "Don't get too many foreigners here. All in Wave Country have been here for at least three generations. People got no reason to move here, for there's no profit."

"Hmm." Naruto murmured, looking around. "A lot of people here do look alike."

"Yep." she said. "One way or another, most of us are related to one another, that's why we don't get too angry if one of our own does something bad. We're family.. but it's a dog eat dog world, you know. We gotta survive. Aw, come now. You shouldn't get that look on your face. The last thing we need is pity. It didn't used to be as bad."

Not being able to conceal his pity, Naruto asked, "How so?"

"Well, our men worked the coast, getting food resources from there, worked the north, getting lumber from there, and the such. Then Gatou came about, at first like an interested gentleman. Poked his head here and there. Funded a few things. Before we know it, he has us wrapped around his little finger. We can't survive without him. He has all of our boys working for him here and there, keeping them isolated from his little takeover of their country. Smart bastard, that he is. All that is left to oppose him are us women, our old and wounded men, and our children." She paused for a moment, making a rare sell with a girl a little better off than her. She bowed to her customer, then turned back to Naruto. "I really admire Tazuna. He's a genius, but he has a back problem. Yet he still labors on, day after day, trying to move our country onto a route that will lead to our well being, not to a dictatorship. But we cannot help him. It breaks my heart to watch him walk out to the bridge every day, knowing he'll encounter less and less of his crew and more and more enemies trying to steal his dream, his life, and his pride away from him."

Naruto was quiet for a moment, fiddling with his hands. He knew it, he knew that all, he really did. But it was so much more meaningful to hear someone else say it.

"But enough with that sad talk. My name is Hana." she bowed. "It is very nice to meet you, Naruto-san."

"Yes." Naruto said, for once in his life, bowing back. He cleared his throat wanting to change the subject. "So, what's with this stand?" Hana looked down, a smile of pride on her face.

"Well, some of the mothers, myself included, have formed a partnership. This stand sells what some of us make, or what some of us have that we do not wish to keep anymore." she said, gesturing to the various trinkets on the surface. Naruto shifted to the front of the stand, looking over the merchandise. Some items were very nice indeed.

"You.. interested in jewelry, Naruto-san?" Hana asked in a teasing voice. Naruto grinned at her good naturedly.

"Nah. I know girls who may be though." He had no intention of buying Sakura a present to capture her affections or anything stupid like that(been there, done that), but maybe he could buy something for her, then blackmail Sasuke into giving it to her. Ah, now wouldn't that be fun..

His eyes focused on something black near the back of the table. He picked it up, feeling smooth leather and something much harder underneath. "What's this?" he asked, curious. It was a bit heavy and as long as his wrist to his elbow.

"Oh, that!" Hana said, looking at it a bit closer. "Um.. actually, I don't know." Naruto stretched it out to its full length, then on a hunch, slid one hand through the opening on one end, watching as it came out the other.

"Was one of your lady friends a daughter or a descendant of a ninja?" Naruto asked, finally recognizing it for what it was. It was like the white and blue arm things that Sasuke wore, only better, as the leather and the metal inside of it(iron or steel? Naruto couldn't tell by feel alone) protected the arm, from the elbow down to the wrist. Hana shrugged. He experimented with the ties near the end, finding that one could slip a thin knife between the leather and skin and no one would know the difference.

"Hey, how much you think this would cost?" Hana named a price, only to have Naruto roll his eyes. "Come on!" Hesitatingly, she lowered it. Naruto rolled his eyes again. He could buy one small bowl of ramen for the price she asking. "Ugh. Fine, how about.." the price he threw out had her eyes widening, casually digging the exact amount from his lovely froggy wallet. Hana immediately put her hands up, not wanting to take so much money from him. He insisted, but he ended up walking away with not only the arm things he was eyeing, but also a few very nicely crafted necklaces. When Naruto complained he was not in the practice of wearing necklaces(Tsunade's cursed necklace and Hinata's mother's necklace being the only exceptions), Hana grinned and made a couple suggestions that made his face flame up and ears burn red.

Keh, like he had a girl he could woo..

Naruto left after Hana reminded him that his groceries would spoil if he stayed any longer, slipping his own purchases in his vest pockets. He waved goodbye to the children, who all looked very pleased with themselves, a look that Naruto recognized from his youth when he used to do pranking as his main source of entertainment.

Suddenly, he remembered being followed in the village square. It all came back to him when he saw a certain masked figure mingling in with the crowd. With every shift of the crowd, the boy seemed to move with it, yet stay absolutely still at the same time. Naruto ran after the figure, not sure if what he was following was genjutsu or a clone, but sure it was in the village because of him.

Panting, yet still somehow carrying the groceries, he followed the elusive figure to the outside of the village. On a slight incline of the earth, Haku stood sideways, carrying along his own extra weight on his hidden side.

"Haku." Naruto said in a calm tone. The boy nodded.

"Naruto." the blond nodded. Then Haku turned, showing Naruto what he was holding tucked under his arm.

His hat missing and his dark hair sticking every which way, Inari stared back at Naruto, twin streaks of fallen tears marking a path down his pale face. His lower lip trembled, and his eyes watered.

Naruto saw red. The only sound that was heard from the genin was the dull thud of the groceries hitting the ground and a low, animalistic growl that was ripped from his throat. Haku turned away and ran into the woods, only pausing long enough to make sure that his message had been made clear.

A dark figure swiftly followed, disturbing nothing but the wind that was nearly ripped to pieces from the force of his anger.

* * *

I'm already planning out the battles for the Chuunin Exam. I would like to say 'Squee!' and bounce around in a sugar haze, but my room mate would kill me. Yes, I know. One thing at a time. We still have to see what happens to Haku and Zabuza, no? 


	27. The Line Between Allies And Enemies

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Line Between Allies And Enemies

by Foxie

* * *

"Hmm.." Kakashi murmured, his one visible eye wandering around the partially built bridge. It seemed so quiet without his team around. "Something is.. off."

Tazuna frowned, then started to tinker around, making sure nothing was stolen. Kakashi leapt on top of one of the large metal crates, looking around from an aerial point of view. No matter how fast he moved, the strange feeling of someone watching him would not go away. He paused, looking at the faint imprint of a foot on top of the dusty crates. Kakashi knelt, measuring the foot with his fingers. It wasn't his size.

"K-Kakashi." Tazuna's voice rang out in the silence. The jonin hurried to the man's side. The bridge builder pointed in awed shock at what had been the crane. It was bent out of shape, as if a large hand had crunched it together. The inner compartment where one would control the machine was no more, crushed and twisted together cruelly.

"What could have done this?" Tazuna whispered. Kakashi took out a kunai, his dark eye sweeping across the suddenly ominous shadows. Mist came out of nowhere, darkening the bridge. The jonin swept up his forehead protector, baring his sharingan to the air.

"Not what. Who." the ninja from Konoha said grimly. Out of the darkness, shattering the silence, someone laughed a cruel laugh.

* * *

The rhythmic movements of jumping from branch to branch cooled his temper down. Naruto started to think more with full and complete thoughts instead of half jumbled up ones brought on by his protective instincts. But that didn't make Naruto feel any less guilty.

Tsunami trusted him to make sure Inari was safe! Maybe he had made the promise when he was seventeen, but he wasn't about to break it just because he was twelve again. Although he knew that Haku wouldn't harm the boy, the terrified look on Inari's face shot right to Naruto's heart.

Inari was just a kid. He shouldn't have been mixed up in that sort of situation.

The mist hunter nin was deliberately running so that Naruto could see him, but could not catch up. The blond tried to use the Fourth's speed jutsu, but it could only take him up to fifty yards in a flash. Haku had been surprised and used one of his ice mirrors to teleport away, then the chase started again. Using the jutsu twice and even three times in a row was really depleting his stamina and making that overwhelming tiredness that wrapped around his entire being return, so he stuck with full out running.

He was reluctant to use youki against Haku. The haunting memory of how Haku fell easily underneath a small fraction of the Kyuubi's power kept him from even using it to speed up his movement, for fear that he was go crazy with rage again and kill the mist nin and even Inari.

Naruto made his first mistake by letting his emotions rule him instead of his logic. He never saw, nor noticed Haku making hand seals with his left hand.

Haku jumped to the ground when trees became rarer and the vegetation decreased. Naruto followed, wincing when he landed a little too hard on the rocks. Haku still kept running and, despite the pain in his ankles, so did Naruto.

"Haku!" Naruto bellowed. His voice echoed off of the rock formations around them. Haku looked back briefly, then jumped thirty yards on the other side of a small hole in the ground, his hand briefly pointing downwards and glowing with blue chakra. Seeing no reason why the boy leapt over so much ground to get by the hole, Naruto made his second mistake by not following the boy's example and kept running.

The ground, so firm and rough before, suddenly became slick and unforgiving. Losing his balance, Naruto fell on something cold, his momentum still carrying him to the hole. Unable to find his balance, Naruto slid right into it.

His third mistake was had everything to do with his reflexes. Kyuubi tried to warn him.

**No, you fool! It's ice! You don't know how to channel your energy through it!** Naruto stuck his feet against the side of the hole, trying to grasp it with his chakra, but failed when the chemistry failed to ignite. Still falling, he rolled against the steep slope of the hole until he hit the bottom of the hole with a resounding thud.

"F-fuck.." Naruto cursed, feeling blood seep through the minor cuts and scrapes he endured. Immediately, youki flared inside his body, making his blood feel like liquid fire. As was the norm, the youki immediately started to work on the more serious of injuries before moving to the ones that actually bothered him.

Seeing a faint glow around his right arm, he blinked in surprise. He had no idea that his arm was injured. _Well, they always say that paper cuts hurt the worst._ he thought with a half hearted smile, then cursed when he tried to move it._ Oh, there it is._ The blinding hot pain that assaulted his mind was enough for him to reassess his previous thought.

Naruto kept mumbling vile words under his breath, directing it at everybody and anybody that came to mind. "Stupid old monkey ass.. Stupid girl hogging pretty boy.. Stupid mask wearing pervert.. Stupid fox..."

**Watch where you're aiming those insults, blondie**. Kyuubi said in a teasing voice, pulling back his youki in a threatening way. Naruto gritted his teeth when even more pain ran up and down his body. He had no idea that the youki not only healed him, but also numbed some of the pain.

_Hey. If I die, you die._ he countered rudely.

**People don't die of sprained wrists.** Kyuubi said condescendingly.

Naruto winced. This was the pain of just a sprained wrist? _Oh my kami, I'm in the wrong business. _He twitched, realizing he must really be a baby when it comes to pain._ Ever heard of Tut? Ruler guy of a place called Egypt, which is kinda like Wind Country. Died of a broken leg, or so they say._ Naruto crossed his fingers. He wasn't as vulnerable to infections and whatever that had been brought on by the young pharaoh's broken leg, but he was sure that the fox wasn't too aware of that. The fox had been so paranoid after the fight with Kabuto that he upped the youki running through Naruto to keep him safe from even the common cold. Naruto hadn't noticed then. He was too busy morning for Hinata, who, even though she was 'handicapped'(the Chuunin Preliminaries fight against her cousin severally weakened her inner coils, thus keeping her from doing too strenuous of jutsus without risk of death), forced out the poison and the tainted blood, ending her own life with one innocent jutsu.

The youki seeped back into his system. **Humans are so weak.** Kyuubi rumbled absently.

"Hey." Naruto looked up, squinting when the sun hit his eyes. Haku crouched down, his mask giving away nothing.

"What the hell do you want?" Naruto asked, his voice weary. He griped his wrist, stood.. then fell flat on his rear once more. "What the.. ice!" A hard coating of ice was what kept him from regaining his balance. It was on the walls, the bottom of the hole, and must have been on the slickened ground that he slid on. Making the best of his situation, he rested his wrist against the ice in hopes of numbing it.

"This trap was best for you." Haku's soft voice drifted down to Naruto. The mist nin was leaning over the edge of the hole. "If the other two fell in this trap, they might have died. But you have a resiliency that astounds even Zabuza-san."

Naruto laughed dryly, slowly getting to his feet. He made no sudden movements, as they might make him loose his balance. "You know me. I bounce right back up."

Haku smiled beneath his mask. Naruto couldn't explain how he knew that the boy of ice did, Naruto just knew. "I wasn't going to hurt him."

"I was aware of that." Naruto said, rotating his shoulder. Now if he could just find a way to launch himself up with chakra without slipping again, he'd be just fine.

"Then why did you follow if you were aware that he was merely bait?" Haku asked, genuinely curious. He couldn't see the benefit of letting yourself be captured.

"I just love the thrill of the chase." Naruto said sarcastically.

**Spoken like a true fox**. Kyuubi said approvingly.

_Cram it, you whiner. It's called sarcasm. _With a pop, his wrist was fully healed. He sighed in relief.

Haku accepted his answer. "Then I apologize for making it end so quickly." he disappeared for a moment, then returned with a large boulder in tow. Naruto's jaw dropped.

"Hey hey **hey**! Aren't you supposed to be a weak pretty boy? The rock's frigging heavy looking!" Haku laughed, he couldn't help it. Naruto sounded like a spoiled child.

"Surely you jest.. I am a ninja, just like you." he put the boulder to the side, then pushed it over the hole. Only a small space between the rock and the earth served as Naruto's source for air and light. A shadow passed over the hole when Haku looked through it. "I have no desire to kill someone so young. Please, remain here until my mission is over, then I shall set you free."

"Like hell." Naruto said, glaring at him. "I have no desire to kill you either, but there's no way I'm staying in here while my friends are in danger. Can't we make some sort of compromise?"

Haku shook his head, his voice full of regret. "I am sorry, but we cannot. Your other two friends, the girl with the green eyes and that dark boy will be isolated as you are, so do not fret about their fates."

"They aren't my only friends who are involved with this." he waited a beat, digesting what Haku said. "Wait a sec.. how the hell do you know what color eyes Sakura-chan has!"

Coughing in slight embarrassment, Haku dodged that question and once again apologized. He left with a warning. " I shall take your child friend back to his home after he no longer serves a purpose, but hear me out Naruto, if you escape your prison and interfere with Zabuza-san's battle, I will kill you." Naruto didn't answer, not even when Inari whimpered when Haku leapt away.

His hands fisted, the nails lengthening with his barely suppressed annoyance._ The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, Haku. Why do you guys keep following Gatou's orders? The road he is leading you down will only end in sorrow and pain. _Naruto looked up, his eyes determined. _But one thing's for sure: There's no way I'm staying in here. I'll find a way and even save your ungrateful ass! It's a promise of a lifetime!  
_

* * *

Knee deep in the chilly water of the nearby stream, Sasuke straightened, throwing a medium sized fish to the shore to wiggle and pant along with its fellow fish. Taking pity on them, Sakura swiftly killed them.

It was nice, he supposed. Before, being around Sakura always made him feel nervous, but now that he actually knew her and grudgingly called her a good friend, it felt right. Being alone wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and Sakura was a quiet balm to his loneliness that had nothing to do with being shoved out of trees or being woke up at the crack of dawn when your room mate douses you with ice cold water.

Naruto was a good friend in his own right, but Sasuke always felt like he was being cross examined and contained, as if the blond expected him to do something bad and Naruto was the only one who could stop him. Alright, maybe not always, but it was so in the beginning. Naruto would look at him with faintly hopeful, but dark, doubting eyes, as if he believed that Sasuke would attack him without warning. It was strange. Sasuke couldn't recall Naruto acting like that toward him during the Academy.

"Why aren't you doing your errand?" Sasuke asked, looking at her over his shoulder. Sakura looked up, happy that he acknowledged her presence. She lifted up the bag she had slung over her shoulder. The sweet and strong smell of many herbs slipped through the opening of the bag.

"Already did it." Sakura said with a grin, descaling and gutting the fish. Her nose wrinkled in distaste at the feel and scent of the fish's blood. _Well, we gotta eat to live.  
_  
Sasuke watched for a moment, then was brought back to his task when he felt a soft carress of scales against his shin. Three fishes later, Sasuke's own bag was filled with the edible parts of the fish and cooled with a weak ice jutsu to keep it from spoiling. He walked out of the stream, briefly pausing to rub feeling back into his legs.

In reluctant awe of her skills, he stopped just in front of her, watching her finalize the jutsu. His eyes started burning, but not in an unpleasant way. He watched her hands, strangely finding it easier to remember the hand seals and tuck them away in his mind. His sharingan faded away before Sakura looked up.

"Is that some sort of thing all women instinctively know, or was it taught to you?" Sasuke was unaware that he had spoken aloud until Sakura grinned. She slung the strap of the bag over his shoulder and answered.

"Nah, it's a learned thing. While you boys were learning how to throw kunai and how to do taijutsu, the rest of the girls were taught flower arranging, cooking, cleaning, and that sort of thing."

Feeling curious and in no way related to or being a cat, he pressed for more answers. "Why?"

Sakura shrugged. "Maybe for if we were later uncover in a foreign territory as a housewife, we actually know enough about it in order to not blow our cover. Or at least, that's what Ino thought it was for. My personal theory.." she paused, adjusting the strap on his shoulder so it wouldn't tug at his skin. Her voice became lower. "My personal theory is that since the turn out of kunoichi verses ninja was 1:2, the Academy would want to make sure that the kunoichi who didn't make it had the skills to survive as a normal person." She turned away from him, cleaning up the rock that she used as a cutting surface. When she was done, she looked at him, faintly surprised that he had waited for her.

Sasuke jerked his head towards the trail that would take them back to the village, clearly wanting to go. Sakura went back on the trail, Sasuke silently falling in step with her.

After a moment, Sasuke spoke. "Why is that?" Sakura looked at him, her eyes questioning. He explained what he meant. "Why do fewer kunoichis come out of the Academy than ninjas?" Every female ninja he had met up with was strong in their own way. Sakura and her chakra control. Tenten and her expertise with weapons. Hinata and her byakugan. Ino and her blood limit. In their own ways, the four kunoichis were stronger than their own team mates.

Sakura sighed. "To name a few.. some of us give up, some of us aren't strong enough. Some of us would rather play with flowers than with kunai. Some of us died during the simple process of seeking out our chakra for the very first time. Our bodies are, to put it simply, weaker than yours. The kunoichi you see in active duty are the strongest. They were the only ones who could endure." she smiled faintly, thinking back on fonder memories of her friendship with Ino. "Only the ones who not only had the strength to become a kunoichi, but also the will and determination to do so, have passed the Academy final exam. Next year, they will try to become genin again because it's what they really, truly believe is their path in life. I am not sure if the ratio is a fixed thing, but it is how it is.  
Kunoichi who wear the head protector have been through hell. The girls have been taught many things that the boys have not. It is to keep them alive in a business that they aren't not very well equipped for."

Sasuke made a rude noise in the back of his throat, a smirk on his face. "Yeah, maybe. But my theory is that it's a quantity over quality thing. Girls are more important, with reproduction and everything, so the Academy makes sure that only the best can pass. Guys aren't as important so they let anyone pass. Like Naruto and that lazy bum Shikamaru." Sakura laughed.

"Yeah, I was pretty surprised that Naruto passed, having the lowest score in the class and all. Did you see his attempt at bunshins or henges? They were horrible!" Sakura said, shaking her head. Sasuke shrugged.

"But that shows you how dumb it is to test a guy just on the basics. That idiot was the only one who got a bell from Kakashi by himself, after all."

"Maybe Naruto's a.. misunderstood genius?" They looked at each other, both thinking it over. At the same time, the notion of the silly prankster with a bad ass attitude and Sexy no Jutsu under his sleeves being on the same level as Einstein struck them hard with hilarity.

Realizing how rare it was to hear Sasuke laugh, Sakura cherished it and stored the memory along with Sasuke's rare smiles and happy looks. They were mostly quiet the rest of the way back, both deep in their own thoughts.

The silence was broken when a shrill sob and then a tearful whimper reached their ears. Sakura paused in mid step.

"What was that?" she whispered. Sasuke said nothing, his only response was his hand slowly creeping down to his leg for his kunai. She walked off the path, cautiously following the noises. Exasperated that she was leaving, Sasuke had no choice but to follow her.

Sakura took careful steps through the thick foliage, making sure that there wasn't any traps on the ground. Sasuke shadowed her steps, feeling that burning sensation behind his eyes again.

A shack, half covered with vines and moss and in horrible shape, stood in their way. The source of the mournful cries was sitting in the doorway, looking distressed.

"Inari?" Sakura whispered, looking shocked. The boy's head, previously buried in his knees, shot up.

"N-no! Go away before he gets you!" he said, waving his hands. It was too late. Senbon came at them in all different directions. Sasuke flipped out of the way, reaching back to push Sakura into the bushes. Three senbon hit that arm, as he expected. But the pain was worth it. Sakura rolled back, head over heels, stopping on her knees. Sasuke took out his kunai and blocked the senbon he could see. It was clear he was protecting her.

"The shack! Run for it!" he yelled to her. It would prove to be a good shield to hide behind. He jumped up, six kunai between his fingers. He twisted, throwing five kunai at the clones he could faintly sense hiding in the trees. They hit their mark.

Sakura ran for the shack when the number of senbon flying threw the air decreased. A piercing pain in her thigh told her that she had not run fast enough, but she still did not stop until she reached the interior of the miserable looking building. Sakura hooked her arms underneath Inari's and scooted him back for his protection, before falling down on the ground. Inari looked away with a choked sob when he saw her grimly yank the long needle out of her bloody thigh.

The last enemy, the one Sasuke hoped was the real one but knew was probably not, was behind a boulder. Sasuke landed on the ground, dodged some more senbon and realized that his attacker wouldn't move. The aches and pains in the places where random senbon had found their home, as well as his team mate and a civilian in possible danger, demanded that he end the confrontation soon.

Sasuke smiled grimly._ If there's one thing I'll thank Itachi for,_ he thought, running up the side of a tree then pushing off to free fall, _it's for teaching me this!_ He threw one kunai at a rather slow speed, aiming for the top of the rock. Waiting for the perfect moment, he twisted quickly, throwing the second at a faster speed. The second one hit the first kunai, making the first kunai's path shift directly downward. Sasuke landed on the ground at the same time the kunai hit his enemy.

His knees nearly buckling beneath him, he was torn between what he wanted to do and what he was supposed to do. He wanted to go and make sure that Sakura and Inari were alright, but the rules of the ninja stated that a ninja must double check his target to make sure that it has been succeeded. He yanked the senbon out of his legs and wearily made his way over to the boulder.

But before he could continue on with his path, it was redirected when he heard a high pitched shriek. With a limping run, he flung himself into the shack.

Sakura had latched on to Inari's leg, who was being pulled into what looked like a mirror. The only thing that kept Sakura from sliding in after the boy was her feet, firmly glued to the ground with chakra. He silently praised their other team mate for taking the time to teach them how to channel chakra through their feet. But Inari was clearly suffering, his pain filled cries enough to give a normal person nightmares for years.

Tears running down her face, Sakura let go of the boy. He immediately disappeared into the mirror a second before it vanished. Sasuke grabbed her arm, roughly turning her to face him.

"Why the hell did you let him go!" Sasuke yelled.

"If.. If I had held on any longer.." Sakura was shaking inconsolably, her arms wrapped around her shoulders in a vain attempt to protect herself. The strange red eyes would have terrified her, but all she could think about was Inari. "I was hurting him, Sasuke! He was screaming! If I held on any longer, he could have been ripped in half!" Cursing to himself and feeling guilty, he turned to the doorway, fully intent on hunting down whoever took Inari.

The room became colder without warning, the same chill that Sakura felt in the air when the mirror appeared out of no where. She immediately stood back to back with Sasuke, her hands gripping a kunai.

He had gone perfectly still. His eyes, still red, widened when he saw that there was no doorway anymore. His breath came out in pants that were visible to the unaided eye.

Stiff legged, he walked over to the door and reached out to touch the almost see through barrier that kept them inside. It was so cold that it almost burned.

"S-Sasuke-kun?" Sakura whispered, her teeth chattering. He looked back, his face unreadable.

"It's ice."

* * *

Tsunami walked to the village supermarket, a photo in her hand. "Have you seen one of these people?" she asked the clerk, flashing a picture of a bright eyed blond, a sullen dark haired boy, a happy looking girl with pink hair, and the masked but grinning man who had his hands on the boys' heads.

"Saw him." the clerk said, pointing at Naruto's cheerful grin. "Was here 'bout.. one, two hours ago?" She thanked him, frowning as she went. They were supposed to be back an hour ago, the team from Konoha. She knew Kakashi and her father were at the bridge, but also knew that the genins were supposed to hang around and help her out for the day. Something must have happened. It didn't soothe her nerves any when she realized that Inari was missing too.

Walking out of the store in a thoughtful and worried haze, she spotted a familiar face.

"Hey you!" Hana called out with a wave. Blinking, Tsunami realized that she never had been called 'hey you' before, especially by Hana. They had been old friends. What see didn't know was that Hana refrained from using the younger woman's name to not draw attention to Tsunami. Hana's mouth was set in a grim line. _Oh, how things have gone straight to hell in a hand basket,_ she thought mournfully.

Hana was packing up her stand. Reluctantly, Tsunami walked over, not in the mood for a chat. Then again, Hana always seemed to know when she didn't feel like talking. There must have been a good reason why Hana wanted to speak with her.

Inari's mother paused at the stand, exchanging greetings. Hana asked if she'd like to see the merchandise. Having seen it all before, Tsunami tried to decline, but it was like the older woman didn't even hear her. She pulled out a necklace.

"This would look lovely on you, my dear!" Hana said cheerfully, slipping a white piece of paper on the stand discreetly. "Won't you take a closer look?" Tsunami leaned over, more interested in what was on the paper than the necklace. She bit her lip, reading Hana's warning to herself.

_'There are two men searching around town for you and your boy. Run.'_ Tsunami shivered, straightening her back. _Who? Why us?_

Hana gave her an unreadable look coupled with a fake happy smile that didn't quite meet her worried eyes. "So, what do you think?"

"I-it's lovely." Tsunami said, shaken and terrified. Hana leaned forward, her facade dropping.

"My kids are just around the corner, Tsunami-chan. They know every inch of the woods. Tell them that we are playing hide and seek, and you wish to hide in a place where no one can find you." Inari's mother nodded, still looking pale and worried. "Don't worry about your boy. He spends almost as much time in the woods than my brats. Move swiftly. Many people would not care if you died today if they had extra money in their pockets."

The other woman nodded again, nearly stumbling away from the stand. "S-see you later..." the younger woman disappeared around the corner, not a moment too late.

A large man with a sword attached to his waist ambled up to her stand, shoving a picture underneath her nose. "Have ya seen anyone like dis around?" Hana blinked and looked at the picture carefully. It was Tsunami and her boy. The woman smiled disarmingly at the samurai.

"Never seen anyone like them in my entire life. Say, are you in the need for a present for any of your lady friends?"

* * *

Lying spread eagle on the uneven ground, Naruto growled in frustration. _Dammit to hell, Kyuubi! Stop acting like such a damn wuss!  
_  
He couldn't figure out how to stick his chakra to the ice. The surface, even though it was just a different form of water and was as hard as the ground, wouldn't accept his chakra at all, no matter how much or how little energy that he applied to it. But then again, Naruto was battling against time and didn't have the patience to test out how much chakra would stick him to the ice.

Youki, however, rarely needed the time and patience to be perfectly measured. But every time Naruto tried to attach himself to the rock with youki, it shied away, letting him fall to the ground.

**It's cold!** Kyuubi whined. **I hate the cold! Melt it, dammit!**

_If I do any fire jutsus, they'll just rebound right back at me and fry me to death!_

**But the ice will be gone.** Kyuubi said casually. Naruto's eye twitched.

_Why you..._ Naruto pushed himself up to a seated position, glaring hatefully at the ice and the rock above. _Dammit it all... I can't summon a frog either. They don't like the cold anymore than a fire youkai._ What little light that was shed on him suddenly turned dark. He stiffened, knowing that someone or something was covering the hole.

Naruto gathered some chakra into his hand, lighting the hole up in blue. He squinted at the hole, only to see a dark brown eye looking back at him.

"Naruto-kun?" the slightly muffled voice asked. Naruto blinked. The voice was slightly familiar.

"Uh.. yeah, that's me." he said uncertainly. What sounded like a small sound of excitement came from the boy.

"Okay! You need help, right Naruto-kun! I'll save you!" And then, like it was nothing, the rock was thrown off of the hole. Naruto blinked at the sudden light. "Tenten-chan, do you have any rope?" There was a slight gasp and a thud. "There's ice, be careful!"

Naruto groaned, recognizing the voice. "Rock Lee... How embarrassing."

* * *

Sasuke whipped around, walked up to one of the walls, and began ripping it apart. Sakura stood in the middle of the room, watching him with wide eyes.

"Sasuke-kun.." she whispered. He ignored her, making a distressed sound when he yanked the weak boards out and saw ice. He went to the other wall, only to get the same results. He slammed his fist against the ice, making a small impression. "Sasuke-kun!"

He turned, his eyes still glowing a furious red. "What!" he yelled. Sakura flinched, but she walked up to him, pulling his hands away from the walls. They were bruised and red with blood. She led him back to the middle of the room, pulled him down to sitting position, and wrapped his hands up in bandages.

"We're trapped Sakura." he said in a flat voice, looking over her head. "There's ice all around us. If we don't die of starvation or dehydration, we'll die of hypothermia." She bit her lip, but didn't comment. "The ice.. the damn ice! I made a dent in it and it reformed back into its original shape." He got up when she was done and paced restlessly. "It's not regular ice!"

"It wouldn't be, now would it?" someone said quietly. Masked faces appeared in the open doorway and in the ice that Sasuke had bared.

"You!" Sasuke hissed. Sakura stood, recognizing the masked boy as well.

"Sasuke, Sakura." the boy said, eyes lingering on the sharingan for a moment. "Your eyes turn red like your team mate's does?"

Sasuke missed the sharingan reference, only focusing on the fact that he knew that Naruto's eyes turned red sometimes. "What did you do to him!"

Haku shrugged. "He's fine."

"What do you want with us?" Sakura asked, walking toward the masked boy in the doorway. Sasuke made a move as if to pull her back, but she shook her head at him. Haku unconsciously straightened and took a step back when she came up to the ice. "Where's Inari?" Her voice was calm, but the worry in her eyes betrayed her.

"I wish for you to live." he said.

"By letting us die?" Sasuke spat. Haku shook his head.

"No, this is merely a temporary prison. I mean to set you free once my mission is complete." he said, attention shifting from the girl in front of him to the boy standing behind her. "My mission is to see that the bridge is never completed."

"And Inari?" Sakura pressed. Haku's eyes flicked back to her.

"He is fine. His leg is a little sore, but he'll live." Sakura nodded, trusting the masked boy not to lie. Sasuke made a low sound of frustration in his throat, shifting his glares between each Haku in the ice.

"We aren't going to stay here like obedient puppies." Sasuke said, tugging Sakura away from the ice. "We have a mission to complete ourselves." Haku laughed softly.

"Naruto said much of the same thing. But where I can see him somehow pulling a miracle out of nowhere and escaping, I cannot see you doing the same thing. So if it pleases you, you may make your attempts at escaping. I'll be back when my mission is completed." Haku bowed slightly, then faded from view.

Sasuke turned to Sakura, his voice gruff. "Well, what do we do now?"

* * *

Inari whimpered when they came to a sudden stop. His captor put him down gently. Even with the instinctive knowledge that his kidnapper wasn't bad, he curled away from the ninja, fearful of what he might do.

"As I promised, young one." Haku said, gesturing in front of him. "You are home." Inari looked up, a hopeful gaze fixing on the back door to his house. He shakily stood, eyes shifting from the quiet ninja to the house in front of him. Determining that the ninja wasn't going to do anything, he took a step toward his home, his heart lighter with hopes of seeing his mother and his grandfather.

A hand on his shoulder falling on his shoulder made him flinch and freeze. "Wait just a moment." Haku said, walking ahead of Inari. "Something is.. off." The mist nin walked up the steps, Inari on his heels. Haku slid open the door, revealing chaos inside the small house.

There were holes in the walls, ripped things thrown around. The table at which Inari's family and Team Seven ate at was in two pieces, a clean slice that could have only been done by a sword. Haku frowned, gently pulling Inari away from the ruins. The boy didn't resist, tears running down his face at the thought of what could have happened to his family.

That dark looking boy's words came back to haunt him.

_"You may cry about the loss of your step father, but the loss of the rest of your family would only make that sorrow all the more stronger. So don't waste the time you have."  
_  
Inari collapsed on the ground, shaking in terror. All of his family.. gone. Was he to be the next target?

Haku knelt down beside the boy, his hand on the youngster's back. "If it's any consolation, I do not detect any traces of blood." he said, his voice soft. Inari knocked his hand away.

"What do you care!" the boy shouted. "You work for the guy!"

Haku looked into Inari's eyes, seeing something that Inari couldn't see in himself. He stood, turning to walk away. "Just because I work for a man doesn't mean that I share his same ambitions, moral, ideals. It simply means I am his tool, nothing more, nothing less." he glanced over his shoulder at Inari's huddled form. "I suggest you hide in the woods. You'll be found in seconds if your pursuer is a ninja, but if he is a samurai, one of Gatou's simple minded hired hands, you'll stand a fighting chance." The boy of ice left in a flash of ice, leaving no trail to follow.

His legs shaking and a small spark of hope in his heart, Inari stood. He walked into the woods at first, then full out ran. He never looked back.

* * *

"Zabuza." Kakashi said in an even tone, both eyes focused on the shadowy figure on top of the mangled mess of the crane. The mist nin laughed.

"My, the sharingan's out so early.. were you expecting a showdown?" Zabuza jumped down, landing in a slight crouch. Kakashi took a step back, sliding into a defensive position with one kunai out horizontal in front of him. "Heh, we have plenty of time. Why do you want to end it so early? We could have some.. fun." When Kakashi fixed him with a cold gaze, the mist nin shrugged, sliding into a fighting position himself, his hands preparing to perform hand seals. "Keh, you leaf nins. Always so stiff and formal. Suit yourself."

An ice mirror appeared out of nowhere. Zabuza's partner walked calmly out of it.  
"It is done." Haku said without emotion. Warning bells went off in Kakashi's head, fueled when Zabuza gave him a vindictive look.

"If you are expecting backup, I'd hate to burst your bubble..." Kakashi's eyes widened. _No! The kids!_

"What did you do to them!" he said, controlled fury lightingupthe depths in his eyes. Haku turned to him, seeming to recognize those eyes. He paused before answering.

"You should worry more about yourself than them."

* * *

They pulled him out of the hole, happy that they found one of their own in good shape. Naruto brushed ice crystals and dirt from his shorts, pausing just long enough to thank the older genins.

"Damn ice doesn't melt the normal way." he grumbled. "Has more chakra than the regular stuff to help it keep shape."

"Where are the others?" Neji asked in his blunt and direct way. Naruto looked up, wincing.

"Hell, I don't know. Why are you guys here?" he asked, looking at the three genin. "And where's that crazy teacher of yours?"

"He went straight to the bridge." Tenten cut in before Lee could start defending their admittedly odd teacher. "We're here because Konoha got word that you guys needed back up."

Naruto gave her a disbelieving look. "They screw up, sending a genin team on what could very well be an A class mission, then think it's just dandy to send another genin team to fix their mistakes?"

"The Exam is coming up. Jonins and chuunins are in demand. We happen to be the strongest genin team." Neji said haughtily.

"Of course." Naruto said in a condescending tone. "Of _last year_, maybe." Neji's eyes narrowed.

"So, we'll go find Sasuke-kun and Sakura-san and wait in the village." Lee said. The other two genin nodded. Naruto looked rebellious.

"What, are you kidding?" Neji gave him a sharp glare.

"No. As your senior officers-"

"_Whoa,_ hold up. Are _you_ pulling rank on _me?_!" Naruto asked, getting right in Neji's face. The Hyuuga didn't budge. "I, for one, am not going to be ordered around by a guy with a stick shoved up his ass. _You_ _guys_ can go find Sakura-chan and the bastard. _I'm_ going to the damn bridge." Just when he turned around to leave, three pairs of hands grasped his shoulders.

"You aren't going anywhere, fool." Neji snapped.

"Sorry Naruto-kun. Orders are orders." Lee said apologetically.

"No exceptions." Tenten said sternly, but with gentle understanding. Naruto looked at the three, a foxy grin on his face that just spelled trouble.

"_My_ orders are to keep Tazuna and his family safe._ My_ orders are to help out _any_ team mate in need of assistance, even if that team mate happens to be Kakashi-sensei. My orders are to defend, not cower behind a stuck up Hyuuga and two older genins." He spun on his heel, dislodging their hands. "I _dare_ you to try and stop me."

The older genins immediately took up defensive poses, intent on stopping him even if they had to beat him senseless. Naruto grinned in a sad way.

"Fighting you would take too long. Time is of the essence." Here, he laughed over a joke that none of them understood. Time was always of the essence, especially when you knew everything that would come to pass and only had a certain amount of time to change it all. His hands blurred with the movements of hand seals. Team Gai tensed, expecting an attack.

"Just try to catch me. _Shunshin no Jutsu_!" Just like that, Naruto disappeared.

"Lee!" Tenten cried out. The boy immediately dropped his weights went after the flash that his eyes, much more used to blinding speeds, barely caught a glimpse of. He came back several minutes later, his shoulders slumped.

"I'm sorry. I lost him." he said.

"That jutsu.." Neji said, looking off to the side. "I have never seen anything like that." _Something that so dramatically increases a person's speed. Maybe the Uchiha isn't the only member of Team Seven I should be watching out for._

"We'll ask Gai-sensei later." Lee said, determination returning to his gaze. "Let's find Sasuke-kun and Sakura-san first."

* * *

TBC..

Next Chapter: Sakura and Sasuke find a way out of their prison, Naruto reaches the bridge, and Inari finds his mother and the two samurai after them in the woods. Desperate to find a way to keep Zabuza and Haku from dying, Naruto forcefully shows Haku the light of things. But will Haku stay true to his ambition to be his precious person's perfect tool and to make his precious person's dreams come true? Or will Haku realize the truth and risk Zabuza's hatred to keep his precious person from death?


	28. Fortune's Fool

You all may complain about my evil cliff hangers, but at least I don't throw a future title out at you like 'The Death of Gaara', then make you wait two weeks to see if he actually dies. Gah, I can't believe Kishmoto did that!  
And sorry about the wait, you all. Sunday was my birthday and we went out to celebrate me living through another year without driving anyone nuts enough to kill me, lol. And then there was Memorial Day... -shudder- It was horrible. People just kept on talking.. and talking.. and talking..

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Fortune's Fool

by Foxie

* * *

For the seventh time, Inari tripped over an overgrown root. Biting back a curse, he stood once more on shaky legs and ran deeper into the woods. It mattered not that he knew the woods like the back of his hand. It mattered not that there was a good chance that Haku was still going after him, to tie loose ends by getting rid of Inari. All that mattered was that if his mother knew there was danger, she'd either go into town or hide in the old tree house his step dad had built for him on his seventh birthday.

He stopped in front of the old oak trees, hands reaching out for the once familiar ladder. He climbed up, his feet slipping twice. Here, at least, he'd be safe. Here he could form some sort of offensive.

Even if his 'weapons' were nothing more than an old wooden bat and an old iron frying pan. They would work fine against unsuspecting samurai, but if it was a ninja who trailed after him..

He curled up in the corner, his two meager weapons in hand. If it was a ninja, he was done for.

* * *

If he twitched one more time, she swore, even though he was Sasuke and she loved him, she kick the shit out of him. Or at least, that's what Inner Sakura swore. The more passive(at least when it came to Sasuke) kunoichi looked away, forcing a smile.

They both were sitting on the ground, both with their backs to the same wall. Sakura's legs were curled on her side while Sasuke's were slightly bent at the knee, while his elbows rested on his knees. They weren't touching, but they were close to one another, both craving some sort of heat but too prideful to scoot over the extra inch. The wall that they sat against was the one that was the most intact, and while insulating them from some of the chill, didn't keep them warm at all.

The Uchiha rolled his eyes, not seeing how she could smile. They were trapped in a freezing prison, and she acts like they're on a picnic? Not to mention that it took three times to tell her to shut up and one glare before she stopped fussing over him. _Women.._ Sasuke sighed, cracking his knuckles. Steam poured out of Inner Sakura's ears.  
**  
Get out of my way! I'm kicking his ass! **her more violent personality exclaimed, a tire iron appearing out of nowhere. Sakura folded her hands in her lap, tensing slightly.

"You're really annoying." they both said at the same time. They both snapped out of their own thoughts, looking suspiciously at one another, the beginnings of a scowl on their faces.

"No, I'm not." they said in unison. Their scowls deepened.

"Stop copying me." Again, their voices were in harmony.

"No, you stop copying me." Finally Sakura saw the hilarity of it.

"Jinx!" she called it. "Haha. You owe me a soda." Sasuke's scowl lessened slightly.

"That's stupid." he said, feeling annoyed that he forgot to call it first. Sakura was grinning.

"Would you rather owe me a date?" she said, a sly smile that reminded him of Naruto on her face. He immediately paled, then tried to hide the expression behind a cold facade.

"Fine. I'll get you your damn soda. After we get out of this hell." Again, Sakura looked amused.

"Hah, hell froze over." When Sasuke gave her a dry look, she shook her head. Sakura was suspicious that Sasuke didn't have a single humorous bone in his body. "Never mind." She sighed, a look of boredom settling back in. The corners of Sasuke's mouth twitched upward. "Wanna play 'I Spy'?"

"In two rounds, we'd be back to ice." he said, glancing at her. The red had settled down, leaving only onyx eyes.

"How about we try to guess what each other is thinking?" she randomly threw out another, knowing it was probably going to be sent back with a big, fat 'NO' on it.

"No, I am not thinking about you."

"Ugh, darn. How about we count the number of planks on each wall?"

"North wall, eleven. South wall, eleven. East wall, twelve. West wall, eleven and a half. In total, forty-five and a half." he said in a monotone.

"And a half?" he nodded. "Fine then.. Um, we could throw kunai at the knot in the wood over there."

The look Sasuke gave her made her feel slightly insulted. "No challenge." Her eye twitched. "I assume I am not that much entertainment." Sakura gave him a look.

"You assume correctly." she said flatly. "Who knew that a guy who seems so interesting would actually be so boring?" She detected a slight challenge in his previous statement, which was why she baited him into a verbal battle. Normally, she'd try to sooth his wounded ego, but she was just too damn cold, too damn bored, and too damn interested what he'd say in retaliation to care much about wounded egos.

"I am very entertaining." Sasuke said with a mocking air. "You're the one who boring. Besides, any one of my.. _fan girls _would kill to be in the same situation as me." Sakura had to stifle a laugh. He was almost pouting.

"So.. then you'd prefer to be glomped on than yawned at?" When he seemed like he was thinking it over, she cracked up. Sasuke finally smiled.

"You really are spending too much time around Naruto." they said at the same time. This time, Sasuke jumped for it.

"Jinx." he said. Sakura pouted. "I nullify the part where I owe you a soda."

"Damn. You suck."

Sasuke stretched and stood, holding out a hand for her. She accepted it, pulling herself up. He walked over to the doorway, the constant glaring reminder that they were trapped in a dome of ice. Earlier observations told them that the ice was about four feet thick and had a nasty habit of reforming itself whenever it was damaged.

"We need to get out of here." Sasuke said, sobering up. "Dobe's out there somewhere, getting himself killed. Not to mention Tazuna and Kakashi." His stony face, softened a little by worry, was reflected back at him in the ice.

Sakura joined him, looking over his shoulder. She bit her lip, the beginnings of a plan forming in her mind. "Um." she tugged on his sleeve. He turned to her. "I think I got something. Hear me out, okay?"

She started pacing in the middle of the room. "So there's an opposite to everything, right? Yin and yang. Guy and girl. So forth. Ice's natural enemy is fire, isn't it? But when ice is melted, it becomes fire's natural enemy, water."

"Yeah. So even if I used a fire jutsu against the damn ice, it would be extinguished before it could reach the other side. And because there's more chakra in this ice than in normal ice, even ice created in ice jutsus(damn that guy and his blood limit), it would just reform in ten seconds." Sakura nodded, snapping her fingers.

"So there in lies the problem. Because of the water, the time, the chakra factor, we can't get out of here with a basic, chuunin level fire jutsu. It doesn't have enough chakra in it to hold its form." The way she looked excited made Sasuke feel like he should know the solution to their dilemma. Then it dawned on him. Ice was weak to fire and a chuunin level technique wouldn't work so.. they'd need a higher level technique.

"Katon Karyuu Endan." The very first jutsu he learned as a genin, not from any teacher, but from his own team mate. He immediately started to shake his head. "But I can't. I have progressed, but I have not mastered it. I can't even control the damn thing. I can't use it like... Naruto can." Damn that was hard to get out.

"But that's because you're going about it the wrong way." Sakura said earnestly. "I watched you guys, and I think I know why Naruto can do it and you cannot." Sasuke didn't say anything. She hit his forehead protector lightly with her knuckles, the metal making a soft chinking sound. "What was Iruka-sensei always yelling at Naruto for?"

"Either to stop pulling pranks or to stop picking fights." Sasuke said. He should know, the idiot picked fights with him more often than any other boy in their class, Kiba being a close second. But Sakura shook her head.

"Yeah, but he also told Naruto to stop wasting his chakra. In every jutsu he attempted, he always put forth too much chakra and wasted it. Even Kakashi it said once or twice. The reason why he can do the jutsu and you can't is simple: You are not putting forth enough chakra. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and Katon Karyuu Endan only have two similarities. One, they're both jonin techniques and two, the more chakra you feed into the jutsu, the better result you're going to get." Sasuke started to get it.

"More chakra, more kage bunshins." he said.

"More chakra, better fire dragon." she corrected with a cheerful grin. Sasuke pivoted sharply, looking towards the doorway.

"Lets do this." he said, hands forming seals. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the heat building up in his chest.

"Remember, we only have a ten second leeway. Let it all go, let the chakra seep into the jutsu." Sakura said encouragingly.

Sasuke's eyes flashed open, for a second, red eyes staring at his cold enemy. "Katon Karyuu Endan!"

Immediately heating up the small space, the dragon issued from Sasuke's mouth, a giant of a creature far surpassing any other dragon he had created. With a triumphant roar, the creature slammed head first into the doorway, burning the wood and melting the ice. With a resiliency that was do entirely to the excess chakra running through its serpentine like body, it pushed through the water and the ice, punching a hole right through it, leaving a wide gap for its creator to go through. It met its end when it hit a tree, failing to ignite it because of the wall of ice it had went through weakened it to a sixteenth of its size.

The gap started to close. Cursing, Sasuke grabbed Sakura by the back of her dress, ignoring her yelp of surprise, and tossed her through the hole, jumping through right after. The walls had nearly closed in on him, but it was ironically the water, a blessing in disguise, that quickened his impromptu slide and got him out before he became a Sasukesicle.

He put his arms in front of his face to take the impact, rolling with the movement until he landed in a crouch. The ice closed behind him. A few feet away, Sakura rolled over, giving the best glare she could manage through her chattering teeth. He winced, realizing the water that had spurred him forward and now drenched his shirt had hardened into ice.

He really hated that kid. What kind of blood line was the masked mist nin a part of that had ice powers this powerful and resilient?

"Y-you deserve it." Sakura said, trying to hold her dress out in front of her to avoid contact with her skin. "You b-big meanie."

Grimacing, Sasuke slid off his stiff shirt. "An unseen complication, but over all, not very serious." Sakura turned a bright red at the sight of his bared, pale skin.

"Not v-very serious! I'm a girl, I can't just take off my shirt!" she yelled, but slid off her dress, revealing shorts and a tank top. Her shirt and shorts were in just as bad of shape as her dress.

Sasuke slammed his shirt against the rock, shattering the ice into small crystals that scattered on the ground, more likely to melt because of decreased surface area and the decrease of chakra running through each shard. "There's a bush." he said nonchalantly. Sakura opened and closed her mouth a few times before she figured out the best revenge for this transgression.

"When we get home, I'm so going to sic Ino on you!" she sputtered, walking behind the clump of bushes and trees. A moment later, a sound like breaking glass reached Sasuke's ears. He slipped his shirt back on.

The Uchiha, even with his hands busy and his mind full of plans to aid the rest of their team, couldn't stop smiling.

* * *

Kakashi leapt out of the way of the sudden showering of ice needles from above. A soft whistle of something going through air at a high speed was the only thing that warned him of Zabuza's incoming blade. He rolled to the side, the sword scraping the ground in its descent instead of cleaving him in half.

He hated being double teamed. The sharingan was set up mostly for one on one battles. It wasn't helping him too much in this particular battle.

Tazuna, half hidden behind one of the large metal crates that he had yet to take off his bridge, bit his nails nervously. He could see three lower level ninjas fighting a higher level ninja and living to talk about it, like Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto did, but he just couldn't see their teacher winning against two ninjas of the same level as he.  
_  
If only I could do something!_ he thought, both scared of what would happen if Kakashi failed and died trying, and guilty that he was the one to drag Team Seven into this mess.

"Tazuna-san." Kakashi said, his back to the old man. "Leave now. I cannot promise your protection."

"He won't be leaving." Zabuza said, scraping the tip of his sword against the ground and pretending not the notice the high pitched screech it made. "He's our mission." Haku stayed silent.

Kakashi slid his foot back, a kunai held horizontally out in front of him. "You can finish your mission.. over my dead body."

"Why, I think I'll take that invitation.." Zabuza said with a chilling laugh.

"Tazuna, go!" Kakashi shouted, defending himself against Zabuza's sudden attack. The mist nin swung his blade horizontally. Kakashi jumped, landing on the thick metal. He dashed forward, kicking Zabuza in the face. The other man slid back several paces, a hand coming up to cover his bloody nose. Haku wasn't in sight.

A gust of wind ruffled the jonin's hair, immediately making him turn to look at Tazuna's quickly retreating back. An ice mirror opened up several meters above the running man. Haku slipped out of it, a mere blinding shadow darting down on his prey like an over grown hawk.  
_  
No!_ Kakashi thought, his heart pounding. He started to run toward them, even though he knew he'd never make it in time. What little chance that he could, however, was depleted when Zabuza leapt in front of him, attacking him swiftly with basic taijutsu.

Tazuna happened to look up, seeing Haku bearing down on him. His jaw dropped, his eyes reverting to the size of dinner plates. _This is the end!_ he thought, cringing.

Just then, a dark streak zipped over him, impacting heavily with the masked boy. Naruto, dwarfed by Haku's size, had tackled the other boy, digging his shoulder into the other boy's stomach, before Haku could complete his mission.

Haku broke Naruto's hold on him, landing a few feet away. Naruto landed in front of Tazuna, a grin on his face.

"Told you, bastard! I got out, and now you're going to get your ass kicked!" he cracked his knuckles. "Don't ya know, super heroes always show up at the last minute!"  
_  
Naruto._ A weight lifted from Kakashi's shoulders with his sigh of relief. "Oi, Naruto!" Naruto broke his staring contest with Haku to look over at him. Kakashi smiled warmly, although the gesture was wasted behind his mask. "You take care of him." Blue eyes widened at the trust the jonin had for the genin.

Naruto grinned even more, giving the jonin a thumbs up. "Right! Got you covered, pervert-sensei!"

* * *

Tsunami rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. The man she had run into was certainly no samurai, yet when she was startled by his sudden appearance, she smacked him across the face hard.

He rubbed his red cheek, looking sheepish himself. "I forgot. People in this country aren't used to randomly appearing ninjas." A grin meant to comfort only served to nearly blind her with its whiteness.

"Ninjas? You're a ninja too?" she asked. She started to look for his headband, for she was informed from Sakura that anyone who had a leaf etching on his of her plates were probably allies, while any other symbol could possibly mean that they were Gatou's hired hands. She sighed in relief when she saw his belt was similar to Team Seven's forehead protectors. "Konoha."

The man beamed. "Yes! That is where I am from! Knowing our symbol, you must surely have met my rival, Kakashi!" Tsunami nodded, blinking in surprise when the strange looking man started to shake her hand. "Yes! My name is Maito Gai, Kakashi must talk so much about me! We are here to back up his team. The stirrings of youth are strong on that team, but sadly, they are merely passionate rookies." This he said all in one breath.

"Uh.." was the only intelligent sound that came from her. Gai merely grinned.

"Ah, I see you know of my name! I am very popular in the ninja world." he said with a forcefully modest look, his hand on his chin. "They call me the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha!"  
_  
I see green.. and I see beast_. Tsunami thought, swirly eyed. Then she sobered, remembering the would be fate of her son. _If he knows Kakashi-san, he must be strong!  
_  
"Please! I need your help! I am the daughter to the bridge builder, the man that Gatou has been targeting. He sent some samurai after us, and I cannot find my son! Can you please help me?" she begged.

"Yes!" Gai said, taking her hands in his. "With the power of youth behind me, I'll shall help you find your family!" Without explanation, he swept her off of her feet and started to run. "I shall follow every young chakra I can sense in the forest until we find the one that is your son! Or my name is not Maito Gai!"

* * *

"They're not in here." Neji said flatly, deactivating his byakugan. A strange dome of pure ice had caught their attention, many different colored lights reflecting off of the surface of the ice. It appeared to be a prison. But no one was in it. Crouching on the ground, Tenten called her team over.

"Look, foot prints! Two different pairs, Sasuke and Sakura's most likely. The unique print of Konoha sandals, you see?" she pointed out the almost unnoticeable swirl near the heel and the toes of the foot print.

"And shards of ice." Lee said, a few feet away from her. He frowned, looking both happy that Sakura got free and unhappy that she was once again out of his reach, where he could not protect her. _Oh, my lovely Squee.. I mean, Sakura-san.  
_  
"They must have figured a way out." Neji concluded. "And like their foolish team mate, decided to go 'help' out." Where the Hyuuga sounded uncaring of their fates, both Tenten and Lee frowned.

"I hope they'll be okay." she muttered to Lee. Lee sighed, nodding in agreement.

"And now we are to go to the village and stay there." Neji said in a sharp tone, overhearing them. "Just like Gai told us." Normally, Lee would have been tooting his horn about how they were supposed to be obedient and listen to their teacher and blah blah blah, but the normally loud boy was quiet, his thoughts full of ways he could get away from his team to help out his love.

Neji sensed rebellious thoughts churning in his team mates' heads. He had to crack down on those thoughts, for they would only lead to injury or death for supposing a noble role. It was really for their own good.

* * *

A thousand curses sprang up to his throat, yet he beat them down with a control that would have surprised any who knew him. Instead of being at an advantage, with all of Naruto's knowledge of what was to come, he found himself being knocked back even easier than the last time he faced Haku.  
_  
Dammit, I'm an Anbu! No, I'm a genin... Gah! I just can't tell anymore! _The truth was, Naruto was pushing himself far too hard, expecting results he had gotten from a twenty-two year old boy when he had the body of a twelve year old. It was really only because of the Kyuubi that he mananged to avoid being trapped to a bed while healing. While his body was rapidly adapting to the stress that Naruto was placing on it, it still wasn't half as powerful as his previous one.

Kakashi was fighting Zabuza, but not all that seriously, as Naruto had yet to see the chidori appear. Still, the sharingan was a major threat, but it wasn't an assassination technique. Hiding behind several crates, Tazuna peered at them, too stubborn to run away, yet too cowardly to move closer. Biting his lip, Naruto realized he needed to do things fast, or else someone was going to die today. He still didn't have a plan to try and save Haku from certain death, besides putting him in a coma or severely ending his ninja career. But even that didn't work the last time. If Haku thought he was useless, he'd allow himself to die.

Attempting a capture maneuver that he barely remembered from the Academy, Naruto was stabbed in the shoulder before he could do anything. The only good thing that came from his attempt was that Naruto's scent of blood now marked the mist nin, which might eventually help Naruto out later on, but not even he knew if it would. He was more of a 'fight now, strategize later' person.

Haku hadn't even constructed the mirrors yet, and Naruto was still getting slapped around. A major blow to his ego, as Sasuke had been strong enough to force the mist nin to show one of his ultimate skills.

But then again, Haku would already be lying in a bloody heap if he used a mere fraction of his tenant's power.. Naruto snapped some of his chakra at Kyuubi for planting the thought. The fox shrugged innocently.  
**  
What, you _like_ to be knocked around? **

Haku frowned. The changes were slight, but it was obvious that with each passing minute, Naruto was getting faster and faster, his reflexes saving him from more blows, and his strength increasing some. Of course, neither ninja knew that Kyuubi had been feeding small amounts of youki to Naruto's limbs, so small of an amount that they didn't notice.

Despite being annoying, of short stature, and extremely loud, he rather liked his cage. But then again, he had to like it to live. It wasn't like he could just transfer back into his own body, scattered to pieces and sent to the corners of the earth. He laughed to himself darkly. Oh yes, they tried to burn it, those silly bugs, only to find that his body actually started healing itself in the fiery inferno. He chuckled some more.  
_  
Uh.._ Naruto thought to Kyuubi, a little unnerved by the random sadistic laughter. He pulled himself up to his feet.  
**  
Oh, right. Sorry. Go back to getting your ass kicked.**

Several senbon were thrown his way. He managed to block several of them with his kunai, but one lodged in his side. Cursing, he yanked it out at threw it back at Haku. He had never been the type to use senbon, but he was proud to say that it flew towards its target in a straight line.

Haku caught it between his fingers. "Thank you."

Growling, Naruto put his kunai between his teeth to free his hands, automatically forming familiar hand seals. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Seven Narutos charged, taking their own kunai out of their mouths and attacking the mist nin. Haku jumped, parrying each attack with his own weapon. He grabbed one clone by the front of his vest and threw it at two others. They exploded into smoke. The other four Narutos jumped back.

Something landed at Haku's feet. He looked down, a kunai with a burning tag attached to it catching his attention. He jumped back just in time to get out of the way of the explosion. But before he regain his balance on the ground, Naruto was attacking him again, three of them attaching on to him firmly like leeches.

One clone slid in front of him, keeping his body low to the ground. When Haku was two busy trying to knock the other three off of him, the clone pushed all of his weight onto one hand, launching his foot into Haku's jaw. The mist nin flew back, the kage bunshins that were on him suddenly disappearing. He landed unsteadily. The bottom of his mask cracked and broke off, paling in comparison to the aching pain in his jaw. He reached up to touch it. And.. was that a burn?

Naruto stared at his foot, seeing the faint red glow around it. "Shit.." he said out loud. "Meddling fur ball..."

Haku frowned, a now visible sight. _It seems like Naruto has a power that he is not in full control of. A power that far surpassing my own. I must finish this quickly.  
_  
Similar thoughts ran through Naruto's mind. "Haku." he said, looking serious. "You and that guy will die if you continue this. Please, just back down. No one will think any less of you."

"Zabuza's orders are of a higher priority than my life, as are his well being and happiness." Haku said firmly. "Anything other than that means nothing to me."

Naruto's temper flared. "Didn't you hear me! You both will die! What would you rather do, watch Zabuza get killed without moving a finger, or prevent his death! What means more, his damn orders, or his life!" Haku drew back slightly, not saying a word. He closed his eyes, deep in thought.

"Naruto!" Naruto tore his angry eyes away from Haku, looking over at the two genins running toward him. Kakashi glanced at the two himself, before having his attention snagged back by Zabuza, who didn't like to be ignored. He jumped out of the way of the missing nin's wild swing, then darted forward, snapping his hand at the hand holding the hilt of the massive sword. Reflexively spasming in pain, Zabuza's fingers let go of the sword. Taking no chances, Kakashi kicked the sword over the side of the bridge.  
_  
One hurdle down, how many more to go?_ he thought. Zabuza's hands lifted and started creating seals. _Ah, crap.  
_  
"Sakura-chan.. Sasuke." Naruto mumbled. They looked like hell. Sasuke had multiple puncture wounds and a nasty gash along his left check, as well as bandaged hands. Sakura had a makeshift bandage around her thigh that wasn't doing much to stop the rapid bleeding.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Haku flinch at the sight of Sakura's blood. _Huh? _he thought, knowing that the mist nin had no problem making him and Sasuke into human porcupines the last time around. _Why the sudden hate of blood?  
_**  
She is not a fighter. You and that sharingan brat are. He'd fight and kill you, and it wouldn't put any burden on his conscience. But attacking someone who rarely fights would. Not to mention she's female.  
**_  
What's gender got to do with anything?_  
**  
With the devil as your shadow, do you think you'd see very many females in your life? Very rarely, and none like her. Keh, the damn brat's embarrassed when she's in sight. I can smell it. **Wrinkling his nose at the thought that Haku was shy around females, Naruto dismissed Kyuubi.

"Stay near Tazuna!" he shouted at his team mates. "I got psycho brat covered!"

"Like hell, dobe!" Sasuke yelled back. "You screw everything up! If there was a way to burn water, you could find it! I can't trust you to keep yourself alive!"

Naruto's temper flared. What did Sasuke know? The damn fool didn't know half of the shit Naruto had been through his entire life! "And why the hell not!"

"Because you care too much about everyone else!" The Uchiha shouted, his hands forming seals. "Katon Karyuu Endan!" A dragon of pure fire issued out of his mouth, zooming straight for Haku. The mist nin jumped, unnerved when the dragon followed his every move.  
_  
So he knew the same jutsu! That's how he got out! _He twisted out of the way of the dragon's jaws, setting up ice mirrors every where to both improve his speed and also to slow down the dragon.  
_  
Care..?_ Naruto echoed.  
**  
Oh, please. No need to be modest. You must have already known that.. What, you need examples? The time traveling, which could have killed you if not for me. Going after that fool who was high off of power, who could have killed you if not for me, again. Jumping in front of him to protect him from his own blade, me again. That whole business with the fighting sannins, the time you stopped that snake summon from crushing your friend, going after Gaara when he was kidnapped by Akatsuki...  
**_  
Alright! I get the picture!_ Naruto thought to him sullenly.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cheered. Naruto looked over. "You did it!" The Uchiha didn't seem to hear her, his eyes suddenly glassy, his body swaying slightly. Naruto's eyes widened, recognizing the symptoms. _Aw, crap. He used it more than once. Only I can do that without doing too much damage to myself.  
_  
Naruto walked over, his eyes once drifting over to the busy mist nin before returning to his friend. "Sakura-chan, get him out of here, he's about to drop. That technique eats up a lot of chakra, especially if you do it right." Almost as if to prove Naruto's point, Sasuke's knees weakened underneath him. With an audible thud, he hit the ground. Immediately, he felt slim arms curl around his shoulder and his waist, hoisting up his suddenly weakened body.

"L'ggo." he said drowsily. "Nothin.. the matter.. with me."

"Chakra depletion." Sakura said to herself grimly. She walked toward one of the crates, dragging a weakly protesting Sasuke along with her. Sensing her need for assistance, Tazuna stepped out from behind his crate, taking Sasuke's other arm and helped Sakura carry the nearly unconscious boy behind one of the crates.

Haku's ice once again proved to be stronger than any fire jutsu. The mist nin straightened, his chakra burning an intense blue around his body.  
_  
Damn, I barely put a dent in him at all! _Naruto thought, facing him. He took a few steps back for good measure, finding himself back to back with his teacher.

Naruto could feel Kakashi's deep sigh. "Wanna trade for a moment?" Blinking, Naruto made a noise of agreement. Kakashi knelt, hooked arms with the much shorter blond, and in a fluid movement, flipped the genin over him.

"You know, we could have just switched places the normal way." Naruto said, rubbing his slightly sore spine. He glared at the jonin.

"Where's the fun in that? Keep tall, dark, and ugly busy." Kakashi reached inside his vest for a summon scroll. Naruto locked eyes with Zabuza who grinned wickedly at him through his parted bandages. He found it hard to swallow.

"Gotcha." Naruto squeaked.

* * *

"Are you Inari, son of Tsunami, the lovely lady right here, the grandson of Tazuna-- What?" Gai broke off his speech when Tsunami whispered something in his ear. "Oh... OH! Uh, sorry little girl." Traumatized by the huge lepercon that thought she was a boy, the little girl wandered off in search of her friends.

"One more chakra left! I'm sure this one's your son!" Gai said to the woman.

"Yes, and I thank you for helping me look for him, but do you think it's really necessary for you to carry me--"

"And off we go!" Once again, they were moving at blinding speeds that made Tsunami's head spin. She couldn't tell if he was being deliberately evasive, or if his mind was too occupied to hear her. It turned out to be the latter of the two.

_Hahahahahaha! I shall gain one more point against you, Rival Kakashi!_ Gai thought, his eyes burning in passionate flames. _I don't recall you helping ever saving a family from breaking apart! Young Inari, we are coming for you!_

He slid to a stop under a tree, nearly burning a trail under his feet. Tsunami nearly sighed with relief when she felt the jonin put her down.

"There appears to be.." Gai squinted up at the top of the tree, drawing the woman's own attention to it. The sudden recognition of the old tree house made tears spring in her eyes. She could see her husband grinning down at her from the roof, all sweaty and tired, but happy because he put a smile on Inari's face.

Gai pushed back his sleeves importantly. "I'll go up. You stay here." he climbed up the planks nailed into the tree as a makeshift ladder. He pushed up the flap and poked his head in. "Hello?"

Tsunami flinched when there was a metallic thud. The jonin fell out of the tree, going splat on the ground. She leaned over, looking at the huge bump on the ninja's head. His eyes were swirling, but his injury didn't seem that serious.

"Green.. fishies... ate... my Lee." he mumbled incoherently. Tsunami sweat dropped.

"Are you alright?" she asked, kneeling by his side. Gai only laughed oddly before mumbling about perverts, monkeys, and rivalries. At the sound of her voice, whatever attacked the jonin poked his head out of one of the windows, a bent out of shape pan in one hand.

"Mom?" he whispered. The woman's head snapped up, her eyes glowing in relief. She jumped to her feet.

"Inari!" At her answering call, her son's head disappeared, and then his body appeared, climbing down the ladder so fast that his feet slipped and he fell the rest of the way. Tsunami caught her son and collapsed to the ground with him in her lap, crying in relief.

"Oh, sweetie.." she whispered, hugging the boy to her. He hugged back just as fiercely.

"Oh Mom, I'm sorry. I was a jerk and I can never repay you guys. That guy was right, I'll never not appreciate you again." he rambled, quieted only when he buried his head into her shoulder. Tsunami rocked him, although he was eight and too old to be rocked. Eventually, he stopped crying, but his eyes still remained bright.

"The fact that you're safe," she murmured, kissing his forehead, "that's payment enough." Inari sniffled, rubbing at his eyes while he pulled back. His eyes drifted over to the guy he hit with his now deformed frying pan.

"Who?" he asked simply, a hand running through his wild black hair.

"A Konoha jonin." she said, looking back at him. "An ally. Who's now delirious."

("Barney is jealous of my mad ninja skills." Gai muttered, only to be tuned out.)

"Oh, oops." Inari said sheepishly. Tsunami laughed like she never laughed before. She ruffled his hair.

"I love you, kiddo." Inari grinned at her, a mischievous look on his face that Tsunami had missed for such a long time, ever since her husband died, taking all of Inari's warm personality with him.

"You'll do, Mom."

* * *

Neji crossed his arms across his chest, leaning against the wall of what was Tazuna's home. The other two watched him warily, knowing that even with his eyes closed, the Hyuuga prodigy could still see them. Lee pushed himself off of the ground.

"Where you going?" Neji asked sharply.

"To the bathroom. Wanna watch?" Lee said in a low tone that was almost too sarcastic to be his own. Neji's eyebrow lifted. Tenten's eyes softened in pity. _Poor Lee. He's probably so worried about that girl.  
_  
Neji tossed his head, choosing not to answer. Lee left, his shoulders stiff with a grim look on his face. He took off for the woods. After a moment, Tenten stood.

"And you?" he said, his eyes half open. She stiffened and hid her nervousness with a sharp glare.

"I'm stretching my legs." she stretched to prove her point. "Can't you tell? I'm going to the market. You want anything?" The Hyuuga shook his head, preferring to stay in the same spot. She took off to the market.

With a faint smile, she stopped when she was exactly fifty-one meters away from Neji, thus out of his seeing range. Keeping a fifty-one meter distance from Neji at all times, she doubled back, taking the same route that Lee did. Tenten couldn't help but feel giddy and guilty at the same time. She rarely did anything that Neji disagreed with, but desperate times call for desperate measures. She wasn't about to let any of her own people die without doing something to help them out.

Before she could talk herself into going back, she saw Lee who was patiently waiting for her. He nodded to her and started walking. She ran after him.

"How did you-" Tenten stuttered, shocked by his appearance. Lee smiled.

"You're my friend. I saw the same desire to help out in your eyes that I feel right now." he said easily. Tenten made it to his side, a small smile on her face.

"If you know me so well, does Neji?" she asked. "Is he going to figure out that we.. well.. ditched him?" He shrugged.

"He expects certain things out of people instead of accepting what they do or want. He's pretty demanding.. but he'll figure it out. Come on, lets go." They jumped up, taking to the trees. It would only take them fifteen minutes to reach the bridge at their even pace.

Seven minutes later, Neji felt his eye twitch in annoyance. _Dammit. They left._ He turned to the bridge and took off after them at double speed._ They're tempting fate to pass them a bad hand.  
_  
In eight minutes time, Tenten and Lee would reach the bridge and Neji would be there two minutes after. What will Team Gai see? A lot of things can happen in eight minutes.

* * *

These chapters practically write themselves. I can't believe we're almost up to thirty, and we still haven't reached the Chuunin Exam. Oh well, once the Chuunin Exam comes and goes, the end of the story will be right around the corner, so I guess I'm subconsciously trying to prolong it as much as possible.  
Now, whether or not Haku and Zabuza are going to die will be resolved in the next couple of chapters. 


	29. The Difference that Time Made

Because of finals and other little torture devices that Life has so creatively come up with, last week there was no chapter. Boo hoo. I was away from any internet source, thus could not give y'all the next edition of For the Love of my Friends, and could only keep on writing.. and writing.  
I'm having a little trouble connecting the end of this arc with the beginning of the next one, so I'm going to give you the next couple of chapters in pieces. They might be a little small, but I'm updating more than once this week, so rejoice instead of weeping. Here's the first installment...

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Difference that Time Made

by Foxie(who else?)

* * *

He could be optimistic, after all, his opponent's main weapon was at the bottom the body of water that they were fighting over. Not to mention that half of the dogs that had suddenly burst out of the ground at Kakashi's summon latched on to Zabuza, wounding him enough to slow him down, but not enough to hold him in place. It was also seven against one, thanks to his kage bunshin skill. But..

How could he be optimistic when his opponent looked at him with the gaze of unholy glee at the thought of ripping into him? In some ways, the man in front of him.. no.._ the devil_, was much scarier than Kyuubi could ever be. Somewhere in Naruto's mind, he had always known that the demon needed him to live what short(compared to the eons he thought he was entitled to) life he had left. But there was nothing Naruto had that Zabuza wanted. Zabuza was a mystery, thus a threat. The only thing that Naruto knew about the mist nin was his greatest weakness, Haku.

But, ironically, the man's only weakness was also his strongest tool.

"Hm.." Zabuza said, breaking the silence. He lifted one of his bloody arms with the other. He let go of it, watching absently as it flopped down to his side. The summon dogs had disappeared, but the damage they had caused on Zabuza was extreme. One of the more massive dogs tore away some of the muscles in the mist nin's arm, making it hard for him to move it.

Glancing over his shoulder, Naruto saw that Haku wasn't in any better shape. Both of his legs were bleeding and he moved with a slight limp. It didn't stop him from teleporting from ice mirror to ice mirror, something that annoyed the hell out of Kakashi.

"Hey kid." Naruto turned back to the older man, his eyes guarded but worried. The mist nin grinned at him, nothing pleasant about the smile or what it promised. "I'm bored. Provide me with some entertainment."

Anger temporarily shoving fear into the back seat, Naruto charged Zabuza, intent on doing just that. He slid to a stop in front of the older man(somewhere in the back of his mind, he recognized it as an extremely stupid thing to do, pulling a direct attack), shifted his weight forward and hurled himself at the other ninja.

Every hit thrown, either punch or kicked was dodged or blocked with a lazy hand. Zabuza's eyes glowed humorously at Naruto's anger at not being able to hit the other ninja. Naruto's fist lashed out, only to be caught in a firm grip.

"Hmph. You're boring." Zabuza muttered, looking a bit distracted. His eyes were over Naruto's shoulder, watching Haku and Kakashi fight. Something flickered in his eyes, then disappeared under the veil of an evil smirk. Zabuza let go of Naruto's fist, letting it fall to the blond's side. Naruto started to move back. Zabuza's one good arm raised in front of him, tightened into a fist, then slammed into Naruto's stomach, a blow that the blond was only half ready for.

The blond slid back, barely keeping his balance as he put a hand over his now cracked ribs. He hissed in pain, feeling the ribs digging into his lungs, but youki suddenly surging in him both numbed the intense pain and mended the bone. _Damn.. he must have added chakra to that..  
_

"Ugh... you're such a bastard." Naruto murmured, straightening when he felt the youki recede. "Kind of hard to be entertaining when the person in front of you is watching someone else." With a weak laugh, he found himself completely drained of emotion. A side effect of the youki, causing his brain to work faster, or just general weariness of the life he had willingly set before him?

What did it matter really? Who would care if he lived or died, if he completed his new life goal, to save his beloved friends and village from immediate destruction? No one would know the difference. He'd still be the host of the demon to the villagers, still the annoying dead last to his peers, still just a random face in the crowd while people like Sasuke and Neji got all of the lime light, even though he was way stronger than them.

Zabuza created several simple bunshin clones to confuse Naruto while he slipped from shadow to shadow to stealthily attack Naruto and his shadow clones. Naruto's eyes shifted around, warily taking in the clouds that his clones exploded into when they were attacked. The last two crowded around him in an attempt to tighten their defenses. A hard blow to his back both revealed the presence of the real mist nin and also knocked him away from his clones.

He skidded across the ground on his stomach before he pushed off of the ground with his hand to get up. His clones had jumped away from Zabuza, but kept the mist nin in clear sights. Naruto stood, a frown on his face. He idly wiped the blood that had slipped out of his mouth.

_  
They_ would never know that Naruto was not only the bane of their village, but also their hero. The one person who sacrificed so much to keep them safe, something that put him on the same level as the previous Hokages, if not in people's eyes, then in his own heart.

_  
What were you thinking, old man?_ he silently questioned the Fourth. _Why me? What made you look at me and think, 'There's the guy I want to ruin his life before he turns two'?  
_

Memories of his previous life ran through his head, calming him down with their soft and familiar voices.

_  
I will not back down.. for it is my ninja way._ Hinata's softly spoken words ran through his head.

_  
Protect Sakura. _Sasuke murmured, his voice thick with the pain of the curse seal._ I can't bear to see another person who's important to me get hurt!  
_

_  
I do not allow my comrades die. _Kakashi said with a hidden smile, his exposed sharingan curving with it.

_  
You are strange. _Gaara said a little gruffly. _But it is because of you that I have changed into a better person, someone who means more to this world than a killing machine. Don't die, or I'll kill you.  
_

_  
Mah, you're so tiresome. _Shikamaru grumbled half heartedly. _If you weren't a fellow shinobi and my friend, I would totally ignore your troublesome ass.  
_

_  
If you die,_ Sakura's voice assaulted his mind sternly,_ the spirit of the Rebellion dies with you. Get your lazy ass up and defend your friends.  
_

_  
Do you have a precious person?_ Haku asked quietly, under the guise of a pretty girl. Naruto smiled a little, a little more life returning to him. His gentle smile, hidden from Zabuza, turned into a smirk as his hard headedness returned with a vengeance. _Yeah.. I do, actually. A lot of them.  
_

"Hmm." he mumbled, meeting eyes with Zabuza. The mist nin gave him a bored half glare, apparently liking Kakashi as a better fighting partner. He met Naruto straight on, his first couple of swings missing. The blond blocked the next lazy swipe by catching the older man's arm before he could hit him.

"Normally, I don't fight handicapped people." Naruto said cheekily, referring to the problem Zabuza seemed to be having with the use of only one arm. Finding that the blond, who lost that shaky look of fear in his eyes, had a grip of steel, Zabuza glared at the petit ninja. Naruto decided to throw what had been the most important question in his life back at that nin, the one question that had made him realize the value of his friends, what little he had, the simple question that had made him into the person he was.

"Do you have a precious person?" the blond asked, arching an eyebrow. Zabuza finally yanked his arm out of the boy's grasp, moving a few feet away cautiously. He had learned before that it was dangerous to be too close to that strange leaf genin. "A person you would kill for, kill yourself even?"

The mist nin's eyes narrowed. "No." he said sharply. "A true ninja doesn't have a heart."

"Again, we differ on ideas of 'true ninjas'. But.. you know you do." Naruto jerked his thumb behind him at the two battling ninjas.

Unlike the battles that Naruto had been getting into(stop and go traffic, really. No one ever took him too seriously), the fight between Kakashi and Haku was without pauses or breaks between. The two ninjas performed a deadly dance around each other, one that threatened immediate demise if one stumbled on a step. Sparks flew from throwing weapons that clashed and blood dotted the ground, coming from superficial wounds that both ninjas barely managed to inflict on one another.

Zabuza's eyes followed the direction of Naruto's gesture, his eyes widening slightly at the sight of a cut across the back of Haku's shoulders before he covered it up with a laugh. "And like I said before, you know nothing of the ninja world." he said, tearing his eyes away from the other battle. Haku would be fine. He had gotten out of tougher scrapes before, and with his blood line to aid him, he was unstoppable... right? Zabuza scowled when Naruto seemed to understand everything that flashed in his eyes.

"Perhaps, but I know a lot more about you two than you think I do." His nearly forgotten clones formed a semi circle around him. "Here's a scenario. You fight my teacher, I fight your tool, Sasuke at my side. We get our asses whipped, and when I think Sasuke's dead, I go crazy and nearly kill your student." He fought the urge to smile when that flash of anger appeared in Zabuza's eyes. "Anyway, Kakashi-sensei kicks your ass. _Royally_. Pulls out an assassination technique out of _his _ass. Do you think that it is entirely impossible that Haku jumps in the way at the last moment, saving you and dying in the same breath? Do you think that it is entirely impossible that when that bastard Gatou defiles and laughs at Haku's demise, you, beaten and broken and utterly pissed off, kill him, using nothing but a kunai in your mouth?" Zabuza frowned, trying to see that happening in his mind. At first, he thought it was unlikely, but then the pieces began sliding together. He would do such a thing. Haku was the closest thing he had to a son. If the boy died.. an ache in his chest made him frown in irritation.

Naruto's calm facade slipped. His eyes became pleading. "Please, just call this stupid battle off. I don't want Haku to die, and although you're an asshole and aren't much to look at, I don't want you to die either." Zabuza twitched, but thought over his words. He _did _want to fight. He _did_ want to shed blood. But ever since Haku mentioned something about Gatou and not trusting him, he had been feeling a strong urge to get away from the cunning businessman. All joy that Zabuza got out of his job was suddenly sapped away from him. When he had seen Kakashi, he had been hopeful that the skillful jonin could rekindle his thirst for battle. But it was not to be. Kakashi could do nothing for him, but kill him if they stayed on opposite sides. Zabuza was not stupid. He saw the strange attack that Kakashi had pulled out of nowhere when he thought one of his students had died.

Zabuza would rather end the battle and call it a day, than end his life because he was overzealous in his fights. He didn't expect that one of the feared Copy Nin's students would willingly give him a way out. Especially since the boy was nothing to wave off in battle, when he was actually trying, of course.

"You're just saying that to end this battle. You're afraid that I'll kill you." the mist nin taunted, but slowly slid out of a defensive position into a more relaxed pose. He placed his good hand over the wound in his arm. Naruto pocketed his kunai, hardly believing that he was having an easier time talking the older man out of a fight than Haku himself. The genin reached into another one of his pockets and tossed a roll of rarely used bandages at the mist nin. Zabuza caught it, expertly bandaging his arm with only the use of his mouth and one of his hands.

"Believe me, I really don't want to fight you." Naruto said truthfully. "But I have somewhat of a blood line myself. I'm afraid that if I get too angry or too caught up in the battle, it will take over me and turn me into nothing but a blood thirsty beast." Naruto didn't fear Kyuubi, he feared the changes in attitude that accompanied the youki. The changes from logical and rational thought, to pure instinct and a protective need to protect his 'pack'. He himself was still unaware who was included in this pack his less rational mind had decided to protect but knew that it at least included Team Seven and Hinata.

Kyuubi sighed mournfully. Even after all their years together, Naruto still didn't understand that his more primal side could be a good thing. Especially since it gave Kyuubi some time to stretch out his paws.

"Story of my life." Zabuza said with a disappointed sigh. "Haku!" The boy immediately stopped fighting. Kakashi paused in his attack, not the type of person to attack another while their back was to him.

_What's happening?_ Kakashi thought, looking over at where Naruto and Zabuza were supposed to be fighting. The fox host was yawning and the feared mist nin was fussing over the bandages covering his bloody and wounded arm. His eyes widened in comical surprise. _Dammit, what did I miss?_

Zabuza sighed, leaving the ends of the bandages to fall where they chose. He looked back up at his student, who was just as baffled as Kakashi. "I cease to understand why I continue on." the older man said. Haku seemed confused, but walked up to his mentor willingly.

"Story of _my_ life." Naruto echoed. "Hell, half the crap that happens in front of me I fail to understand most of the time." Zabuza smirked at the old sounding tone in the blond's voice. Naruto crossed his arms behind his head, the kage bunshins disappearing when they weren't needed anymore. "That was rather anti-climatic." he said to Haku. The boy couldn't help but smile at the shorter genin walking away.

Kakashi walked up to them, wariness in his eyes, but recognizing a retreat. "Truce for now?" he asked. Zabuza shrugged, not caring anymore. Kakashi had awaken a need to defend himself, but nothing could be done to restore his once immense appetite for blood and battles. There would be no returning to Gatou, that was for sure.

"No going after Tazuna-san?" Kakashi pressed.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." the mist nin waved off casually. He put his hand on Haku's shoulder. The boy smiled. "Let's go."

"NARUTO! GATOU IS HERE!" Sakura shouted, fear as clear as a bell in her loud voice. Naruto dropped his casual stance, immediately turning to look where she was pointing, a movement the other three copied.

Farther down the bridge, right in front of the twenty gap that Tazuna had yet to build, the businessman stood, one hand, untainted from signs and hints that he actually worked for a living, resting on the top of his walking stick. The short man was smirking, his beady eyes hidden behind glasses. Thirty men flanked him, most likely members of one or more of the gangs in Wave Country. Something was sitting next to Gatou, covered by a gray tarp. Naruto's eyes focused on it, smelling a faint metallic twang from it and something that made his nose feel like it was on fire. He covered his with his arm, inhaling his own scent in hopes to get rid of the other one.

_  
What the hell is that? It wasn't here last time. _

* * *

Tsunami frowned, heaving the barely conscious jonin onto an extra futon. The jonin muttered some nonsense but settled into the bed. Maybe it wasn't such a smart idea to return back to the place that their stalkers had been through, but Gai needed medical attention. She placed a cool wash cloth on the jonin's head, preparing to get him some asprin if he woke up. Tsunami couldn't say if the older man had a concussion or not, but by the looks of the mangled frying pan, he'd at least have one hell of a headache. Inari ran back in the room.

"They raided our fridge!" he said, annoyed beyond belief. It was his fridge to raid, dammit!

Tsunami pulled a blanket over Gai. "I suppose I can dig around and find something.." she said distractedly. "There's got to be some ramen stashed somewhere..." Inari gagged, and ran to his room, making sure that none of his stuff was touched.

Tsunami stood, yawning ad she wandered over the kitchen. It had been a very long and exhausting day.

Their house looked pretty trashed, slash marks in the walls, furniture knocked over, and an imprint of somebody's foot on the front door. And, of course, the lack of food on the premises made for very cranky little boys. She walked around, cleaning things up until the kitchen had some sense of order. She grinned when she found that her secret stash of extra strong asprin hadn't been touched.

They only had some rice, and yes, some ramen left over. She smiled at it, strangely happy at the sight of the simple food. Tsunami decided to wait before she made anything. She walked out of the kitchen, looking for her son. _We could probably go out to eat tonight. I've been saving up some money. Or maybe we should get something from the store instead.. _she found him looking out side the back doors, his back to her.

"M-Mom..." she heard her son call, his voice shaking. She walked over to him, put her hand on his shoulder, and looked at what he was looking at. Tsunami took a step back, pulling Inari along with her. Her lips tightened slightly, anger on her face but fear in her eyes.

"What are you doing here!" she called out to the two massive silhouettes, her voice slightly shrill. "This is my home, go away! We aren't accepting visitors!" The mother pushed her son into the house, more worried about his safety than her own.

One of them chuckled. Metal sliding against a sheath, he pulled something out in front of him.

"Samurai!" Inari told his mother hurriedly. "This bad guy.. well maybe he wasn't a bad guy 'cause he let me live.. he told me that a couple of them were after us!" Tsunami already knew.

"We was lookin' for you." the one who already drew a blade commented, his drawl somewhat foreign. "We needs one of you as a hostage."

"You put up a good chase." the other one said, his dialect being known by Tsunami. He was Wave Country born and bred. "But now it must come to a close."

"Inari." Tsunami whispered, her lips barely moving. "Try and awaken Gai-san. If he doesn't answer your first summon, I want you to run, run like the wind and never look back." Inari gripped the back of her dress with his hands.

"No." he hissed. "I am sick of running! I will no longer be a coward!" Sasuke's annoyed dark eyes glared down at him, daring him to say anything less. But his mother would hear nothing of it.

"Leave, Inari. That is an order." she snapped. "I am sick of running as well. I am sick of hiding, of worrying if my family is going to die in the next few minutes, of being afraid of every little noise I hear!" her voice gentled, becoming less harsh. "They need a hostage. I'll be fine. I promise you this." She looked back at him, her eyes pleading. "I'm begging you. Just leave."

He let go of her dress hesitatingly, big scared eyes looking up at his mother. She whispered her plea once more, and he turned around, running for Gai.

He nearly fell upon the jonin's futon, grabbing the older man's shoulders and shaking him. Yelling that he get up. Gai mumbled and turned around, going back to cuddling his pillow.

Outside, Tsunami stiffly walked to them. "You want a hostage?" she said, her voice void of emotion. "You have one." She gritted her teeth when one of them looked her up and down.

"Yeah.. do we_ ever _have a hostage." he said with a lecherous grin.

Back inside, Inari refused to run. He had to get the big lumbering oaf up somehow. Suddenly remembering a scene between two ninjas of Team Seven, he ran back into the kitchen, pouring water into a large cup. The sound of the water moving through the ancient pipes drifted outside.

"We have one hostage, but what about the little guy?" one of them muttered out of the corner of his mouth to his partner. His partner grinned.

"We kill him for sport." he said loud enough for Tsunami to hear. "He's still in the house." She gasped, turning around to go back in. The first caught her around the waist and yanked her back.

"Nope, you're our hostage, remember?" he said with a smirk. "Good hostages stay put."

"Inari!" Tsunami cried, pushing against her captor. "I'll kill myself if you touch him! Then you won't have any hostages!" The samurai closest to her shoved her against the wall roughly, tied her hands together, and stuffed her mouth with a cloth.

"I'd like to see you try."

The boy paused mid step, then hurried the rest of the way to Gai's futon. He dumped the water on the sleeping jonin. The jonin jumped up, fists in the air. Inari sighed in relief, and filled the now normal jonin in on the situation.

The samurai stormed into the household, messing up what little order that Tsunami had created. They dragged her along with them. "Oh, Inari." one of them said. His voice was sickly sweet. "Your mommy wants to talk to you. Where are you?"

There was a moment of silence before they heard a noise. Grinning, they followed it, fully expecting to find a terrified little boy curled up in a corner somewhere. The Wave Country samurai stopped his partner before they went through the doorway.

"I got this." he said confidently. "How much trouble can one little guy be?" Tsunami stomped on his foot, causing the smirk to fade into a grimace. "But you take care of her." He handed her off to the other samurai. She had worked the fabric out of her mouth. She took in a breath to scream, hoping that her muffled cry would be heard. Eyes widening in alarm(not wanting to alert any stray bystander or ninja who cared), the other samurai punched her in the stomach.

Instead of the cry for help, there was a low wheezing gasp for air. Tsunami dropped to her knees, tears falling silently. Why did she feel the need to return home? Gai could have rested just as well in the woods. Why did she have to make so many decisions that ended up hurting the people she loved?

She cringed when the samurai went in the room, knowing he'd find an unconscious Gai, if anything. They'd kill him just because he was there. She expected a scream, a yell, some sort of petrified cry. What she did hear was the samurai muttering.

"What the-" Suddenly, the samurai was chucked through the paper thin walls. His partner kicked Tsunami aside, quickly drawing his weapon. A green blur caught the foreign samurai's attention, along with the terrifying sight of his sword falling to pieces.

"N-ninja?" he whispered, head turning to follow. A blow in the back of his cranium made him fall over on the shattered pieces of his blade. They cut into his skin shallowly, though he was saved from the pain by blissful unconsciousness.

Tsunami pushed herself up, looking over at her savior and her son that lingered a little behind. Her son pushed past the other man, grabbing a piece of the shattered metal and slicing the ropes that bound her hands together. The jonin struck a pose.

"Like the phoenix, the beautiful beast of Konoha rises from the ashes!" Gai called out dramatically, a random view of the sunset behind him. It drooped when he saw the damages. "Oh no.. I'm going to have to clean this up, aren't I?" Her good humor revived at the sight of the samurai fallen, Tsunami handed him and a pouting but happy Inari brooms and dust pans.

"Clean away, boys."

* * *

the next part will be out either later today or tomorrow night. 


	30. The Weapon of the Modern Era: Money

A sequel? Maybe. It depends. But most likely, as only one of Naruto's main enemies will face his end in my story. If I do a sequel, it would most likely have to do with everyone a bit older and defeating the other main enemy of Naruto.(Main enemies: Orochimaru/Sound and Itachi/Akatsuki) Or maybe I can do a prequel, where I tell pretty much how the bad future of Naruto was, all the way up to Shikamaru's death and Naruto using the time travel jutsu... But it really depends on what I'm doing this summer, or whenever I finish the story. But before that, I'd have to completely re-edit my story. I've read it over a few times and even I twitch at the errors I haven't noticed before.  
And 'Star Wars' reference? If I do happen to reference it, it is unintentional. I am _not_ a Star Wars fan. All I know is there's a character named... Chewbacca or something like that, because that's what one of my old neighbors named her dog. : )

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Thirty: The Weapon of the Modern Era: Money

by Foxie

* * *

Sakura peered around the corner of the crate. Tazuna sat on his knees, bouncing in a show of nervousness. Sasuke was sitting against the side of the crate, drifting in and out of consciousness. Getting an idea, Sakura pulled a solider pill out of one of her pouches and gently urged Sasuke to swallow it. A moment after the Uchiha had gotten it down, he immediately jumped up, wide awake.

"What's happening?" he asked, getting a control over the sudden surge of adrenaline and chakra.

"They stopped fighting and Gatou is here." Sakura said, leaning over to look at the crowd that faced the four ninjas. "Gatou has something covered up by his side. I think it's.. a machine of some kind." A slight sound of something landing on the crate above them got their attention.

"What the-" Sasuke murmured, trying to see what had landed on top of the huge metal box. After a moment, Tenten peeked over, silently waving before she turned back to see what Gatou was doing. "Team Gai!"

"What?" Tazuna asked, most confused. Sakura filled him in, telling the older man that they were another team from Konoha that was most likely sent after them for back up. Sasuke scowled, not liking the thought of the arrogant Hyuuga, or that fool that fawned over Sakura, helping them out.

"Heh, you're no devil." Gatou sneered at Zabuza. "You're a baby devil!" The men behind him cackled at his joke.

Kakashi leaned over slightly. "I smell gun powder." The two mist nins nodded grimly._ That's what made my nose hurt_. Naruto thought.

"What do you want?" Zabuza growled at Gatou. As a group, both pairs of teacher and student began edging backward.

"I wish to introduce you to my best warrior yet." He took off the tarp with the walking stick, revealing what was underneath. It jutted outward, a cylinder like metal that was housing several more cylinder shaped metal rods. It sat on a stand, pointed slightly upward.

Back on top of the crate, Lee frowned at the strange metal contraption. "What is that?" he asked his team mate.

"It's a western weapon, one that they use to decide battles because they are in lack of ninjas. It's called a gattling gun, I think." Tenten said, her knowledge of weapons coming in handy.

"Ninjas are not needed anymore." Gatou said arrogantly. "The weapon of the new ages is money! As long as one has money, they are powerful. Let me so you how much my money has improved my strength." He stood behind the gattling gun. He gazed over his choice of targets. The four ninjas in front of him were nearly level with the man he wanted dead, Tazuna. If their reflexes were fast enough, they might be able to dodge. The two ninjas on top of the crate caught his eye. He swiveled the gun to point at them. "Like so!"

Lee and Tenten's eyes widened when they saw the gun aimed at them, even more so when they saw him firing it. Their legs felt like they had been encased in stone, preventing them from moving. As if in slow motion, they watched the bullets coming for them, unable to move and only able to watch in horror as their deaths decended upon them.

A hand clamped firmly on each of their shoulders, yanking them back between the two crates. Lee and Tenten fell, landing nearly on top of Tazuna and Sakura while their savior landed gracefully by the Uchiha.

"You are foolish." They looked up, surprised eyes taking in the stone cold eyes of their other team mate.

"Neji!"

The rattling sound of bullets hitting metal had not faded. Gatou turned the gun on the four ninjas. Kakashi and Naruto jumped for the space that their fellow ninjas were hiding, the latter turning back at the last moment. Zabuza and Haku were wounded from the battle before and couldn't get to shelter fast enough. Haku pushed Zabuza into safety, eyes closing in preparation of the white hot pain of the bullets hitting him.

However, he had prepared for nothing. Someone tackled him from behind, shoving him into the little space near Zabuza.

Something wet and warm trickled into Haku's clothes as he impacted with the floor, whoever that tackled him landing on top of him.

Finally, the rattling stopped. Gatou laughed wickedly, knowing that he had at least gotten one person.

"Come out come out, little ninjas." he nearly purred.

Zabuza reached over and pulled off the weight that had been holding Haku down, with care. Haku pushed himself up, eyes widening when he saw who it was. Surprise wearing off, he moved forward, immediately pressing his hands over bleeding wounds.

"Where's Naruto?" Sasuke demanded of Kakashi. The older man started to gesture next to him before he realized the spot that was supposed to be occupied was empty.

"Sakura-san!" the pink haired girl lifted her head at the sound of her name, not recognizing the voice at first. She turned her head and saw Haku, mask less and trying to gain her attention. He looked desperate and his hands were bloody. "I need your help!"

Neji looked over her shoulder, sneering at the mist nin. "You're the enemy. Why should she help you?" His hand griping the back of her dress prevented her natural instinct to go help Haku.

Haku's eyes clouded over. "Maybe I should rephrase that..." he moved out of their line of vision, revealing who he needed help with.

"Naruto!" Sakura said in horror. The boy was leaned against one of the crates, his legs sticking out in front of him. A wound in his shoulder and in his side bled rapidly. He was only partially conscious, one hand trying to cover the wound in his side. Zabuza crouched next to him, looking a little confused and out of his field. Sakura started to move toward him, only to be yanked back by Neji.

The younger genin almost started to yell at the Hyuuga, only to realize that he wasn't trying to keep her from helping out her team mate. Five holes smoked slightly in the ground where she had been standing a moment ago. He had saved her.

"T-thank you." she managed shakily. Neji made a noise in his throat, then let go of her and walked back. Lee came to her side, as well as, to her great surprise, Sasuke.

"Okay, so the blond guy is bleeding to death and every time we try to send someone over, they'll be riddled with bullets." Tenten said with a forcefully light voice, her trembling fingers giving her away. "What do we do now?" Seeing that all the genins and Kakashi had their backs to her, she looked questioningly over at Tazuna. He waved his hands in defense.

"Don't look at me! I'm just a humble bridge builder."

Kakashi straightened, giving Sakura a serious look with his one visible eye. "Distraction." he said to Tenten, although he was focused on his student. She blinked up at him when he then addressed her. "I don't know why he believes you can help, although I have my suspicions. You have ten seconds." He created nine clones, who darted in every direction but the direction that Sakura needed to go to.

She froze, hearing the awful sound of the gun firing before she realized what he was doing. She ran to the other side of the bridge, clearing the twelve feet before Gatou could fire the gun at her, sliding to a stop by Haku. Sakura immediately dropped to her knees and took off Naruto's vest and shirt.

"This one punched a hole right through. " she said, looking at the shoulder wound. She reached into one of her pouches, pulling out a vial. She poured a small amount into her hand, then put it on the entrance and exit wounds of the shoulder injury. Naruto hissed in pain. "It's not too bad, actually. Just bleeding a lot. This stuff should prevent any infections." Not having any bandages on hand, Sakura tore up bits of her dress to dress the wound.

"Why isn't it healing already?" Zabuza asked gruffly. Sakura's hands paused. _I don't know._ she thought to herself._ Why, Naruto?  
_  
As if he answered her call, the blond's eyes opened slightly. Sakura winced, the last thing she wanted was for him to be awake and in so much pain.

Naruto grinned humorlessly. "Healing is a skill that gets better with use. It's.. all about remembering." he said, answering the mist nin's question. "If I break a bone, my body remembers how it was healed and speeds up the process. If I cut myself, it remembers how it was once healed." His eyes met Sakura's. She had a feeling that there was something else involved with it that he wasn't willing to tell her about.

And she was right. The memory of how the body healed in certain situations not only came from Naruto, but also from Kyuubi. The demon had been attacked by fellow demons and humans in every way possible, making it almost impossible for Naruto to get an injury that he could not heal. His organs had been impaled, he had been beaten around like a club, almost frozen to death, almost crushed to death... the injuries that the demon had sustained even before he decided to be a demon lord would have made the coldest ninja wince in sympathy.  
But, adapting to those injuries and finding a way to heal them faster had been Kyuubi's specialty and part of what made him so formidable. That power had been extended to Naruto, giving him almost invulnerability if he had a moment or so to heal(one hit kills, extremely fast attacks, and mental attacks were something that the demon couldn't help Naruto with, unfortunately. If Naruto had no time to heal, then he'd die.). But..

"I've never been shot before." Naruto said with a half smile. _And neither has Kyuubi._ "Doesn't that suck for me?"

"It isn't all that serious!" Sakura tried to assure him. Naruto smiled gently at her, appreciating her attempt to make him feel better. He removed his hand from the sluggishly bleeding wound in his side.

"I think it missed my kidney." he said, trying to make light of it. "But the bullet's still in there." Sakura had a look on her face that was a mix between total disgust and horror.

Haku moved forward, sensing her unwillingness to dig the bullet out of her friend. "I will help." he said quietly. He met Naruto's eyes. "Do you trust me to help?"

Naruto looked at him for a long hard moment before smiling again. "Yeah sure. Go ahead. Rip me open." Sakura looked faintly green. Haku gave him a look for needlessly grossing his team mate out before putting his hand over the wound, using his blood line to numb it.

"Is he okay?" Kakashi asked, landing back near the other genins. His shoulder was bleeding, most likely having a close encounter with a bullet. The genins struggled helplessly, not being able to see anything over Haku and Sakura.

"You fools are trying my patience." Gatou said, annoyed that he didn't get the gray haired ninja who was randomly jumping around. "Do you submit? I'll allow you to live if you work for me for free."

"Always the bargainer." Kakashi said to him, glancing at him around the corner. "I suppose you have nothing against killing kids."

"You're a ninja." Gatou countered. "You aren't supposed to have emotions while you're on the job."

"Yes, perhaps, but _you're_ not a ninja. The same principles don't apply. Besides.." Stealing one of Naruto's lines, he defended himself and his fellow shinobi. "Before one is a ninja, they are human." At this, Naruto smiled before he winced in pain.

"Where's your honor?" Lee said, angered that one of his friends was hurt. "Attacking people with such a cheap weapon! Come over here and we'll fight like men are supposed to fight: hand to hand!" Tenten and Neji pulled him back before he could jump out from behind their shelter.

Gatou laughed sinisterly. "Honor? Pride? _Morals_? These are things that are not needed in the modern world! All that is needed in the modern world is money!" he turned to his men, who had cowered at his show of dominance. "Go, flush them out of their hiding spots!"

One ventured a question. "But.. the gun! You'll end up killing-" Gatou cut him off.

"Anyone who lives through this will spilt the money that the ones who died were supposed to get!" The bribe was enough to get the men to move. Captiously, they took careful steps toward the ninjas.

"Damn." Kakashi muttered to himself. He directed himself to the ninjas across the twelve foot gap. "You need to hurry!" They looked over, nodding seriously.

Sakura had healed Naruto's wounds with a modified version of a medic jutsu that she had just learned. The bleeding had slowed down a lot even though the wounds had not completely closed. Naruto held a hand out to Haku with a mischievous grin on his face.

"What?" Haku asked, confused by Naruto's show of a delighted smile. He pointed to the bloody bullet that the mist nin had extracted from him, lying by Haku's knee.

"Can I have it as a souvenir?" he asked, hands clasping in front of him and turning the puppy eyes on full effect. Haku ceased to try and understand the strange boy that had helped him, but handed over the bullet. Naruto grinned in happiness, one hand holding the metal slug out in front of him for his viewing pleasure while the other shrugged on his vest. He left the bloody shirt where it was, deeming it unwearable.

Haku took one arm while Sakura took the other, pulling the blond to his shaky feet. Naruto gave the two mist nins concerned looks. "But, your wounds!" Haku looked down at his wounded legs while Zabuza merely scoffed.

"Flesh wounds, brat." he said. "_We_ aren't the ones with holes in our bodies." Naruto flushed.

All of the ninjas jumped out of their hiding spots, dodging henchmen and bullets as they were pushed back. Haku slickened the ground with ice, while Kakashi and Tenten step up simple traps to ward off the hired hands. Sasuke and Lee knocked away any who came to close in between dodging behind crates. Neji went for simple one hit knockouts. Zabuza followed Sasuke and Lee's example in a much more brutal way.

Sakura and Haku didn't get too far before they realized something was wrong.

One of the henchmen managed to get past the other ninjas and thrusted a spear at Naruto, thinking he was the weakest of them all. Sakura gasped, drawing everyone's attention when the spear went right through Naruto. All the ninjas surrounded the henchman, making him realize that the boy he had attacked hadn't been the right one to fight. But that wasn't the reason why Sakura gasped.

Naruto had disappeared in a cloud of smoke the second after the spear went through him.

Haku immediately tugged Sakura behind one of the crates when the gun went off again, many henchmen falling in their wake. "Where is he?" he asked.

"He switched himself with a clone." Sakura said to him, bewildered. "But why?"

The henchmen were terrified. Half of them had already died, not by the ninjas' hands, but by their own employer. And something was in the air, teasing at their senses, making them want to run for their lives. It was a feeling that Kakashi recognized and immediately started to looking for Naruto.

It was the youki of the Kyuubi that they sensed.

* * *

Naruto leaned against the crate, staring down at the water so far below. There was barely two feet in length gap between the side of the bridge and the side of the crate. He sighed, resting a hand on the wound in his side. It was better now, although he'd have to wait awhile until it was completely healed.

It brought to light the one thing that needed to be done in order to complete one of his goals. He had to get rid of that damn monstrosity of technology. But how?  
**  
Don't be such a wuss**. Kyuubi said in his mind, copying Naruto's own words.** Just a little bit of youki here and there.. **As if the demon knew that he was going to protest, he interrupted. **Stop being so paranoid! Since when have you gone nuts when under the influence of my power?  
**  
He thought of Gaara, how his blank teal eyes would morph into windows of such unbelievable insanity that it hurt to look inside, knowing that if it could happen to one demon host, it sure as hell could happen to another. Kyuubi caught his flashback.  
**  
You have a stronger seal than he did to separate my mind from yours. You will not go crazy, though you will be affected a bit in your way of thinking and reacting. Trust this one truth.  
**  
Naruto sighed once more, giving in. His body was much too weak from the blood lost and effort he exerted all day to be much help on his own. _For my friends._

Crackling energy appeared around his hand as the seal appeared on his palm. He summoned some of his mixed energy to help keep himself from giving in totally to the youki. The mixed energy would act like a barrier between his mind and the youki, keeping it from altering his thinking processes too much. It was the only protection Naruto had against the youki completely taking him over, though weak it was against youki and easily forced through. One symbol turned blue as Naruto's aura took on a slightly purple sheen. Then Kyuubi sent in his youki.

Slight physical changes came with the surge in power, none that Naruto paid attention to, besides the annoying itch of his eyes as the pupil slitted and the eyes turned red. The marks on his face widened and lengthened, having more of the appearance of faint whiskers against Naruto's tan cheeks. His hair fluffed out, becoming less tamed and more wild. He opened his mouth, feeling the growth of his unusually long canines into fangs.

His nose twitched, taking in the intoxicating scents of blood and fear. The rattling noise of bullets hitting metal and the more sickening noise of it hitting flesh made him wince.  
_  
Block. Protect. Pack in danger. _Naruto scowled, pushing back the instinctive thoughts. But whatever it was, his more primal side or the youki itself, it was right about that.

_I gotta block that damn thing.. somehow. _He pushed away from the crate, then gave it a look, seeing its promise. _Alrighty then! _He clapped his hands together then started pushing the huge storage box. _Hope that there's nothing in here that's needed_.

Everyone was startled at the sight of one of the metal crates sluggishly crawling across the width of the bridge, seemingly without any aid. It screeched to a stop in the middle of the two previous crates, creating a massive metal shield against Gatou's gun. The businessman apparently noticed, for he cursed darkly and then screamed for the rest of his henchmen to off the ninjas.

Without bullets whizzing over their heads, the ninjas found it ridiculously easy to knock back the henchmen, though the henchmen's numbers were far above their own.

Several of the hired hands noticed Naruto walking slowly to the middle of the bridge, a reddish aura hugging his form rather oddly. He turned around, showing his back to them as he observed the crate that he had shoved into place by himself. Only one had the courage to attack.  
_  
Enemy. Crush, destory!_

Everyone froze at the terrifying sight. The man didn't get within ten feet of Naruto before he was scooped up by a large red paw completely composed of the strange chakra that was whipping around Naruto. The paw chucked the man away from its owner before retreating back to wrap around Naruto's arm. The blond hadn't even moved.

Naruto had barely pushed back the urge to kill the man.  
_  
What the hell! _Sasuke thought, staring at Naruto's back. The blond turned his head slightly, one red slitted eye meeting the Uchiha's darker eyes. The corner of his mouth hiked up, exposing a long white fang. Naruto turned back to the crate, his stance sliding into a more offensive pose.

"Gatou!" Naruto bellowed, his voice rough. "You've got three seconds to get the hell away from that murder device, or your life ends." His foot slid back, his arm extending away from his body. The red energy started swirling. "1..." The energy began condensing in his hand, a faint purplish circle. "2..." With a sudden flash of light, the orb glowed white and spun rapidly a few inches above Naruto's palm. Kakashi paled when he recognized the jutsu. "3!_ Rasengan_!"

Naruto slammed the orb into the crate, his hand going right through. Nothing much happened on his side of the makeshift barrier, but the jutsus effects were clearly felt by Gatou when the rasengan ripped through the back of the crate, bringing strong and powerful winds that would have lifted him up in the air and sliced him to pieces had he not run to the side. But the same could not be said for his toy.

The gattling gun was lifted and thrown to the bottom of the water below, in too many pieces to ever be used again. Gatou whimpered, his eyes frozen on the torn metal of the crate.

Naruto yanked his hands out of the metal, looking pleased with himself. The youki receded.

"That was pretty pointless." Sasuke said, an eyebrow twitching. All he saw a barely a scratch on the surface of the crate. A weight on his head made him look up at the hand's owner.

"To see the true effects of that jutsu," Kakashi said gravely, "You should go to the other side."

Tenten exchanged a look with Neji, one that made the latter activate his blood line. Pearl like eyes light up with the surge of chakra, veins popping out of the side of his head. What he saw made him nearly gasp in surprise, but he reined in that urge. He released the jutsu.

"He's right." Neji said impassively.

Sakura paid no attention to them, instead she ran up to Naruto. He lazily turned around, looking at her with heavy lidded eyes. They were a faint purple.

"Hiya, Sakura-chan." he mumbled. "Nice weather we have been having, yeah?" She hit him in the back of the head.

"Baka!" she snapped. "What are you jumping around like an idiot for! You'll end up reopening the wounds and then what good will you be to us!" Naruto grinned and flicked her nose. She flinched, then glared at him.

"That's an interesting way you have of showing concern, you shrew." he said, his face all too happy for her to take the insult personally. Sakura pretended that she was hurt and was about to snap back at him when he suddenly turned around, sensing something that she couldn't. The red energy suddenly formed around him again, making Sakura jumped back in surprise. The temperature had raised at least ten degrees, she was sure. But since when did regular chakra had a temperature?

"Naru.. Hey, where the _hell_ are you going!" Sakura yelled, biting off her question when she saw him leap gracefully over the crate. She followed him, not very surprised when she was not the only one.

Gatou, sure that he had already pissed his pants, scrambled up to his feet and took off in a run for his boat. A sight even more terrifying than the man made tornado that nearly ripped him to pieces met his sight. One of the ninjas, a smaller one he might have scoffed at before, landed in front of him before he could get very far. It wasn't until Gatou had looked him over twice that he truly felt terror.

"D-demon." he whispered, falling on his rear. Naruto grinned, his fangs flashing, and grabbed the front of the cruel businessman's suit.

"Lets talk deals, shall we?"

* * *

Tittering laugher was heard in the clearing around Dead Man's Lake, first loud and uncertain, then more free as their courage grew. Nearly the entire village had turned out for the event, one that townspeople would be talking about for generations to come.

Gai stood next to Tsunami and Inari, sulking. The taijutsu specialist had be all geared up to throw his new good deed in the masked nin's face only to find out that Kakashi had been in more danger and had somehow managed to get two of the enemies to make a truce. He was cheered up a little when Tsunami had hugged him and thanked him for helping out, but when he turned to smirk at Kakashi, the other jonin had his nose buried in his perverted book. So he sulked, annoyed that he hadn't been able to awe his rival with his skills.

Kakashi's attention had been drawn from his book out onto the surface of the lake. He sweat dropped, wondering whether or not he should stop the event from taking place. Although it was highly amusing, he was sure that there was a rule or two somewhere that spoke against what was happening.

Sasuke leaned against a tree, faintly amused eyes watching the proceedings. He held the package that Naruto had carelessly tossed at him with a smirk and an insult. _"Wouldn't want those delicate arms of yours to get scarred. Happy belated birthday." _He had opened it to find two leather arm protectors that were a little bloody. He would have insulted Naruto for bleeding on his gift, but somehow, the thought of his gift being in Naruto's vest when he nearly bled to death, and then the blond's clear want for Sasuke to have them made the Uchiha feel quite the opposite of what it took for him to insult his team mate. Naruto had apparently seen it. _"Don't cry, you dork." _he had said, flicking the darker boy's nose. This naturally brought on a bout of insults before Naruto went to go 'negotiate'.

Sakura sat at his feet, several children crowding around her. Despite her loud nature around anything that had nothing to do with Sasuke, she had a gift with children. Within a matter of moments, she had taken all of the lost and wandering children in the crowd under her wing and quietly entertained them, either with answers to questions or stories. Every time she looked up at the lake, she'd smirk lightly, then return back to the kids.

Neji leaned against another tree, his back to the lake instead of facing it like Sasuke. His eyes were closed, but anyone who knew him knew that he was probably watching the proceedings as diligently as the townspeople. Tenten sat in the branch above him, a grin on her face.

Lee sat down on the grass a little ways away from Neji, sulking as much as Gai. He had wanted to sit next to Sakura but when the Uchiha, her team mate, had given him a frosty glare when he came close, Lee backed off. He knew that he could probably beat the genius, but there was just something about him that made Lee rather to back away.

The two mist nins were the only ones given ample 'bubble' space. Although the townspeople knew that the two mist nins were there on peaceful terms, they still remembered that they had worked for Gatou. Any speech directed toward them was strictly polite but distant. They both looked tired and were heavily bandaged, courtesy of Sakura(her back pack had tons of bandages, too bad that she didn't think to bring it to the bridge). She had managed to save Zabuza's arm but he wouldn't be using it for a while. It hung in a cast gently resting against his chest as of then.

Haku stayed standing by Zabuza's side, silently keeping his promise to himself to keep his teacher safe. Calm brown eyes followed the proceedings on the lake, his lips curving when he thought justice was being down, but in a slightly less violent way than he was used to.

Zabuza yawned. He was bored, much preferring if Gatou could be handed to him and then... his grin was devilish... then they could have some _fun.  
_  
It certainly wasn't the crowd of ninjas that made the townspeople so amused. It was what was happening out on the surface of the lake. It was fairly cruel, some that were not familiar with the situation would argue, but to the townspeople it was merely the businessman's medicine being thrown back at him.

"GYAHHHHHHHH!" he shrieked. He was hanging upside down, his captor's grip on his ankle the only thing that kept him airborne. "I CAN'T SWIMMM!"

"That should be the _last_ thing you should be worrying about!" Inari shouted from the shore, a grin on his face. The townspeople laughed outright. "Leave him for the reptiles, Naruto! They're hungry!" Naruto laughed before turning to look down at Gatou.

"This place.. it's called Dead Man's Lake. It's infested with alligators." his captor told him cheerfully. Gatou froze, looking straight down. Something dark was rising to the surface quickly. A fearsome face became visible, a gaping maw that snapped at his head.

"KYAHHH!" he screamed when the alligator surfaced. He was yanked out of the way before the jaw could snap closed. Naruto pivoted on his heel, pulling Gatou out of the way and simultaneously knocking the alligator ten feet away from him with his foot. The reptile immediately dove for the water, in ways, more terrified than Gatou himself. It was the small bit of youki mixed in with Naruto's regular chakra that had kept the great beasts away from him before. Natural instinct kept _all _animals away from a demon as powerful as Kyuubi.

"So how about it?" Naruto said rather calmly, as if a huge reptile didn't just almost take a chunk out of him. Gatou wasn't as skilled as Naruto at composing himself. The older man started to cry.

"I'll do whatever you want! I'll give you all of my money! Just get me away from this damn place!" he sobbed. Not feeling sorry for him one bit, Naruto smirked.

"That's what I thought, my good man. Now, lets talk about this lovely country and its _very_ bright future..."

* * *

TBC..

wow, last chapter's format was odd...


	31. Kakashi's Idea

Yes, that was from Rurouni Kenshin. I liked that scene so much. When I first saw it, I said "There's Gatou!" My friend gave me a weird look. I can't completely remember the scene, so I improvised a bit. But that guy(again, I show my mad skills at remembering people's names) reminded me so much of Gatou that I used the basic idea in my story.  
On an unrelated note.. my computer keeps on freezing and it's really ticking me off! -rage, throws computer out the window. sulks-

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Thirty-one: Kakashi's Idea

by Foxie

* * *

Kakashi had a hidden smile on his face much later, when Naruto finalized the deal he got out of Gatou. The businessman signed over all of his companies over to Tazuna, Sohma Hana and her group of ladies, and several other townsmen. All of the money in his bank was invested in the repairing and completion of the bridge. And the last thing that Naruto got out of Gatou was that he never set his grubby feet in Wave Country or Fire Country ever again.

The once businessman would never terrorize a nation again, barely walking out of Wave Country alive, with nothing on him or in his banks accounts, but his life. Now he would know true poverty.

Kakashi had to hand it to Naruto. The boy was a natural at negotiation. It helped that Gatou seemed to fear Naruto over all other things.

He sighed, somewhat sadly. Now that they were sure that the dealings had gone through without a hitch and Gatou was never going to bother anyone again, their mission was more than complete. They would have to leave the new friends that they had acquired and head back to their home. A familiar pain that Kakashi had never gotten quite used to.

He generously gave his team a day for them to prepare to leave, an order that Gai echoed to his own team. The jonin was spending his day camped out in the Tazuna household backyard, high in one of the trees with his book in his hand. He wondered how his team would spend their last days with the many people they had made friends with in Wave Country.

Kakashi's attention was brought away from his book and his musings when he heard someone walk out of the back doors of the house.

Humming softly, Tsunami hung up the wet clothes to dry. She took down the dry ones and folded them, putting them in her basket.

"Shouldn't you be doing something, Kakashi-san?" she asked when he jumped down to greet her. The mother didn't even flinch, a sure sign that she was getting used to ninjas jumping in and out of nowhere. He grinned sheepishly. "Everyone else is saying their good byes."

"I don't like good byes." Kakashi said, slipping his book into his pocket. Tsunami smiled, picking up her basket.

"Yes, I'm afraid that I rather detest them myself." she admitted. Kakashi followed her into the house. "It's just so sad. Inari rarely has any friends, yet he has made friends with your team." A joyous sound of a boy laughing drifted into the house. Their heads turned toward it.

"..And the righteous rebellion shall knock your royal socks off, Emperor Inari!" They heard Naruto yell. There was muffled laughter.

"And the Emperor's ally, the Confederation of Sasuke, will join him in destroying the rebels." Sasuke said in a dry tone.

"Yay! Sasuke-bastard's playing!" Naruto's unmistakable yell.

"Then the Circle of Metal Wielding Ladies will join Naruto's rebellion to take down those in power."

"Yay! Sakura-chan! Wait.. 'Metal what-'"

"Just go with it, Naruto."

Tsunami smiled, laughing as she heard the kids' strange names for their factions. "Not a game I remember playing as a child.."

Kakashi shrugged. "Naruto's a ninja. Trust for him to come up with something that's violent." But that got him into thinking. Naruto never really 'played' with anyone. His pranks were the only source of entertainment he had. Yet he sounded so much happier playing with other kids than doing pranks by himself. Not to mention that Sasuke had relaxed enough to join in and Sakura, for once, didn't feel obligated to join the Uchiha's side.

"But, hopefully, this will bring out Inari's outgoing side. He could make some friends in the village." she continued. "But I don't think Inari will ever forget your team. Not by a long shot."

("Haku! You wanna be a royal or a rebel?")

"You know.." Kakashi mused out loud. Yes. He could do that. For once in his life, he could take advantage of the jonin perks. "There's something called a Chuunin Final Exam coming up in a little more than a month. There's more to the Chuunin Exam, but outsiders only see the last portion of it, where the ninjas who made it all the way through the trials battle each other. You could, say, take a vacation to Konoha and swing by there. I'm allowed to invite four outsiders to any number of exams, but the chuunin one is the closest. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke are sure to be around." He grinned, his eye curving. "I'm going to enter them into the Exam. None of them will probably make it to the Finals, but they'd still want to watch it. It'll be a little violent though."

("I think I'll break away from the mold and be a hobo." Haku replied calmly. The others groaned.)

Tsunami slowly started to smile, warming up to the idea. "You know.. Inari's birthday is around that time. We'll go on vacation and just won't tell him where." The two conspriators shared identical grins. "That's such a lovely idea, Kakashi-san."

* * *

In the end, the Confederation of Sasuke and the Emperor Inari proved to be too much for the Rebellion and the Circle. Sakura made a 'treaty' with Sasuke and Inari to end the 'gruesome battles'(Sakura _did not_ like gobs of bubble gum in her equally pink hair), while Naruto 'fled' the country in disguise, becoming a fellow hobo to Haku, swearing that one day, _he'd be back!_

At least, that's what they said when Kakashi asked who won.

The worn out genins, Inari, and Haku walked through the door. The mist nin was, for once, not dressed in his fighting clothes or his mask, but in black pants and a navy blue button up shirt. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

"Haku." Kakashi greeted. He lifted a hand in his customary wave, with the typical 'yo' added in. "Where are you and Zabuza going to go after this?" Tsunami set down several bowls of steaming ramen for the boys and Sakura, grabbing an extra chair for the older boy. Haku thanked her, sitting down between Naruto and Sakura.

"I don't know. It's up to Zabuza-san." he said, looking back at the jonin leaning against the wall. "He said for me to busy myself while he tries to figure out where we are to go next. So I came here."

"Why do ya gotta leave?" Inari asked between bites. He had forgiven the older nin for dragging him around and using him as bait. You gotta do what you gotta do, Inari thought. Haku had to work for Gatou, but wasn't Gatou himself, nor shared the same personality. As Kakashi had explained it, Haku was a mere tool, nothing more. Would you go after the katana that slew people or the person who wielded it? Kakashi's logic made sense to Inari. "You could just stay here."

"Haku and Zabuza are missing nins, 'Nari." Naruto said, nearly swallowing his entire bowl. Sakura kicked him, silently reminding him to use manners. He winced, then made a face at the kunoichi. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Yes. Missing nins are often trailed by hunter nins. We missing nins have turned our backs on our village, thus we have fled with secrets of it and how it is formed. Hunter nins seek to end our lives." Haku said, starting to eat his ramen.

"Can't you just say sorry?" Inari asked, passing the remainder of his ramen to Naruto. Naruto whooped with happiness, nearly swallowing that bowl as well. Sakura gave up on him. Haku smiled and shook his head.

"Ninja villages, especially villages like the mist, don't accept apologies." Sasuke muttered, finally adding to the conversation. Naruto gave the puppy eyed look at Sasuke, his eyes shifting down at the dark ninja's nearly untouched ramen. Sasuke made a show of picking up his chopsticks and slowly eating it, savoring every noodle. Naruto's eyes went suspiciously shiny and he pouted. Haku grinned at their interaction.

"There are only two ways a missing nin can be relinquished of his status." Kakashi said, holding up two fingers. "One, they are killed. Two, they are accepted into a hidden village that is either allied with the village the nin is from, or the village the nin is from doesn't want to mess with the hidden village the nin is accepted into."

"Hey! Then why doesn't Haku and Zabuza come with us to Konoha?" Naruto asked, jumping up from his seat. He apparently got over the ramen dilemma. Naruto looked over to Haku, his eyes excited. "Yeah! You guys won't have people on your trail that will want to kill you anymore, and you'll get to work in the same village as us!" The blond was getting hyped up over his own idea while the others frowned and contemplated over what consequences would come to be if the two mist nins were accepted into Konoha.

"I don't know.." Haku said hesitantly. "It's really up to Zabuza-san.." Naruto started to walk out of the house, peeking his head back into the kitchen to say one last thing.

"Then I'll simply have to convince him that it is the best course of action!"

* * *

"Oh, come on! Please?" Zabuza rolled his eyes. There he was, minding his own business(alright, he was making faces at passerbys to pass the time, so what? Everyone has their own strange little hobbies), and Naruto suddenly ran up to him, running his mouth off about something or other.

"Shut up, or I'll kill you." Several townspeople skittered away, but the one person that the threat was directed toward remained oblivious.

"Aw, but it's the best thing you can do!" The mist nin frowned, feeling lost.

"To do what?" Naruto sighed, then launched into an explanation, telling the older man that if he and Haku made a request to join Konoha, their lives would be so much easier, not to mention that they'd be around people they knew! And could he please, please,_ please_ come with them back to Konoha because Haku was his friend and he was pretty sure that the other boy wouldn't object!

Now getting what the kid was rambling on about, Zabuza shrugged. "I like not being told what to do." he said doggedly. "Why would I walk into a death trap like that?"

Naruto swayed, looking wounded and acting dramatic. "I can see it now.." he clutched at his heart, as if the imagined pain was too much for him to bear. "Trudging through the unforgiving wilderness, hunter nins come upon an unsuspecting duo, bear down upon them, and kill them, ending a young life and a not so young life in lethal blows.." Zabuza scowled, not liking the old comment directed towards himself.

The last time Naruto had spread out a possible future for him and Haku, Zabuza had ended up ending a battle he didn't want to, getting shot at by his former employer, and possibly lowering his reputation down a smidge because he, for once, wasn't the one spreading the blood around.

"Ugh.. Buzz off, brat." Zabuza grumbled. Naruto hopped on one foot, then ran in from of the mist nin. He turned around, walking backwards.

"You'll think about it?" he asked, sounding hopeful. Zabuza waved him away, grumbling about whiny brats. Taking that as a yes, Naruto left him to his peace.. and left with him thoughts that annoyed him far more than the blond could ever hope to.

"Damn brat."

* * *

Sakura walked back to the village, Tazuna and his suddenly replenished building crew ahead of her. The bridge was finally complete, Gatou was no longer a threat, and their country would flourish with trade. Not to mention that their young men had come back that morning. All in all, they had much to celebrate.

"Sakura." She turned her head, a smile on her face when she saw who called out to her. He leaned against one of the power poles, his eyes focused on her and his face impassive. As always.

"Sasuke-kun!" Tazuna looked back, a grin on his face. Sakura silently asked for his permission with her eyes, even as she leaned in Sasuke's direction.

"Go ahead. We can find our way to our houses." he said humorously. She thanked him, skipping over to her team mate.

"Hi!" He nodded to her and started to walk. She followed him. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

He looked troubled for a moment, then took her arm, pulling her toward one of the restaurants. "Let's eat first." Sakura blinked in surprise, then flushed.

**This is a date.. isn't it? Ha! Take that, Ino!** Inner Sakura crowed, punching her fist into the air. They sat at the counter, Sasuke ordering something for them. Their orders were brought back to them with haste, the chef recognizing them as part of the team that ended Gatou's tyrany.

Sakura said nothing to Sasuke, the same treatment being reflected back to her, until they were done eating. Truthfully, she could have and probably would have talked his ear off the entire time, but her focus kept on shifting from the boy next to her to another boy she was curious about. Just when she thought she understood Naruto, he had to pull something like he did on the bridge!

Sasuke's thoughts were much the same. That last attack that Naruto used was incredibly powerful, not like anything he had ever seen before in his entire life. What was stronger, this 'rasengan', or Kakashi's chidori? He was leaning toward the rasengan, even though he had yet to see the chidori's full effects yet.

But even more important than that, where had Naruto learned that technique? Who had taught him it? And when had he the time to learn it? So many questions.. Sasuke hated unanswered questions. And he had a feeling that Naruto would be as forthcoming with the answers as Kakashi was willing to show the world the bottom portion of his face.

The chef refused to let them pay, saying that it was nothing compared to what they had done for their country.

They walked back to Tazuna's home, their own thoughts isolating them from one another, but bringing them together at the same time.

"Have you noticed, in our group, how.." Sasuke started to say. He paused, trying to think of a good way to word it. Sakura finished his question.

"'How strange it's been lately?' Yes." Sakura folded her arms in front of her. She looked pensive, and decided to throw out the idea she had been harboring about Naruto. "Do you think that Naruto is related to the Inuzukas?"

"Them? Why?"

"It's just.. Kiba was showing off once, back in the Academy. And then that time with the genjutsu when we were fighting Naruto. Kiba and his dog turned into these.. feral Kibas. It was a type of bunshin skill, I think. But it reminds me of how Naruto changed. He looked.. like Kiba did." she explained, sighing when she couldn't even understand what she was trying to get across.

Luckily, Sasuke did. "Yes, I remember." he said. "I think that Kiba borrowed physical attributes from his dog, and his dog borrowed physical attributes from Kiba, and then that brought along a sort of hybrid looking bunshin. Half dog, half human. Naruto did look a lot like that, but there was no animal around that he could have borrowed it from, so no. I don't think he is related to the Inuzuka family."

Sakura sighed. So much for her theory. "Then.. what the heck was that on the bridge?" Sasuke could only shrug.

"You said the healing was his blood limit. Perhaps there was another part of that blood limit that he didn't tell you about." he said, looking over at her. They stopped walking. "Maybe becoming red eyed and vampire like is part of his blood limit." Sasuke said with a smirk.

Sakura scowled. She felt an overwhelming need to defend Naruto, if only because he wasn't there to defend himself. "Look who's talking, you hypocrite! It's not like you didn't go red eyed yourself." She turned slightly, missing Sasuke's shocked face. "Hey, maybe he's related to you. Red eyed, vampire like changes- hey!" Sasuke had turned her around.

"My eyes turned red!" he asked urgently. Sakura blinked.  
"Yup. Scared me for a minute. Then it faded. Then reappeared again. It was really annoying. I think Naruto saw it, but he didn't say anything." Sasuke's grip on her arm tightened a little.

"What did it look like!"

"Um..." she looked into his eyes, her own glazing over a little as she tried to remember. "Well, red. Your pupils were black, obviously. A faint.. darker red or maybe even black circle was around your pupil. It wasn't solid, it was actually pretty faint. And we can't forget the strange comma things around your pupil too."

Sasuke looked stricken. He backed up a few paces, letting go of her arm. "How many?" he asked, his voice a lot softer. His head tilted down, long black bangs covering his eyes.

"Two in each eye." Sakura murmured, her eyes darkening with worry for her team mate. She walked up to him, pushing his bangs out of the way to look him in the eye. "You seem to know what it is. Can you tell me?" His eyes wouldn't meet hers. "Please?" she added quietly, her voice taking on a pleading tone. Sakura felt so out of the loop. Naruto, the dead last of their entire class, turned out be some sort of hidden genius with a weird blood limit, and even though they had been on the subject, the damn blond left out the most important parts of what made him different. And then there was Kakashi and the constant shroud of mysteriousness that he just had to have around him, and now Sasuke! Weren't they supposed to be a team? Shouldn't things like that be shared with everyone else?

It's not like she kept things from her friends. They were her friends, right? It just wasn't fair! She took a step back, pasting a smile on her face.

"It's alright, you don't have to tell me anything." Sakura said, turning away. "Let's just go back to Tazuna's and-" Sasuke caught her wrist again. She looked down at it, both in surprise and to marvel the contrast her lightly tanned arm made against his pale hand. Her eyes slowly met the eyes of the hand's owner.

Sasuke stared at her, trying to make a decision. She did say that she wanted to be his friend, and he supposed that friends shared some aspects of their lives with each other. But it was so personal. Then a fleeting thought caught his mind's attention. A memory of how terrified he was when he was changed into a little boy and thought that Sakura was going to die.

If Itachi ever targeted his friends, she would have to know more about the clan, more about that.. man, if she was to have a chance to escape from him. His decision was made. He wasn't going to lose another person that was important to him just because he didn't like talking about things that were personal.

"It's called a sharingan. Sharingan is a blood limit of the eyes, just like the Hyuuga's byakugan, but where all the Hyuugas have the byakugan at birth, only a very small percentage of the Uchihas ever awake the ability." Sasuke's eyes shifted to his shoulder, clouding over in remembrance of an event long past. The dark orbs shifted back to her. "My clan was both the weakest and the strongest of all of the clans in Konoha. We were weak because most of us barely had enough power to become genins, and we were strong because the few of us that could become stronger ended up being the strongest ninjas in our village. It was that complete contrast in power that my clan could both be completely annihilated in one single night by one of it's members, and also for its murderer to be so powerful that no other ninja could avenge the Uchiha clan." His voice was tight and hot in suppressed anger. Sasuke looked over her head, seeing something she could not in the wall behind her, something only a mind reader or a kami could pull out of him.

Sakura had heard it before, whispered bits of a story passing from adult to adult to silently make its way into her ear. She had heard bits and pieces of it from her own team as well.

The Uchiha clan was destroyed in one bloody night, leaving Sasuke as the only heir to the blood limit. But what Sasuke was saying was that the person who murdered all of those people was an Uchiha himself.

"And.. you are the avenger." It was simple. So utterly simple that Sakura could have smacked herself for not really realizing the extent of Sasuke's quiet 'ambition', one that he had told the rest of the team so long ago. It really said something when Naruto, who really was a complete idiot unless he put his mind to something, understood their often quiet and aloof team mate better than she did, the supposed 'smart' person of their rag tag team. Sasuke nodded sharply.

"There is no one else. He will pay for what he did to them." he said, his voice lowering. She ignored the slight pain she felt when Sasuke's grip on her wrist, which he still hadn't let go of, increased.

"And toyou, Sasuke-kun." Sakura whispered. He blinked, not knowing what to say to that. Sakura took a step forward, wanting him to see the sincerity of her eyes. He let go of her wrist and she rubbed it absently.

"You know, you aren't alone. I- I mean, we.. Team Seven's here for you. We'll help you with your vengeance. We'll go to the ends of the earth with you, find this guy, and help you fulfil your ambition." she said. Sasuke started to shake his head.

"No, an avenger is always alone. I started this alone, and I'm going to finish it alone and-" This time, it was she who grabbed his arm.

"Why do things by the book? That idea, of all things, should be the one thing you learned from Kakashi-sensei." Sakura smiled. "You can have your revenge. We won't hinder you, or get in your way when you fight. There is a lot more to a team than just working from eight to five together. It's about working to like one another, to put yourself on the line for your team mates. It's about not understanding them at all, yet knowing them like the back of your hand. It's about giving support when you can't help them out physically. It's about.." she uncurled his fists and gently pulled on the bandages, making then unravel, "healing your friends." Sakura curled her hand over the half healed wounds. A warm tingling feeling went up and down Sasuke's arm when chakra seeped into the cut and bruised knuckles. "Giving their wounds, may they be mental or physical, comfort." She took her hands away, revealing uncut skin. Sasuke's eyes widened, taking in the unblemished skin. He met her eyes as she smiled.

"Yeah, it's like that." she said. Sasuke smiled. It was small, but it was a start. She had a head start in the healing of his physical wounds, but she had a long way to go to heal the mental wounds.

"Get away from my Sakura-san!" And then like that, a touching scene was abruptly ended. Lee ran up, his face flushed with exertion.. or maybe anger? Sasuke and Sakura pulled away, realizing how close they were. They both flushed.

**I didn't do it Mommy, honest!** Inner Sakura whimpered.

Moving instinctively, Sasuke put himself between Sakura and a rapidly approaching Lee. Why he'd see an ally as a threat to him and Sakura was something even he didn't understand.

Lee came to a stop in front of Sasuke. He put his hands on his knees and wheezed for air. Maybe his sudden change in color had to do with a mix of _both_ anger and exertion.

Sakura peeked around Sasuke's shoulder. "Why are you breathing so hard, Lee-san?" The green clad ninja seemed to blossom at the mere sound of her voice. He promptly forgot that the Uchiha had been close.. too close, to his fair lady.

"I was running laps around the village, Sakura-san!" he chirped. "Of course, this village isn't hardly as big as Konoha, but I've been running ever since the crack of Dawn and.." he kept rambling on.

"Sakura.." Sasuke muttered in annoyance, "You just had to ask.."

* * *

I'll get back to the more manageable 'one long chapter a week' update, now that I have a vague idea how the Wave arc and the Chuunin Exam are going to connect.  
I do have a very clear idea what my ending is going to be like(it's going to be so cool! You'll see! There's going to be another casting of the -spoiler- but it's actually -spoiler- who's going to do it and -spoiler- is going to show up and ah! I can't wait!), even what the epilouge will be(which will address whether or not I'll do a prequel or a sequel, when I get to it). All I can say is that I can see about maybe... ten or so chapters(if they're long) between the end of the Chuunin Exam and the end of the story. The Chuunin Exam itself.. that would have to be another ten plus chapters. 


	32. Farewell, But Not Good Bye

Yay! Hinata shows up in this chapter!  
And I'd like to address an observation that some of you have mentioned to me about our favorite wanna be Hokage. Naruto, at times, doesn't seem like he'd be older mentally because he acts like he did when he was twelve, as you have pointed out. Well, that's how I wanted it to be. Naruto, to me, comes across as a sort of person who would never really change, never give up hope, or ever really be serious twenty four hours a day. My vision of an older Naruto is a pranks and ramen lover, kick ass fighter, and incredibly loyal guy. He does tend to have serious thoughts, though they are hidden behind a sunny smile, but really, he's not all that much different than twelve year old Naruto. So really, all he has to keep secret(in order for people to stay in the dark about his time traveling) is his skill and knowledge with jutsus. Which he has already screwed up. Royally.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Thirty-two: Farewell, But Not Good Bye

by Foxie

* * *

He tried not to be hopeful, tried not to dream how nice it would be to be surrounded by friends. He tried not to just assume that he would be going with the Konoha group back to their village, just in case Zabuza said no. But his control slipped through his fingers, for once in his life. Haku found himself thinking of the fun they'd have in between missions, seeing the ramen bar that Naruto was always talking about, seeing the endless sea of trees, seeing the Hokage monument. He found himself thinking about what this Konoha looked like, and at night, the dreams haunted him.

Haku forgot his steel will, forgot his vow to not care so he won't end up being disappointed, when he looked in his new friends' faces.

Sasuke was impassive, aloof, seemingly cold, but when he warmed up, Haku could genuinely see how the Uchiha was one of his friends. Sakura was much easier to be around, though Haku never had really gotten over his embarrassment when he was around it. He couldn't help it! It was a rare occasion to see a female that wasn't over thirty in his line of work, and she was so pretty, in an unusual way. Naruto, he could understand. They, he and Haku, were practicably twins in certain ways. Naruto, host of the Kyuubi, feared demon lord of Fire Country. Haku, part of a blood line that was feared, hated, and was the reason why there was so many wars where he used to live. They were both so much alike. Kakashi was cool. A perverted, pranks loving, and generally nice version of Zabuza. Gai was okay, though he was kind of loud. Lee as well. Neji was much like Sasuke, though the bubble of ice extended much farther out than the Uchiha's. Tenten was nice. She fixed some of his broken senbon for him and they had a rather interesting talk about whether or not senbon were better to use than kunai.

All in all, they were a strange bunch of people, but Haku added them all onto his previously limited list of precious people.

But, friends or not, Zabuza was much more important to him than they were. The older nin was his guardian, his father, his brother, his teacher.. every mentor like role in Haku's life was filled with Zabuza. Of course, Haku really didn't want to be like Zabuza, but that didn't change the fact that if he had survived with one person in his life, he could survive with that one person a little while longer.

Speaking of the devil, the older nin appeared before him. Haku had no idea how long Zabuza had been standing there, just watching him sulk over the things that floated around in his mind. Haku looked up, meeting the mist devil's brown eyes with his own.

It was cold, Haku realized with a start. The skies were dark and the lovely sakura tree that he had sat under what must have been hours ago was no longer lit up by the sun's rays, but by the moon's.

"You've been out here for a while." Zabuza said in a low tone. Haku shrugged, pushing himself up.

"So have you." Zabuza smiled, nodding. "Have you.. come to a decision?" Haku's question was hesitant, wanting to know the answer, but at the same time not.

"I.. think so." the mist nin said, rubbing the back of his head. "If.. you had a choice to go to Konoha or to go somewhere else, where would you go?" Haku blinked, then tensed, having an idea where this was going.

"I would want to go with you." the boy said firmly. There was no way that Haku was going to be separated from Zabuza. The older nin shook his head.

"But if you didn't have me to think about, where would you go?" Haku was looking increasingly distressed.

"I would.." Haku looked down at his shoes. _Please don't tell me this is Zabuza's back handed way of deciding things!_ Haku doubted that Zabuza would willingly go to Konoha, but what he knew of the older man told him that Zabuza would let him follow the Konoha group if that was what Haku wished. Still, he answered truthfully. "I would want to be with friends."

Zabuza's face was neutral as he nodded. The mist nin walked away. "Go inside where it's warm." he tossed over his shoulder. Haku bit his lip, watching Zabuza's retreating back.

"Zabuza-san!" Haku called out. The other nin paused, turning halfway around. "You.. are one of those friends." Zabuza looked at Haku, then nodded.

"I know."

* * *

Birds chirped their greeting to one another that next morning. The sun had barely peeked over the horizon, but the homely house of the Tazuna family was already up and stirring with people, smelling richly of cooking breakfast.

A loud thud made the cooker look up from her latest creations. She turned the fire down, then walked out of the kitchen to see where the sound originated.

One of the green ninjas, Tsunami couldn't tell them apart most of the time, had tripped over a loose rug and dropped all of the bags and various other accessories that he had snagged from people's bed sides. He looked up at her sheepishly, his youthful face bringing a name up to the front of Tsunami's mind.

She knelt down. "Lee, what are you doing?" the green clad boy gestured to the scattered bags.

"Sakura-san told me to take all of the stuff downstairs and pack them." he said, his eyes in the shape of hearts at the thought of his lovely lady in the morning, no coffee under her belt and a nasty attitude. No amount of bumps on the head could make him change his mind about her loveliness!

"I thought she was supposed to be doing that." Tsunami said, frowning. Lee shook his head.

"Nope, she's trying to find Naruto-kun. He went missing." he said, gathering the stuff to him. He began shoving random things in random back packs, forgetting that pink bras just _don't _go in black back packs with the name 'Hyuuga Neji' scrawled on the bottom.

Tsunami stood, absently patting the boy's head and going back to making breakfast. She doubted that Naruto was missing. More like the blond was avoiding Sakura. Everyone in the household knew(save Lee) to not bother her in the morning. The only one that was saved from her wrath was Sasuke, and that was just barely.

Outside, Naruto had found a comfy branch in a tree some twenty feet away from the ground and closed his eyes to catch some needed 'z's. They flicked open when the branch shook slightly with the landing of another ninja.

"Morning, Sakura-chan." Naruto said with a smile, ignoring the waves of menace rolling off of the girl. She took a step toward him, cracking her knuckles.

"Just.. what the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked quietly, her eye twitching.

"Only practicing my latest jutsu, my friend." Naruto said, his eyes lighting up. The waves of menace died down a little as curiosity took hold.

"And what's that?" she asked in a much more normal tone. Naruto yawned and closed his eyes, murmuring the words of his undoing.

"Relaxation no Jutsu."

Inari jumped a foot in the air when he heard a loud 'Kyah!' come from above him. He saw some pink hair and immediately scrambled behind a bush. Naruto didn't have his self preservation instincts, apparently.

Sakura kicked him off of the branch. Inari winced, expecting to hear a thud when Naruto hit the ground. He tentively opened his eyes when he heard none. Naruto had landed on his hands and feet, like a cat.

Naruto looked up, casually lifting himself to his feet. "You know, I really should have never taught you how to climb trees." he said with a pout. Sakura jumped off of the branch, a brief flash of chakra protecting her feet from the brunt of the landing. She grabbed his ear and yanked him into the house, ignoring his cries of pain. Inari wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead, glad that the kunoichi didn't notice him.

They had a rule in the Tazuna household: Never bother Haruno Sakura before ten a.m.

* * *

_The hour of departure._ Naruto thought gloomily. Their group, Team Seven and Team Gai, stood together, making a path through the many well wishers that had come to see them off. Naruto stood more to the outside of the huddled group, behind Sakura and Neji, and next to Sasuke. Gai and Kakashi, the former with a blinding grin, led the group.

How Naruto wished he could just make a camp on the bridge and stay there until Orochimaru reared his ugly head, then defend the country he should have been defending in his future. The Wave Country had fallen all too easily under the Sound's might. How many children, that now crowded around them, cheerfully yelling out their good byes, had seen their friends fall dead in his future? How many of them were enslaved? How many of them were murdered? How many of them, in their dying breath, whispered for help?

He did not know what Tsunami's fate was, but he knew that Tazuna had died, with a score of men by his side, in a last ditch effort to protect their country. The so called 'Great Naruto Bridge' had been reduced to rubble, Wave Country's hopes and dreams with it. He should have been there, instead of sneaking around Sound village in hopes of getting more information about Orochimaru.

Hana pulled him out of the group for a moment, hugging him briefly. Her children danced around him, shouting that he'd better come back to play with them. Naruto could only nod weakly as Hana whispered a 'good luck' in his ear.

Oh, how he hated Orochimaru! That back stabbing snake, taking away so many young lives! So many innocent lives! As strange as it sounded, Naruto wanted justice for the crimes that the sound leader hadn't even committed yet.

He went back into the group, the ninjas making a way through the crowd. Naruto ran in front of them when he saw a familiar hat. He paused for a moment, several feet away from the boy who had his back to him, then moved forward, grabbing the hem of the back of the boy's shirt and pulling it over his head.

"Hey!" Inari shouted, temporarily blinded. He straightened his shirt, glaring at Naruto. Naruto smiled, a little bit sadly. Inari's annoyance died down at the sad look on his friend's face. Naruto extended his hand out to Inari.

"This is farewell, but not for forever." he said, brightening up. "When I see you next, you better not cry!" Inari glowered. So the ninja had notice the tears he had been trying to hide. He took the taller boy's hand firmly.

"You'll be crying, but I won't!" Inari countered. Naruto grinned, letting go of his hand.

"I'll hold you to that." Naruto's eyes flicked towards his fellow ninjas who were leaving, then back at Inari. With a long suffering sigh, Naruto walked away from the people of the Wave Country, his heart heavy.

Tazuna waved them off cheerfully. To have the very ninjas that saved their country to be the first ones to walk on his bridge was a honor and was sure to bring them good luck. Someone tugged on his elbow.

"What are we going to call the bridge?" the young man asked. Tazuna brightened up.

"Well, we could call it "The Bridge Where A'-"

"No." Tsunami said, putting her foot down. "Too long. But we should give it a name that has something to do with what's happened in the last couple of days."

Hana put her two cents in. "Maybe something like 'Gatou's End' or 'Bridge of Negotiations'."

"Or, the 'Great Naruto Bridge'!" Tazuna said with a grin. A murmur went through the crowd as they considered the possibility.

"You want to inflate that boy's ego?" Hana chuckled, "No, let's call it the 'Great Uzumaki Bridge', and then when he comes back, we'll pretend that it was some other Uzumaki that we named it after, to avoid inflated heads." Tsunami and the others laughed. Tazuna nodded, turning to the rest of his fellow countrymen.

"In a hundred years, many tales of our country will pass through our descendents' lips, but none will be as well known as the tale surrounding the Great Uzumaki Bridge!"

* * *

About a mile away from the bridge, the Konoha group came to a stop. Not because of fatigue, or freak flash floods, but because two very familiar people stood in their way.

"Haku-kun!" Sakura called out, "Zabuza-san! What are you two doing?" Haku waved, although the expression on his face suggested that he had no idea what was going on either. Zabuza stood a little bit behind Haku, looking faintly embarrassed.

"Um.. yeah." Haku said, fidgeting. "What are we doing here?" he whispered to Zabuza. The mist nin looked more embarrassed. He coughed, shuffled his feet, then looked at Kakashi with an almost glare, one that said 'I'm not doing this for me!'

"Does that offer have an expiration date?" he asked gruffly. Kakashi's eyes widened as he finally understood.

"Nope." he said, sparing Zabuza the shame by not revealing the offer to an increasingly confused Team Gai. He started to walk past them, gesturing for the rest of the them to follow. "Come on, it's a day and a half journey to Konoha."

* * *

Hinata shifted the scrolls she had been looking over to the side of the desk, turning her attention to the one book on her table. Her uncle's book was a great asset. In it, there was a listing of many medical jutsus and, in language that she could understand, how to do them.

Of course, there was much more to being a medic than just healing. She had to learn anatomy, pressure points, how different types of chakra react to one another, and many other things that had her mind in a whirl. Her chakra control was nearly flawless now. She also had to increase her chakra, and the only way to do that was with practice. So Hinata learned chakra draining techniques and constantly performed them day after day. The only way that she knew that she was improving was because she wasn't as tired as she was the day before.

But Hinata was happy. The thrill of learning something new, of knowing that she was learning at her own pace, without being constantly compared to someone else. It wasn't something she was used to, but she liked it.

Shino had made her promise to stop practicing on herself, but that only slowed her down a little bit. Even though she couldn't practice it, she could still practice the theory of it. And a little bit is better than none at all. Which reminded her that if her father ever found out that she was practicing medical jutsu, never mind that she was good at it, he would disown her, or worse!

Hinata pushed those negative thoughts from her head. She got up, deciding to go get something to drink. The servants were always pleasant to her, they wouldn't mind if she snuck into the kitchen for a moment.

Just as she thought, they welcomed her in without a second thought. The servants were always polite to her, asking how she was, and if she ever needed anything. They all felt sorry for her, recognizing a shy little girl in a family that wouldn't accept failures. She spoke quietly to one of the younger ones before wishing them all a good night. It wasn't that late, the sun having only barely dipped under the horizon, but they all went to bed early.

Refreshed, Hinata walked back to her room. On the way, she ran into one of the last people she wanted to see. Still, that didn't stop her from being polite.

"Good evening, sister." Hinata murmured, walking right by Hanabi. The young girl stared at her coldly, grabbing her arm as she passed by. Hinata looked back, her eyes meeting identical silvery orbs.

"I want a rematch." Hanabi stated clearly. Hinata blinked. Was their fights the only thing that her sister could think of? "Father says that I cannot be the heiress until I have bested you on your thirteenth birthday in the official fight." Hinata's eyes clouded over. So that was why. She gently tugged her arm from her younger sister's grip.

"Then why is it you wish for a battle now? I am still only twelve." Hinata said calmly. She mentally applauded herself. _There, no stuttering. Naruto-kun probably doesn't like girls who stutter.  
_  
"You'll never beat me. You have neither the will, nor the power to do so." Hanabi said coldly, a little unnerved by Hinata's uncharacteristic show of control. "Why not call it the official battle now, so I'll humiliate you now instead of later?" Hinata tuned out the rest of Hanabi's speech, focusing instead on her mannerisms. Hanabi was trembling with rage, and behind that cold stare, there was shame. Shame of being inferior. To her? Surely that wasn't so. To someone else, maybe. Then it dawned on her. Strangely, Hinata understood.

"Who beat you, sister?" she asked gently. Hanabi's eyes widened, her first expression. The girl backed away from Hinata, shaking her head. She hated that pitying look on her sister's face.

"I.. was not defeated! Hyuugas are the strongest in the leaf! I am a Hyuuga!" she shouted. "That.. commoner tricked me!" It was a disgrace, having a member of the noblest clan in Konoha, lose to a boy who probably had more fleas than his dog. Damn that Inuzuka!

"Everyone loses a battle once in a while." Hinata said, knowing it first hand. So this was what Kiba was so gleefully talking about earlier with Shino. Something about his cousin beating his first opponent and that it was a Hyuuga. She tried to comfort her sister. "There are just some things that you cannot help-"

"Shut up! I don't want to hear it from you!" Hanabi snapped. Hinata recoiled. "If it was up to me, you wouldn't even live here, you.. you dead last!"

Hinata was silent, looking into her sister's almost glowing eyes. After a moment, she nodded, even though she was hurt, still trying to be understanding. "As you wish." Hinata walked the rest of the way to her room. She grabbed her scrolls, several changes of clothing, and various other accessories and slipped them into a big bag. Hinata paused, her hand clenching over a rusty key hanging from a chain, trying to regain her courage. After a long and heart felt sigh, she closed her door behind her, walking past Hanabi with her head held high. Hanabi watched her leave, frozen in place.

One of the servants had heard the younger girl yelling and had come running. "What's wrong, Hinata-sama?" she asked the genin, her eyes widening at the sight of the girl carrying a bag.

"The heiress wishes for me to leave." Hinata replied, almost roboticly. Hanabi was, after all, the stronger of the two. It was inevitable that the younger Hyuuga would claim her right to the head of the clan. "Who am I to resist?"

* * *

"Alright, we'll stop here." Gai said, pausing in the middle of the clearing. Team Seven immediately dropped to the ground, clouds of dust whirling in the air. The green clad jonin set a hard pace, one that they were not used to. The mist duo and Team Gai landed lighter, used to the more strenuous pace.

"Forget the sleep bags and pillows.." Naruto mumbled, wrapping his arms around a rock. "I'll just sleep here." Kakashi picked him up, ignoring his student's sleepy grumbles.

"You'll regret it in the morning." he said, dropping Naruto onto some grass. Haku leaned over, gently untangling the blond from his back pack, and pulled out his sleeping bag.

Grumbling, Naruto crawled in head first. Haku sweat dropped when all that was visible was his feet.

"Hmph. I'd hate to see what he'd do if you were ever ambushed at night." Zabuza said. "No, wait.. I'd pay good money to see that idiot trying to fight his way out of his sleeping bag while only half awake."

Kakashi laughed. "Yeah, me too."

Team Gai was silent. They pulled out their sleeping bags, rolled them out, and went to sleep. Sasuke and Sakura had a bit of a harder time getting their stuff out, but they managed, setting their stuff down by Naruto and promptly going to sleep. Kakashi sweat dropped._ Okay.. no dinner then._

"We'll take first shift." Gai said, sitting on one of the higher branches of a tree. "Then you and your team, Kakashi." Kakashi nodded, agreeing to that plan.

* * *

Someone was poking him and it was really pissing him off. His eyes stubbornly stayed closed, his nose twitching when the rich scent of forest reached it, the overlaying scent of humans only marring the scent slightly. He growled at the person when they poked a slowly healing wound, but they didn't stop. Without thinking, he extended his claws and swiped at the offending person.

"Ouch." Naruto's eyes snapped open at the sound of Kakashi's low mumble. When the scent of blood reached his nose, he wiggled out of the cocoon he was in, terrified of what he might see. He finally go himself out, and saw exactly what he didn't want to see.

Kakashi was sitting down on the ground, his pant leg pulled up to his knee. He was inspecting four long and bloody gashes on his leg. The jonin didn't look at him. "Guess you aren't a morning person either." he said mildly.

Naruto shakily walked over to Kakashi, kneeling down in front of him. "I'm.. sorry." he whispered. He looked down at his hand. The fingertips were still bloody. Kakashi looked up, surprised to see that the blond looked so stricken.

"It's no big deal. Sakura would have done worse." Kakashi said in his even tone. "I should know better." Slowly, Naruto lifted his hand.

"Do you really think these blunt fingertips could slice your leg open?" Naruto whispered, his voice thick. The genin looked like he was going to cry. "I'm a menace. Had I been more awake, had I put more energy into it.." The boy's head hung low. Kakashi looked around. Everyone else was still asleep, as it was still in the middle of the night. He had been trying to wake up the blond so they could change shifts.

He knew exactly what had happened. So close after using youki, Naruto was obviously still carrying around some animal instincts. Annoyance must have awakened the need to protect himself, thus his nails had grown into claws. He sighed, trying to think of a way to assure Naruto. It was only natural.. well, as natural as Naruto could be.

Kakashi looked down when Naruto gently touched his leg. Chakra seeped into his leg, into his wounds. Kakashi looked at the once bloody wounds, only to see his leg, unblemished and unwounded. _He.. healed me. _Somehow, the fact that Naruto had knowledge of medical jutsu even though he rarely was in need of it didn't surprise him as much as he thought it would. After all, if he knew some of the Fourth's tricks, tricks that only one other person knew, it wasn't so impossible that he knew others.

"You know Naruto.. even if I had to limp around for the next day or two, I wouldn't blame you for what happened." Naruto looked up, hopeful but guarded blue eyes meeting his own. "You're my student. Everyone loses control sometimes."

"Yeah but, not everyone has a-" Kakashi shushed him, not sure if the other genins were awake.

"Maybe not, but that doesn't make you any different. Sure as hell doesn't make you any specialer." he said teasingly. Naruto slowly started to smile. "Now, it's your turn to watch. In an hour, wake up Sasuke or Sakura and tell them to wake the other."

"Right!" Naruto jumped up, saluting Kakashi. "Sure thing, sensei!" With a smile, Kakashi turned to his own sleeping bag, pausing to say one last thing.

"We have a lot to talk about when we get home, Naruto. Don't think that I have forgotten anything. There's a lot of things that I don't understand about you." Naruto met his eyes seriously.

"I hope I can give you the answers you need, sensei." he said truthfully. "Good night."

Shuffling sounds of Kakashi settling in met their eavesdropper's ears. Finally, he relaxed and stop feigning sleep. Sasuke's eyes opened, focusing on the dark silhouette of Naruto leaning over near the fire. _What was all of that about?  
_

* * *

Even though she had made up her mind to spend the night in Naruto's apartment, she didn't go to it until the sun had already dipped far beyond the horizon and the skies were black with night. She made excuse after excuse to put off going there until there were no more excuses she could make.

Hinata let herself in the apartment, feeling as if she was intruding on a sacred sanctuary. She dropped her bag by the wall and flipped on the lights, closing the door behind her. She sighed, letting the familiar sights of the small apartment soothe her. It was almost as good as having Naruto around. She could easily imagine him anywhere in the apartment. Sitting on the counter, eating ramen. Kicking the rusty dryer to make it work. Trying to pull out a kunai that was lodged into one of the walls. She smiled at the mental image of a chibi Naruto trying to pull out the stubborn kunai that must have rusted and melded with the wall.

Hinata frowned, remembering Hanabi's harsh words._ Dead last.. isn't that what they called Naruto-kun?_ she smiled sadly. _If that is so, then I am proud to share that status with him!_ Even so, that didn't stop her tears from falling. Stubbornly trying to push them back, Hinata collapsed on the couch, letting the darkness take her away to the realm of the dreams.

* * *

"It looks boring. And dreary. And ugly."

"Shut up, Zabuza."

It had become a routine for them. Zabuza really hadn't wanted to go with them, or so he said, so he amused himself by being constantly negative. Well into the trip home, it started to be that Naruto wasn't the only one to tell Zabuza off.

But this time, Naruto stayed silent, warm blue eyes taking in the sight in front of him. His home. His Konoha. He was glad to be home. Haku stepped up next to him, wide brown eyes taking in the sights. Gleefully, Naruto began pointing out the more important parts of the village.

"Well, we must bring Zabuza and Haku in front of the Hokage, so the rest of you have the day off." Kakashi said to the genins. He and Gai led Zabuza and Haku to the Hokage office, leaving the genins behind. Haku tossed a quick good bye over his shoulder before following the others.

Naruto whooped. "Yes!" he grabbed Sasuke and Sakura's arms. "Lets go get some ramen!" His team rolled their eyes. Neji 'hmph'ed and walked away, probably going to train. Not wanting to be shown up by his rival, Lee followed him, shouting promises of a match between the Hyuuga and the green beast. Tenten was snagged by Sakura. The two had become pretty good friends over the last few days.

"By the way, I should show you guys where my dad's weapons shop is." Tenten said, letting herself be dragged along. "It's much better than the one that you usually go to, and if I tell him that your my friends, he'll give you all a discount."

Naruto laughed. "I don't know which is better, being back home, ramen, or pointy things!" Sakura elbowed him in the ribs.

"Watch it, or this kunoichi is going to stick a 'pointy thing' up where the sun don't shine." Sasuke stopped the mini battle of wits that was about to begin between the pink haired genin and the wanna be Hokage.

"Let's go to Tenten's weapons shop first." he said. Tenten grinned, taking the lead.

* * *

Naruto had been surprised. Pleasantly surprised. He really didn't think that Tenten's dad would have extended his open nature to the demon host of the fearsome beast, Kyuubi. But still, her dad was an extremely nice fellow.

The shop was rather small and dark, but had a friendly air to it. Everything was made out of wood, except for the glass that protected some of the merchandise, giving it an old time feel to it. The weapons were all by or on the walls, while all of the other accessories were in the middle aisles. In the front, by the cash register, there was a huge glass case containing hundreds of scrolls. Some were blank, some were lesser summoning techniques, while the majority were technique scrolls, all lined up according to the element. There were more fire and wood scrolls than any other scrolls, especially medic scrolls(which were fairly limited in all countries), but that was to be expected since they were in Fire Country. Had there been a shop like this in Wind Country, earth and wind scrolls would be more abundant.

Sasuke was across the shop, looking at different types of kunai while Sakura was a little ways away, looking at daggers. Surprisingly, there was a difference between the two, or so Tenten's father revealed to him when he came around. Tenten was in the back of the shop, having a loud conversation with either a sister, or her mother.

Naruto was glued to a glass case protecting some of the weapons maker's more prized katanas. His eyes were focused on a short katana, not much longer than the distance from his elbow to his wrist. There was no hand guard, and the blade and hilt were much more bulky than that of swords that ninjas used(thus not good for hiding), but in Naruto's eyes, it was perfect. He wasn't the type to hide things anyway.

He used to carry a katana like that, though he had always been more of a hand to hand combat sort of ninja. But there was just something comforting about carrying a blade around. Soft footsteps made him pull out of his stupor for a moment.

"What makes you think you could wield a katana, dobe?" Sasuke said, with a faint smirk. He caught a glimpse of the blade that Naruto had been staring at so pensively.

"And you can?" Naruto countered half heartedly, spoiling Sasuke's hopes of getting the blond riled up. The genin straightened, glancing at the things that Sasuke had in his hand. "Ah, that big shuriken thingy. That's right, you lost yours in Wave Country." Sasuke nodded, flicking one open.

"These are a lot better made. I think I'll continue to buy from this store and not the other place." he said, examining the four blades. Naruto ran a finger down the sharp end, grinning when it bled. Sasuke shifted away from Naruto and closed the shuriken. "Sharp too. Don't hurt yourself, idiot." Naruto twitched, his temper flaring. Sasuke smirked in victory.

"Why I oughta.."

Sakura came up from behind them. "What are you two fighting about now?" she asked, exasperated. Naruto and Sasuke shrugged, not thinking that it was important. Just normal 'I'll get on your nerves because I'm bored' nonsense.

"Nothing much." Naruto murmured, looking distracted. Sasuke met Sakura's eyes, shifting his head to gesture at Naruto.

"Um, yeah, that's right." Sakura said, suddenly flustered. Why did she have to be the one to ask? "There's something we've been meaning to ask you about.."

Naruto turned uninterested eyes to her briefly before focusing back on the blade. "Like what?" He had a bad feeling about this. Fight or flight instincts suddenly hit him like a bag of bricks, yet he sensed no danger.

Sakura fidgeted, an odd sight to see the normally confident girl twitching and looking nervous like she knew that what she was going to ask was something that she was sure Naruto wasn't going to like. In Naruto's mind, alarm bells rang out. This was definitely not a good sign. "Well.. You see.. The thing we were going to ask you about-"

Naruto suddenly burst into motion. "Damn! I think I left my stove on!" he ran out the door, not looking back. Sakura gaped at his retreating back. Sasuke only snorted.

"That idiot has us pegged as someone as dumb as him." he said, putting his purchases on the counter. Tenten's father, frowning to himself in deep thought, calculated what Sasuke owed and told the dark haired ninja. Sasuke carelessly tossed the money on the counter. "He hasn't been home yet. There's no way he could have gone in and left the stove on. Not unless he forgot at the beginning of our journey. But by now, there would be no home left to go to."

* * *

Naruto stopped running about a block away from the store. He slid into an alley, taking the back way, the longest way, back to his home. The often cheerful glimmer of his eyes and his one of a kind smile fell, falling into the darkness of the shadows.

He knew that look on their faces. That heavily curious, yet slightly scared gaze that always proceeded a question about his.. unnatural abilities. About the Kyuubi. About why every adult in the whole damn village hated his guts.

_Why did your eyes turn red, Naruto? Where did you get your insane power from, dead last? Why did you attack Kakashi? Why does everyone hate you? Why were you even born?_

**You know, as amusing as it is to hear you get all angsty and teary eyed... please shut the hell up. **Kyuubi's rumbling growl, as it always had, calmed Naruto's nerves. The blond rose to the occasion, gearing up for another verbal battle with his inner demon.

_You really must have softened up. Was that a 'please' I overheard? What happened to the demands, the 'now's, and the threats?_ Hearing Kyuubi growl in a menacing way, Naruto grinned and prodded some more._But you are right. I should shut up. After all, you and your big ugly mug need some beauty sleep._

Chuckling lightly to himself, Naruto started to walk a little faster. It wasn't healthy to stay in the shadows all of the time, or so was his firm belief. People were like flowers, they needed a little sun now and again.

_Or they end up looking like Sasuke-bastard. And what a tragedy that would be._ Naruto, fully cheered up and ready for mischief making, walked the small back road near the hot springs. With a sense of nostalgia, he saw a very familiar rear sticking out of the bushes, too absorbed in his 'information gathering' to notice Naruto.

He froze, remembering the last time he ever saw the man he proudly called his sensei. Weak and fragile, broken looking and sick, lying on a hospital bed. He had never looked more old in his life. Sure, his death was much more peaceful than those out in the field, but it was long and painful. He refused to take treatment, knowing that it would only waste their village's resources. Noble pervert.

Naruto grinned. _Well, for old time's sake...  
_  
"Stop peeping in the women's hot spring, pervert!" Naruto yelled, his voice echoing across the hot springs. There was a pause, then the sound of many people moving and squealing.

"No, don't go!" the peeping tom pleaded. A shoe nailed him right in the face. He stumbled back, dizzy for a moment. Naruto laughed hard at the comical look on his face, tears nearly springing to his eyes.

The feeling in his heart, the warm and fuzzy one, it was welcomed with open arms. _Hello friend. Where have you been?_ For the first time since he traveled back to his younger years, Naruto truly felt as if all was normal and good in the world.

"What do you have to do that for?" Jiraiya whined. Naruto rolled his eyes, falling back on one of his old excuses.

"When a kid peeps on a woman in her birthday suit, it's a prank. When an man does it, it's a crime. When an old man does it, namely you, it's just plain wrong." he folded his arms in front of him, scowling down at the old man in his squinty eyed way. Jiraiya immediately jumped up, showing nimbleness in his limbs that most people his age would kill for.

"Do you know who I am, little ignorant boy?" he said imperviously. Naruto quirked an amused smile. It was the same song and dance, all over again. Jiraiya was trying to impress upon him about how great he thought he was. "I am Jiraiya, the Frog Hermit!"

"Hermit. Heh. That's the polite way of saying that you don't have a love life." Naruto scoffed. Someone snickered quietly. Naruto turned his head to the sound, but Jiraiya's wildly flailing arms brought his attention back to the older man.

"Do not mock me! I am one of the three legendary sanin!" he cried out, looking distressed. Naruto arched an eyebrow, giving Jiraiya a 'so what?' glance.

"Just 'cause you made a name for yourself doesn't make you any less of a pervert, old man." he said, pretending that he was bored with Jiraiya. Naruto knew how to press the frog hermit's buttons. Jiraiya turned red, steam literally pouring out of his ears.

"He's got you pegged." Tsunade said, calmly leaning over the fence of the hot spring. To Jiraiya's great disappointment, she was fully dressed. She dropped a brick on the old man's head. It broke in half when it impacted, making Jiraiya sway for a brief moment.

For a second, Naruto just stared at her, hungry eyes searching for some sign that she had grown younger since his travel. But her illusion was too good. It was the same as it was ten years in the past and ten years in the future. Then he grinned, deciding to get on her nerves as well. It was, after all, in his nature. He looked at Jiraiya.

"Who's the old lady?"

* * *

Ha, my glimpse of the future chapter from hell.

Zabuza and Haku stand before the Elder Council, the Hokage, and a score of jonins, awaiting their fate. Iruka and Naruto catch up by the ramen bar, and the sand siblings make an entrance. Neji poses an embarrassing question to Sakura, Ino, Kiba, and Shikamaru. Maybe a reunion between Hinata and Naruto?

Haku is asked about why he wants to offer his services to Konoha. Here's a teaser:

_"We were on different sides, my friend and I. We fought each other, switched off and fought each other's senseis. He was so.. powerful. No matter what you did to him, he'd always jump right back up and fight you again. I admired him for that." Haku let go of his sleeve, meeting the Hokage's eyes. "I am but a tool, so I had no choice but to fight him and Kakashi-san, though I went out of my way to make sure that the genins wouldn't be a part of the conflict. However, our respective fights were interrupted. We were thrown together by sharing a common enemy. I knew that Zabuza-san would be a target, so I tried to get him out of the way, uncaring of what would happen to me. My friend... he saved us both and was gravely injured. I always thought that he was immune to injuries. I had seen him shake off worse, but he bled so much. It was then I realized how mortal he really was." Haku stared at his hands. "He wouldn't stop bleeding, yet.. he kept joking around, trying to keep the atmosphere light though he knew as well as we did that if one mistake was made, he'd die."_

Till next week, my friends.


	33. Tree Huggers and Demon Hosts

Ah, don't you just love the sweet boredom of a well earned vacation?  
And yeah, you can link my story to your website, Vegeta-is-Forgotten. I live for the readers, after all: )  
For those who seem to have forgotten why the two sannin are in Konoha, I suggest you read over chapter seventeen- A Little R & R

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Thirty-three: Tree Huggers and Demon Hosts

by Foxie

* * *

About ten minutes and a painfully aching jaw later, Naruto paused at the front of his apartment, a hand coming up to touch the aforementioned injury._ Damn, she still can't take a joke.  
_  
He fumbled around, looking for his key, finding it under some white shorts stuffed way in the bottom of his bag. He pulled it out with a grin, apparently forgetting that he didn't own a pair of white shorts. He stuck the key in the door knob, turned it, and let himself in. Sighing in happiness at finally being home, Naruto dropped his bag by the door. It bounced off of a foreign object, bringing Naruto's attention back to it. Another bag, a deep black, laid in the normally empty spot. He blinked. Several times.

Suddenly alert and tense, he scanned his small apartment, almost expecting to see someone or to see that this wasn't his apartment. The cramped quarters were familiar and were his, and he saw no living person in sight.

Still nervous, he walked forward and pushed the door to his room open. It was empty of life, save for the cheery plants he had stuck on the window sill. They looked well watered and fresh.

He was promptly reminded that he asked Hinata to water them. _So that stuff must be hers._  
His stomach growled at him angrily, reminding him that he had skipped out on ramen just to get away from his team and their prying questions. He beamed, thinking of the one person who he could con into buying him dinner. Besides, it was about time that he faced his old teacher.

Iruka wouldn't ask him about Kyuubi. And the added bonus was that the chuunin wouldn't judge him harshly if Naruto revealed what happened on the bridge. Maybe, by gauging Iruka's reaction and hearing the chuunin's input, Naruto could come up with a good explanation to tell his team the next time that they cornered him and demanded answers.

* * *

If either mist nin felt nervous, they didn't show it, Kakashi observed approvingly. They both stood tall, their faces carefully blank as the Elder Council read out loud the crimes they had committed to the rest of the room. Like a court room, the jonins sat as the jury and the audience, while the Hokage and the Elder Council sat behind a table far above everyone else in the judges seat, facing the two mist nins.

The Elder Council was a group of four of the oldest and most prestigious citizens of Konoha. Their pasts varied, as did their opinion on the fate of the mist nins. One of them glared hatefully at them, one stared blankly, while the only woman in the council fiddled with her pen. The head of the council read the crimes blandly, in a smooth monotone that nearly put the jonins to sleep.

The Hokage looked down at the mist nins, his hands folded in front of him. His face was impassive, but under the wide Hokage hat, his eyes sparkled with warmth. His grandfatherly face was the only sight that calmed Haku's rattled nerves.

Anko leaned forward, resting her elbows on the backs of Kakashi and Asuma's seats. The rather active woman looked bored. "So what are you guys voting for?" she murmured. Asuma only shrugged.

"I don't know if they're sincere or not." the bearded jonin said, his fingers itching for a smoke. But, alas, it wasn't allowed. "Until I see proof that they really want to join us because they want to live a bit more peacefully instead of just joining us so the hunter nins would stop following them, I'm voting no." Several other jonins, though seemingly intent on what the Elder Council was saying, paid close attention to what was going on between Kakashi, Asuma, and Anko. Asuma turned to Kakashi. "You brought them back, what do you say?"

Kakashi was quiet for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "I believe.. that Zabuza isn't as tough as he seems. Yes, he did attempt to take my and my students' lives. Yes, he was going to kill an innocent man on the order of his employer. But, truly, do we not do that ourselves?" He looked down at his hands. "We were attacked by Gatou. That mad man didn't care if his own hired hands were killed or not. My own student was shot twice by him. He bled, bled so much because he saw worth in saving their lives. Instead of dodging the bullets to save himself, he shoved Haku and Zabuza to safety, paying dearly for his noble deed. I have seen our own Konoha forces sneer at the sight of a downed enemy. I have seen my own allies take the lives of people who did what my student did, their own wounded prides not being able to take the blow. Zabuza and Haku did no such thing. And because they did what they could to slow the bleeding, even calling one of my other students over to help, my student lives. And for that, I am all for allowing them to become Konoha ninjas." Anko leaned back into her chair, for once not having anything to say. The quiet conviction in Kakashi's voice hit her hard, as well as the suppressed grief that he had almost lost one of his students. Many of the jonins who were eavesdropping changed their minds about what they were going to vote. Asuma looked over, arching an eyebrow.

"You've got one hellva pull in this crowd, Kakashi." he said with a smirk. "I think you'll get your wish." Their attention was drawn back to the front of the room, where the head of the council finally finished what he had to say.

He gazed over the jonins absently. "I'd like to thank everyone who came on such short notice." he said, his voice not losing the monotone that the jonins had come to hate. Anko yawned openly and rested her head on Kakashi's shoulder, tossing him a soft 'wake me up when it's over.'

Thehead of the councillooked back to Zabuza and Haku. "Just so you know, the jonins' decision has thirty three and a one third percent weight on your fate. Same with the Elder Council and the Hokage." Haku gulped, looking instinctively over at the Hokage. "If there's a equal amount of votes wishing to send you home to justice and to keep you here as Konoha ninjas, the tie goes to the part where we send you off to hunter nins, though the equal vote rarely ever happens."

The woman spoke up, her gaze stern. "Your transgressions have been read. Have you anything to say in your defense?" Zabuza shook his head, looking every bit the rebellious ninja. She turned to Haku. "How about you?" His eyes went back to her. He, like his teacher, shook his head. "Very well then, please-"

The Hokage cut in. "If you could just wait, Kyoko, I have a few questions to ask of our guests."

Stiffly, the woman nodded. "Proceed." The Hokage gestured for Haku to come closer. The boy did as he was asked, though a little reluctantly.

"Why is it you wish join our forces?" he asked kindly. Haku saw no reason to answer him with anything but the truth.

"I wish to remain on the same side as my friends." he said firmly. Sarutobi nodded, accepting that answer.

"Is that one of your friends' blood on your sleeve?" he asked softly. The mist boy was wearing his fighting clothes, which he hadn't had the time to wash yet. Haku lifted up his arm, looking at his sleeve. It, and the entire inside, was covered in hardened blood. His eyes clouded over.

"Yes."

One of the members on the council sputtered. "And that's the loyalty you show to your friends! Why I-" The Hokage shushed him. He looked back over at the boy.

"How did it happen?" Sarutobi prodded. Haku was still gazing at his sleeve.

"We were on different sides, my friend and I. We fought each other, switched off and fought each others' senseis. He was so.. powerful. No matter what you did to him, he'd always jump right back up and fight you again. I admired him for that." Haku let go of his sleeve, meeting the Hokage's eyes. "I am but a tool, so I had no choice but to fight him and Kakashi-san, though I went out of my way to make sure that the genins wouldn't be a part of the conflict. However, our respective fights were interrupted. We were thrown together by sharing a common enemy. I knew that Zabuza-san would be a target, so I tried to get him out of the way, uncaring of what would happen to me. My friend... he saved us both and was gravely injured. I always thought that he was immune to injuries. I had seen him shake off worse, but he bled so much. It was then I realized how mortal he really was." Haku stared at his hands. "He wouldn't stop bleeding, yet.. he kept joking around, trying to keep the atmosphere light though he knew as well as we did that if one mistake was made, he'd die." Surprised, Sarutobi watched as Haku's eyes started to gleam with suppressed tears.

"Yeah, that kid was an idiot." Zabuza said, giving time for Haku to recover. "But a good kid. I should know. I took Haku in, raising him to be the perfect weapon. I am practically Haku's father. That kid and Haku, they're one and the same." His voice was gruff. "Haku wishes to stay with his friends, I want to spend some time in peace without hunter nins on our asses twenty four/seven. So we're here. That's it." He looked annoyed that he had ended up saying more that he meant to.

Kyoko looked over at the Hokage. He nodded, leaning back in his chair. Kakashi prodded Anko lightly, letting her know the boring part was over."Alright. There are slips of paper and pens under your chair. Put down your decision and place it in the boxes that are being passed around..."

* * *

"So then, I caught the guy!" Naruto managed around a mouthful of ramen noodles. Iruka gave him a look. Naruto swallowed, then finished talking. "And we did some negotiations and stuff. It was cool." He had given the chuunin a edited version of what happened on the bridge, including his Kyuubi episode, but not the jutsus he used.

"You know, when I heard that it was an A class mission that they sent you on instead of the C class mission it was supposed to be, I almost went after you." Iruka admitted. "You aren't supposed to go on such high level missions when you're a genin."

"Hey, we did good." Naruto defended. "Besides, how in the world did you guys know that our mission took a turn for the worst, and to send Neji and them after us? Kakashi-sensei didn't have time to send a messenger back to Konoha."

"I don't know." Iruka said truthfully. "But they wouldn't allow me to go. I was needed to make preparations for the Chuunin Exam." Naruto perked up, putting one mystery down to gnaw on another, this time, one of his own secrets.

"Chuunin Exam? That's coming up soon, huh?" he said casually. Inside, his heart started to beat faster with excitement born out of fear. Not only would he have to face Gaara and Kabuto, but Orochimaru would show his ugly face in the second exam to take a chunk out of Sasuke. Naruto was the only thing in between Orochimaru and his plans. The blond had a feeling that if any event that he altered that would have a big impact on whether or not there was a war, it would be in the Chuunin Exam.

"Yeah, in a week. We have to set up places for the people who are coming in, organize the exams-" he cut himself off. "Wait. I know that look on your face." Iruka sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Naruto, I highly doubt that a first year genin will do well in the Chuunin Exam. Besides, Kakashi-san has to enter you." Naruto looked wounded.

"Have you no faith in your future Hokage?" he asked, faking a hurt look. Grinning, Iruka put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, only to have the genin twist out from underneath in a reflexive movement, gritting his teeth in pain. He slid off of his stool and landed on the ground. Iruka immediately jumped up to see what was wrong.

"Naruto!" The blond waved him off.

"It's nothing.. just a wound that doesn't have the intelligence to heal faster!" Naruto scowled at his shoulder childishly. The bullet wounds were taking a sluggishly long time to heal, unfortunately. Whenever Naruto moved his shoulder or started fighting with someone, they ached like hell. Fortunately, the wound in his side was already scar tissue but the one in his shoulder kept opening and oozing blood. He brightened up, remembering something. He stuck his hand in his pocket, pulling out the metal slug. He showed it to his teacher. "Look! Isn't it spiffy?"

Iruka picked it up out of his palm, frowning at the innocent looking metal piece. He hated guns. He used his other hand to pull Naruto up to his feet. They sat down on the stools. Naruto smiled at Iruka, looking every bit content. Iruka met his gaze.

He said the four words that made Iruka want to hug him, if not adopt him to solidify the father-son bond that was already there, screw what everyone else thought. "I missed you, sensei."

* * *

"Chuunin Exam? What's that?" Sakura and Ino, well into their gruff routine of greeting each other without revealing that they actually cared, turned to their two other companions, Shikamaru and Kiba. The latter was scratching his head in confusion while the other leaned against the wall outside the hospital, not looking very friendly at all.

"It's exactly how it sounds, mutt boy." Shikamaru said sharply. Kiba growled.

"Don't mind him." Ino said, defending Shikamaru's nasty attitude. "Chouji got sick during one of our missions and had to be brought to the hospital."

"Oh." The snarl that had exposed Kiba's fangs relaxed. He knew that Shikamaru's relationship with Chouji was as close as his and Akamaru's. Akamaru, sensing his train of thought, nudged Shikamaru's leg with his head. Slowly, the often lazy genin leaned down to scratch the small dog's ear. "So, this exam thingy, what's it about?"

Sounding more tired than angry, Shikamaru answered. "Konoha is hosting it this year. It's to decide which genins become chuunins. All the villages participate. It's also a way to advertise their village and increase their popularity. It's a substitute for war."

"Advertise?" Ino piped up. "Why would our village need to be advertised?"

"Simple." Sakura said, crossing her arms over her chest. "With every mission, Konoha gets money. Villages, may they be of ninjas or civilians, need money to run. If Konoha was known for having faster and stronger ninjas than, say, the hidden rain village, more people would come to Konoha to issue their requests. More missions, more money."

"It's also about pride." Shikamaru said, nodding to her. "Konoha wants to be known that it is the best. Same with all the other villages."

"Yeah, ninjas from other villages are already starting to pour in Konoha. I hear there's three teams from the hidden mist village, the hidden rain village, and bunch of other villages I don't give a damn about... only one from the sand and sound villages though." Ino said, counting off the villages on her hand. "Our village has at least six teams already to participate, and they haven't finished the registration yet."

"So.. can we sign up for it?" Kiba asked, a grin on his face at the thought of showing off in front of countless of foreigners. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"No. Our teachers have to enter us." she said. "It's to decrease casualties. Only teams that have enough strength will make it through the exam alive. I doubt that first year genins will be accepted." Kiba sighed dejectedly.

"But we can watch the final exam, apparently." Ino added in. "My dad was talking about taking me to it." Their conversation was immediately cut off when Neji stalked toward them. They all instinctively moved back. Even though his face was impassive as always, they could tell that he was pissed.

He stopped in front of Sakura. She blinked, almost retreating away from him, but at the last moment, held her ground. Neji was quiet for a moment, obviously trying to figure out what he wanted to say. He mentally cursed when it came out all wrong.

"Do I _look_ like a female to you?" He winced at his own tactlessness. The younger genins blinked owlishly at him.

"Uh.." Sakura started to laugh nervously. "I don't think I _want _to know why you asked that.." Ino just gaped at him, not believing that she was hearing a Hyuuga male ask if he looked like a girl. However, Kiba and Shikamaru gave him a once over.

"Yup." Kiba decided. "You look like a girl." Shikamaru nodded.

"Planning to switch teams?" he drawled, taking vindictive pleasure in Neji's slight embarrassment. The Hyuuga rolled his eyes.

"That's not why I asked." he said coldly, turning back to Sakura. "Were you not the person assigned to putting all of our stuff back in our respective bags?"

"Hey, I was searching for a certain idiot who was shirking his chores!" she defended, not liking his insinuation that she did not do what was ordered. "I asked Lee to do it for me." An unholy glint shined in Neji's eyes, one speaking of vengeance.

"Lee." he hissed. He nearly strode away, then paused to toss something over his shoulder. "Be careful when you unpack your bag. You may find... unsavory items in there."

Having a quick mind, Sakura immediately figured out what he meant. She covered her eyes with her hand, looking embarrassed. "Lee..." she groaned. Sakura was somewhat relieved that she had dropped her back pack off at her house without looking through it. She could only imagine what Neji had found in his back pack to make him ask if he looked like a girl. Whatever it was, she hoped it wasn't hers.

* * *

Hinata boiled some water, feeling a strange urge to have ramen. It must have been the news that Team Seven was back in town that made her desire something that reminded her so much of her favorite blond. She knew she should leave. Hinata was pretty sure that she could ask either Sakura or Ino if she could sleep over at their house. She knew that she didn't want to go home yet. Would she even be wanted? She sighed, not hearing the door open behind her.

"Hinata-chan.." she heard someone mumble. Hinata whipped around in a sudden fright, accidentally burning herself. There, in the doorway, the dying light of the day shadowing his face, Naruto stood. A strange longing look passed over his face before it was quickly masked.

"N-Naruto-kun." Hinata whispered, instantly hating the involuntary stuttering that came with it. Absently, she put her hand over the burn mark and healed it.

Naruto grinned, making the universal stop sign with his left hand. "Wait a second." he said, chuckling lightly to himself. He went back outside and closed the door behind him. She could only blink owlishly at where he once stood.

The door swung open with force, hitting the wall with a bang. "Honey, I'm home!" Naruto called out cheerfully. He bent over, laughing his head off. It was strange how the smallest things could amuse him, she thought. Of course, to him, it wasn't as funny as it was sad. Naruto never had someone to go home to. "I've always wanted to say that.." he murmured, so low that Hinata almost missed it.

He closed the door behind him, taking his time locking it. Hinata took the time to calm herself down, hoping that her face wasn't too red. However, her small semblance of control was immediately scattered to the four winds at his next words.

"What's cookin', good lookin'?" Naruto said casually, sliding into the chair in his makeshift kitchen. He rested his elbows on the table as he watched Hinata drop the fork she had been stirring the noodles with in her embarrassment. She hastily picked it up.

Naruto laughed quietly to himself. She still was so shy. She had been more confident in his future, but any advances he made immediately turned her back into the shy shuttering little girl he knew so well. They had gotten together, through the forceful interferences of Sakura, but no matter how close Naruto held the blue haired girl to his heart, he had been firmly convinced that Hinata only needed him for his company and comfort, as many ninjas found themselves doing. That is, until Neji dropped the news of Hinata's feelings toward him several years after her death, and only a few seconds before the most exhausting trip of his life. Literally.

"J-just ramen." she said shyly, turning back to the pot. Hinata didn't think her face would turn back to its normal color any time soon.

"'Just ramen'?" he echoed, mocking great shock. "Are you sure you even know me? Ramen is my god! That, and coffee. Those two are the prime reasons why I'm so damn short, you know." She laughed softly.

"I'm s-sure you'll grow up to be a lot taller than the rest of us." Hinata said kindly. Naruto grinned, though she couldn't see it. Of course he would. The only person that had been taller than him was Lee, who grew like a damn bean stalk. And looked like one too.

He sobered up a little, noticing the way her shoulders were hunched over. Her delicate fingers griped the fork tightly. Her head hung low. Understanding Hinata's body language was like a second nature to Naruto. She was upset about something, and was trying pretty damn hard to hide it.

Hinata was glad that she had misjudged the amount of ramen packets to put in. There was enough for both her and Naruto. She pulled out two bowls, surprising Naruto with her familiarity around his kitchen(not to mention that there was actually _clean_ dishes in the apartment). She poured some in hers, but much more in Naruto's, setting them both down on the table.

Naruto very nearly leapt upon the offered bowl, the fact that he just had ramen an hour ago not effecting his appetite in the slightest. He finished in barely a minute. Hinata ate at a more sedate pace. She kept her eyes on her bowl, feeling Naruto's gaze on her like a ton of bricks. Naruto pushed the empty bowl to the side, resting his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands as he carefully tried to piece together what he was about to ask, as opposed to jumping right in and asking bluntly. He knew that she would retreat if she felt threatened, and the last thing Naruto wanted was for Hinata to fear him, or any unwanted questions he might ask her. Heh, just a few hours ago, he had been running away from questions, yet now, he was the one forcing them.

"Hinata-chan.." he murmured, gaining her attention, "why are you here?" She flushed and started to stutter an explanation, but Naruto cut in. "I like having someone over at my apartment, don't get me wrong. It's lonely sometimes. I normally wouldn't ask, merely thank my blessings that someone wants to be near me, but you seem very troubled." He was playing dirty, pulling out his rarely used sympathy card. So what? It worked like a charm, opening her up so she'd tell him what was wrong.

"Oh, Naruto-kun." Hinata said, her eyes sad. "I just.. w-well.." Above all things, she was pleased and humbled that he actually cared. It was rare that someone noticed her at all, never mind when she was feeling sad. She told him everything, not suppressing one thing. Told him of the pains of being an heiress, of her secret training, of how she felt so inferior to her younger sister. When he nodded, showing he was listening, she grew more confident. She started pacing, telling him with a bit more heat about what had happened between her and her sister. When he grew annoyed, she quickly defended her sister, telling him a bit more about the girl she hardly knew herself.

"And so.. I came here." she finished. Hinata fidgeted. "And I r-realize that I'm invading your-" Naruto waved off her words.

"Don't give me that crap." he said bluntly. "My home is your home, Hinata-chan. I'm really proud of you, rebelling against what you don't think is right. Hyuuga law or not, the second you got that forehead protector was the second you became an adult, free to make your own choices." Naruto took her hands in his, his serious blue eyes holding her pale ones. "I'm proud to have you as a friend, and if you need anything, just know this: I'll be here for you." She flushed, retracted her hands and mumbled something about cleaning up, hastily taking the excuse to get away from him.

Naruto sighed mournfully. With Hinata, it had always been one step forward and two steps back. He had patience though, something his younger self hadn't had an abundance of. He had tried to stay away from Hinata, convinced that she somehow have a better life if she wasn't involved with him, but she drew him back to her, like a moth to a flame.

He got up, giving Hinata her space. He grabbed his back pack from beside the door and flipped it upside down, letting the contents fall to the floor. _What the hell?_ he thought, finally noticing and seeing foreign clothing mixed in with his own. Naruto lifted up a pair of white shorts, easily recognizing them as Sasuke. Putting that aside, he lifted up a silky shirt, the same style that Tenten always wore. Then below that, there was a roll of fighting bandages, either Neji's or Lee's. Then the very last strange item made Kyuubi howl with glee and Naruto flush a dark red, before he realized all of the fun that could come out of the item.

He chuckled sadistically, stuffing the white bra in his pocket. "Hinata-chan!" the genin, her face finally retreating back to its normal pale tone, turned to him, her eyes questioning. "Let's go. There is much mischief to be making."

* * *

"So.." Ino drawled out, her hands twitching. Sakura blinked at her, feeling an odd sense of deja vu. Somehow, the nervousness that her on again, off again friend was showing reminded her of her own anxiety over asking Naruto about his strange blood limit.

They had gone to one of their old hang out spots, in one of the training areas. For some reason, the blond insisted that Shikamaru had to come. Sakura hadn't objected. After such a mentally and physically exhausting mission, the last thing she wanted to do was start their regular battles. Ino seemed to hold the same idea in mind.

They didn't face each other, relaxing on the grass like old times, watching as the sun dipped lower and lower in the sky. Shikamaru sat against a tree nearby, looking and acting much like their guard, but Sakura had a feeling that he was just there for moral support. He took charge of the conversation that Ino was nervous to begin. Heh, nervous. Sakura never saw that one on Ino before.

"How's Naruto?" he asked, sounding uninterested. Sakura spared him a glance.

"He's fine." she said cautiously.

"Wasn't he hurt?" Ino rushed in, sitting up suddenly. Sakura didn't like that look in her eyes. Ino looked worried. For Naruto? How could that be? She rarely spoke two words to the blond, and they usually were 'shut up', a occasional 'idiot', 'moron', or another variation of the definition to spice up the mix. "Shouldn't he be in a hospital?"

Sakura blinked again. "Uh.. No.." she said, sitting up as well. An odd light appeared in Ino's eyes. It was thinly concealed hope. Could her vision been wrong and Maemi's device been faulty? Could it all have been just a really bad dream? "Well, Naruto did get beat up some. He got a shuriken to the stomach and two bullet holes, but he's still walking." Sakura finished casually, not realizing that she had burst Ino's hopes. Ino sighed, letting her head hang between her knees. _Damn.  
_  
Shikamaru tore his eyes away from his team mate's devastated face when he heard a twig snap. He turned his head, seeing the very person that they had been talking about walking stealthily over to the girls, a faintly confused Hinata trailing after him. Naruto met his eyes and brought his finger to his lips. He wanted to scare the girls.

Naruto held up a hand to stop Hinata, then promptly pounced on the two serious looking girls. He covered their eyes with his hands.

"Guess who?" he said in a sing song voice. He was hurled off and away from them when Sakura's rage triggered her unnatural strength.

"Dammit, Naruto!" she called out angrily. Naruto quickly bounced up, going back over to her.

"Now, Sakura-chan.." he said in a mockingly reprimanding tone. "I had something to tell you, but if you're going to be so ungrateful and cruel.."

Again, Sakura felt that twinge of curiosity sift through her anger. "And that was?" she asked sharply, sure that it was going to be something as stupid as his 'Relaxation no Jutsu'. When Naruto smiled merrily before taking her hands in his, she knew her gut instinct was right.

Naruto winked at Hinata before turning his gaze towards his pink haired team mate, his eyes suddenly mournful and sad. Another flawless act played by the foxy ninja. "Poor, poor Sakura-chan.." Naruto said, shaking his head. "I know I'm such a fine catch and all-" Sakura tried to yank her hands from his, but the other genin had an iron grip. "-but, I'm afraid I must decline your advances." Sakura turned red, her agile mind catching on to his meaning.

"You're hitting on Naruto?" Ino said in a disbelieving voice. "Come on, I thought you had better taste than that." Naruto stuck his tongue out at her childishly while Sakura stuttered out denials. Hinata blinked, not sure what Naruto was doing, but very firm in her belief that he was just kidding around. There was just too much brightness in his eyes for him to be serious about what he was saying.

"Tch." Shikamaru muttered. " If Sakura is hitting on Naruto, then why is Naruto refusing? He's had a thing for her since.. ever."

Naruto grinned. "Glad you asked!" he turned back to Sakura, his face once again mournful. Her face was purple with barely suppressed rage. After all, Sasuke would be annoyed if she killed Naruto, wouldn't he? That was the only thing keeping the blond in their plane of existence. Naruto patted her hands twice and gave her a mockingly sympathetic look. "You see, Sakura-chan, where once your advances were welcome, they are now not. For my heart belongs to another!"

Sakura's eye twitched dangerously, a sign that she was three seconds away from flattening Naruto. She was beginning to think that they could just get another idiot to take Naruto's spot on the team. Sasuke probably wouldn't mind all that much. "And who could that be?" she said bitingly. "The lady at the ramen stand?"

"Nope!" the genin replied cheerfully. "It's Hinata-chan!" All at once, three heads turned to the shy Hyuuga. She turned red, then an ashen pale. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she dropped to the ground in a dead faint. Shikamaru stretched out, nudging her with his foot.

"Damn. I think she blacked out." he said, shooting an annoyed glance over at the ecstatic fox host. "Way to go, Romeo."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, letting go of Sakura's hands. He really wasn't proud of his own back handed way of telling Hinata that he cared a lot about her too, but he just couldn't see himself walking up to her and just telling her straight out. For one, it was embarrassing. And he'd end up fumbling and saying something stupid. This way, she's hear him say it, but not be really sure if he was serious. He preferred it that way.

"Aww, that's so cute." Ino cooed. Shikamaru snorted.

"That's not the point!" Sakura shouted, grabbing Naruto by the neck. He flailed for a moment, then accepted his fate. She shook him relentlessly. "The point is that you're lying about me hitting on you!" Naruto, slightly blue faced, just grinned at her with his winning smile.

"B-but I've even g-got proof!" he wheezed. Ino pushed the two apart, allowing Naruto precious moments to get his oxygen.

"Proof, eh?" Suddenly, Ino and Naruto had identical impish grins. Inner Sakura cursed.** Attack of the blonds. **Ino looked over at the shorter boy. "Lets see it, tough guy."

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest. "Go ahead, I'd like to see it." she glared. "Because there should be no proof of me hitting on you because.. what a strange yet true fact.. _I didn't hit on you_!"

Naruto started giggling. "Suit yourself." he reached into his pocket, pulling out the suggestive article of clothing, a white bra. Flaming red, Sakura tried to grab it out of his hand, but Ino was quicker.

"Ah." she said, sage like. She twirled the bra around on her finger, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. "This is very incriminating evidence."

"It was Lee!" Sakura snapped in her defense. She refused to look at Naruto.

"Lee's bra?" Naruto couldn't help himself. Sakura kicked him in the head. He rolled head over heels, stopping in a slight crouch. He pouted, seemingly unaware of the large bump on his head because he once again forgot to put on his forehead protector.

Sakura glared, explaining herself for the second time that day. At least the cold Hyuuga hadn't gotten the wrong idea that she was flirting with him! "He put the clothes away, that's how you got it, you damn fool! Besides, how do you know that's mine and not Tenten's?"

Naruto's eyes lit up, his mouth opening to make a comment that would probably get his head ripped off, but Ino immediately covered it. "She left herself open for that one." she told him, shaking her head. "It's just too easy." Naruto's shoulders slumped in his disappointment.

* * *

It started to get late and dark, and all of them needed to get back home. Hinata woke up and was steady fast in her determination to not look at Naruto at all. Instead, she practically clung to Sakura, who violently growled at Naruto when he invaded her bubble, making the blond go out of his way to get away from her.

They walked back into the heart of Konoha, at the crossroads where they would eventually spilt up and go home. They turned to each other.

"Well, guess we'll see you guys later?" Ino tossed over her shoulder, glancing back at the two genins from Team Seven and Hinata. Shikamaru and Ino walked the same path home, though his route was a lot longer than hers.

"Sure." Naruto said, waving at them. "Bye!" Shikamaru and Ino repeated the gesture, then started their way home. Naruto watched their retreating back for a moment before turning to Sakura and Hinata. "I hope Haku and Zabuza are okay." he murmured. Hinata had been informed just who Haku and Zabuza where a bit earlier.

"What reminded you of them?" Sakura asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Just a thought." he said evasively. He turned to Hinata and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, Hinata-chan." She smiled back, nervous but in no way angry at Naruto for embarrassing her like that. Just the words that suggested that he liked her as much as she liked him, even in jest, were what made her day.

"Well well well.. Look what the cat coughed up." Hinata blinked, turning to the voice. It was Kiba, his dog lazily sleeping on his head. Behind him, Shino looked disinterested in what was going on, even as he acknowledged her presence with a slight nod. "Don't you have a curfew, chibi?" Sakura looked at Naruto, trying to gage how he was responding to Kiba's taunts. The blond looked bored, but he was twitching.

"Kiba-kun, that's not nice." Hinata said in defense. Kiba felt slightly guilty, though he had no idea why. He shook off the feeling, pushing the sight of Hinata's disappointed eyes to the back of his mind.

"Little kids like you should have curfews. Your mommy is probably worried sick by now." he said, laughing at the blond. Naruto still didn't rise to the bait, though his chakra spiked for a moment.

"Orphans don't have curfews, fool." Kiba's head snapped to the sound of the voice. Sasuke emerged from the shadows, looking more than a little unfriendly. His dark eyes glared and froze Kiba to his spot.

"Sasuke." Naruto said, turning to his friend. "Tone down the iciness. Kiba's stupid. He didn't know." Sasuke looked at Naruto for a long hard moment, then scoffed, turning his head away.

"Suit yourself." he said shortly. Having no parents had always been a sore point with him, even more so since he was destined to kill the man who murdered them. Even so, Naruto had never known a parent's touch. Never known the security a child felt in a parent's presence, the joy and pride when the parent complimented the child, the love the child felt from them when they snuck into the child's room at night and pulled the blanket over them. He pitied himself, for losing them at such a young age, but he pitied Naruto even more. And sometimes even envied him for not having the same painful memories.

Kiba met Naruto's eyes, a silent apology passing from the Inuzuka to the fox host. Kiba looked guilty but he was prideful aswell. He wouldn't say sorry out loud to one of his rivals.Naruto merely smiled. Shino gave Naruto a piercing look(how Naruto knew that the bug user was looking at him through his dark glasses, even he didn't know), then he turned to look down the middle path, suddenly alert and cautious.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked of the genin. Everyone turned to the middle path, peering into the darkness. Hinata was worried. Naruto had responded to whatever Shino had sensed at the same time the bug user turned. What was it that they sensed?

Naruto took several steps back, shocked at the feeling of youki in the air. _What the hell! Gaara?_ Two figures eventually became visible in the night. The genins tensed, recognizing the sand forehead protectors.

"And just what the hell are you two doing here?" Kiba growled at them. Temari and Kankurou gave him disinterested glares.

"Chuunin Exam, fool." Kankurou said harshly. "But of course, a little weakling like you wouldn't know about that, would you?"

"You're on our turf now." Sasuke said just as harshly. "If one of us starts a fight with you foreigners, all we'll get a slap on the wrist. But you'll get sent back to whatever hell hole you crawled out of."

Naruto pushed Sakura and Hinata behind him, alert eyes scanning for the one and only sand nin that he was wary of. He had felt a slight twinge of dark amusement in the air, emotions he could feel because of a similar fate shared with the other demon host. Gaara had been his friend, but even he would have admitted that the only thing that would have amused him in his younger years was the spilling of blood.

"I'm not getting involved with this." Temari stated, a yawn escaping her lips. "We were supposed to be going to the hotel, not picking fights with little kids. You be the one to take the fall for this." She leaned against the wall of the store nearby, looking disinterested in the events that would follow.

Kankurou grinned, his hands going in front of him. They could barely make out glowing blue strands connected to his fingers. "Don't worry. There won't be a big enough piece of them left to be used as evidence against me.. after I'm done with them."

Sasuke and Kiba hesitatingly got into defense positions, the only proof of their reaction to that statement was the sweat on their faces. "We out number you." Kiba said, putting on a brave face. "It is you who will be scattered into a billion pieces." Shino took a step forward, putting his hands on Kiba and Sasuke's shoulders.

"I do not think that fighting would be the best course of action." Shino said quietly, for their ears only, "Though I do not doubt that, together, we could defeat him, what I worry about most is the dark shadow that trails them retaliating in his defense. We could not stand up to the shadow's might. This is what my bugs tell me." They paused, looking at the bug user.

"Tch!" Kankurou scoffed. "All of you fools put together couldn't defeat even the weakest of the sand nin! You tree hugging fools are pathetic."

"Just because we entertain thoughts of peace doesn't mean we aren't powerful ourselves." Naruto stated calmly. His eyes narrowed, becoming as sharp as shards of blue glass. "Are you picking on us because the one you really want to pick on would kill you if you looked at him the wrong way?" Kankurou reeled back, his shock too great for him to rein a hold on his emotions and keep a black face. _Just how the hell did he know?_ "It is not you that strikes fear in our hearts. It is the one that follows you that makes our hearts race. The very one that you fear yourself. It is his oppressive and immense dark aura that makes us falter." The serious look on Naruto's face dimmed as he grinned humorlessly. "Don't take credit for his work." Naruto's half hearted smile dropped when he felt a twinge of curiosity from the shadows, with a healthy dose of blood lust.

He and Shino shared a disturbed glance. For once, Naruto was glad that Shino and his bugs were rather sensitive to their surroundings. He needed an ally.

Naruto stiffened when he felt the brush of sand against the back of his neck. Gaara was rematerializing right behind him, right between the two girls that he had shoved behind him. Before the other demon host was completely solid, Naruto pulled Hinata and Sakura away from him. All attention was drawn to them at the motion.

Cold teal eyes met a pair of blue. They dared for the blond to back down, to back away like Naruto's friends and even his own family did. Naruto only stared at him blankly, his arms crossing over his chest. There was a hint of challenge in his defiant stance.

Gaara could only sigh mentally. If only he could accept the silent challenge and send the strange genin's limbs to scatter all over the pathetic city where he was forced to come. But Baki said that, in order for things to run smoothly, the only killings he could do had to be in the Chuunin Exam. It would draw too much attention if a random genin disappeared in an area where Gaara was frequent to haunt.

"I believe that what you said isn't completely true." Gaara murmured. "Care to explain why you lied?" Kankurou hastily backed up, not wanting to be caught up in a coffin of death and sand, or something as equally dreary. Temari pushed away from the wall, backing away as well. They both knew how Gaara detested liars.

Naruto only looked confused. "And how is it that I lied?" he countered.

"You said I strike fear in your and your companions' hearts." Gaara said, crossing his arms over his chest. "If that was true, why is it that I only sense fear from them, but not you?" Strange, his aura had people running away from fear before he even knew they were there. Yet the other boy stood so close to him and didn't even flinch. All it would take was a simple mental push and he could break the idiot's neck with a strand of sand. How naive of him not to fear Gaara, the demon of the sand.

Naruto looked away, closing his eyes. "Alright, I suppose I did lie. I hate a lot of people, people who could easily break my neck if they had the chance and could possibly go after the people I care about. But I fear.. no one." His eyes opened, narrowed into navy blue daggers. "Not even you."

Gaara looked over the Konoha genin carefully, something about him triggering a strange sense of deja vu or a recollection of some kind. Something about him was so familiar, something he was sure he had seen every day, in the reflection of a mirror...

He stiffened at the hated demon within rose to look at the human that his cage was so interested in. He chuckled darkly, a single name trickling through Gaara's mind. **Kyuubi..  
**_  
A demon host. _Gaara thought, his eyes glowing with a golden sheen. In the back of his mind, he was interested, curious even. Had his life been as bad as Gaara's? How many people had betrayed him? Did he revel in the feel, sight, and smell, as Gaara did? Did he ever try to take his own life when the mental pain became too much?

He pushed the questions out of his mind, pushed away the fresh feelings of pain they brought with them. He grinned in a feral way in his mind. _A battle between two demons, and the unlucky fools attached to them. So much blood would be spilt.. And maybe, he'll kill me and I won't have to suffer anymore.  
_  
"Not even him?" Gaara pointed to himself, somehow knowing that the blond would understand that he meant the demon in him. Then he pointed to Naruto's stomach. "Or him?" Naruto shook his head.

Unconsciously, in his annoyance of the simple fact, his own mixed version of chakra and youki pressed down on the people in front of him, a instinct that was brought along by his demon tenant, to subdue and dominate weaker opponents without moving a finger. They shivered, and Naruto snarled at the scent of their fear. His mixed energy pushed back against the overbearing pressure ruthlessly, surprising Gaara into submission.

The red haired nin gazed at Naruto. "You're a fool." he stated, reining in his blood lust. Naruto recognized the retreat, pulling back in his chakra and dropping his defiant stance. "An ignorant fool."

"Ignorance is bliss." Naruto countered, grinning at the other. Gaara's face didn't change expressions though he almost didn't stop the reflexive eye roll. He growled at the blond when he seemed to only become more amused at his loss of control.

He turned to the genins. "I'm afraid we have to go." he said, even though he looked down at them like they were insects, he was still distantly polite. He started to walk away. "Kankurou. Temari." His two siblings jumped and pushed their way through the crowd, following after him. Gaara paused, tossing one last thing over his shoulder. "You will be in the Chuunin Exam. You will make it through. Then, when we meet again, I will kill you." With that said, he trailed after his siblings, their forms being lost to the darkness of the night. Naruto watched them walk away, a very unsettling feeling coming over him. Somehow, with the luck that always seemed to be involved with him, he had once managed to pull Gaara out of his darkness. Could he possibly do it again?

Naruto felt the weight of his friends' stares like a lead weight. He closed his eyes, preparing himself mentally. "Well, if that isn't a vote of confidence.." he said cheerfully, spinning around to toss them a fake smile. He defiantly didn't like the way that Kiba and Naruto's own team mates were looking at him, awed and a bit afraid. He turned to Shino, his eyes narrowing. He arched an eyebrow as a silent question. If Shino and his bugs could sense the youki in Gaara, then they could sense the same in him. Would the stoic boy tell?

Shino shook his head. Naruto shot him a relieved smile. He could deal with the details later, as long as nobody else found out about his tenant. He grabbed Hinata's hand and started to walk home.

Unconsciously, Kiba, Sakura, and Sasuke formed a wall of resistance, standing in his way. Feeling his tension, Hinata squeezed his hand gently. He turned to her, feeling comfort in her presence. As long as she stood by him, as long as she didn't know about Kyuubi and hate him like all the rest...

"What was that about?" Sakura asked, tugging on his vest to get his attention. "Do you know that guy?"

Naruto paused, considering his answer. "In.. a round about way, yeah." In an other worldly, alternate dimension sort of way. Where the sky was no longer blue, but a dreary grey. Where the world is bathed in blood and the person responsible for it was free from justice because he perfected an immortality jutsu. What Naruto wouldn't give to seal Orochimaru's soul to a toilet for all eternity.

* * *

Hehe, I got a couple of ideas, but I am not sure if it could fit in with my (mental) outline of the story, so I'll ask your opinion. Would you rather things continue on as they are, with Naruto and the rest of the crew going on to Chuunin Exam and having it end a couple of chapters later with my super cool ending(by now, any ending would be fantastic to me, so my opinion is biased. You'll just have to see), OR would you rather I put the ending off for a while by introducing a new story arc?

**Anyone who detests spoilers, vote for either 'continue howyou was going', or, 'new story arc(s)'. Those who need more info on what I plan to add to that new story arc(s), continue reading.  
**1.) I was planning to delve more into the kinjutsu, how it was created, how Kyuubi stole it and stuff, by having Team Seven(maybe with another team, too) escort a scholar to an old cave which, the scholar doesn't tell them until last minute, once was Kyuubi's den! Of course, Kyuubi's going to be pissed, the scholar isn't going to have pure intentions(he wants a hand on the many trinkets that Kyuubi has lying around), and Naruto will have to tell his team about Kyuubi. Yay, confrontations! Of course, if this one is added on to the story, it will make the ending and the arc leading up to it all the more better..  
2.) Anyone up for seeing Future Gaara, Sakura, Lee, or Neji? I was thinking(it came to me in the strangest of dreams too. No more chocolate before bed.) that maybe one or more of the seven-ish people who survived comes back to the past, only to give a warning and not to meld in with their past person like Naruto did. Maybe with something like news that Orochimaru or the last remaining Akatsuki members were brutally killed by an even stronger enemy and Naruto and crew must train in order to defeat him. Or her. Of course, this would also have to mean that Naruto's little secret, his time traveling adventure, would be thrown wide open in front of the Hokage and everyone else. This would be pretty hard to pull off but it sounds kinda fun! Just think, Sakura spazzing because she thinks there's a clone of her running around, mixed reactions when they re-meet Sasuke, Lee getting all emotional over Gai(who, to Future Lee, has been dead for quite a while), and Gaara giving everyone the evil eye.

So review! I won't be tallying up the votes, but I'll be carefully paying attention to each and every review. A simple statement on which one you'd prefer would be nice, but I'd love for you to explain why.

'Kay. Next Chapter:  
Naruto tries to cover up his tracks by getting Jiraiya to re-train him, so if Kakashi gets around to asking, all he'll say is that he's training under the frog pervert. They find out the fate of our favorite mist duo, and Kurenai, Asuma, and Kakashi break the news of the Chuunin Exam to their students. Sasuke and Sakura tries to pry information about Naruto from Iruka, and Naruto gets chased through Konoha after interfering with Tsunade and her not so wise decision while she's trying to bury her sorrows and her memories in sake. A show down between the two future Hokages!


	34. Nightmares and Memories

Wow.. That's the most reviews I ever had for one chapter, completely sailing me over the 1000 review mark. Just.. wow. Thank you.  
For the two suggestions I made for the story.. I have decided that I will have the first story arc after the Chuunin Exam arc and just before the last one, and I may use the other idea for a sequel, but I'm not completely sure.  
I've been working all week to get my computer up to date, but I managed to squeeze out a  
chapter, just for you! Sorry it's a little late though..

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Thirty-four: Nightmares and Memories

by Foxie

* * *

Hinata hummed softly as she made breakfast. It was strange, and even comfortable, to be doing domestic chores in Naruto's humble home, though she had never touched a frying pan or a cleaning rag before that week in her entire life. Naruto protested almost immediately, saying that the last thing he wanted was her to be his maid. He immediately flushed right afterwards, making Hinata wonder what he was thinking about. But she still insisted that it would be her way of payment for staying in his home. Knowing that she still felt guilty about 'taking advantage of him'(he got a real laugh out of that one, especially since _he_ was the one entertaining the idea of Hinata in a french maid uniform), he finally agreed.

But one thing Naruto insisted on was her sleeping in his bed while he slept on the couch. She refused, but when he took her hands in his, telling her that it was a perfect compromise with that almost silent voice he adopted when he was trying to be serious, she finally agreed. How could Hinata not, with those eyes on her?

She turned the heat down, turned around, and walked over to the couch to wake Naruto up. When Hinata had waken up earlier, she had checked on him to see a cute sight of Naruto hugging his pillow and mumbling something about ramen. He looked so innocent and young without a scowl, a grin, or one of those incredibly serious looks she had been catching him having lately.

But now, he frowned, tossed and turned, scrunched his eyes shut, as if he was trying hide from the images flying under his eyelids. His teeth were clenched together, but instead of the growl or snarl she had been expecting, he whimpered. Worried, Hinata stretched a hand out to him, trying to sooth his thrashing.

Sensing someone near him, Naruto lashed out, catching a thin wrist in his grip. His nightmare was blending in with reality. Still half asleep, he reached under his pillow where there should have been a kunai, but there was nothing. Griping silently about losing his katana again, he began to curse at himself.

Why didn't he dodge that first blow? Why hadn't he just taken the little prick's advice and back out of the battle? Naruto was sure that he would have killed the traitorous medic nin in the long run, after all, that was what he promised the last time he had the displeasure of seeing him. Kabuto's ass was his!

Kabuto planned it all, that bastard! Knew that she'd die for him, when Naruto didn't even know himself. What had he said, what had he done to make the bastard realize that Hinata was his greatest weakness? Anger surged forth, pushing back the fresh pain he felt at her death. Who was attempting to attack him now, a accomplice determined to finished the job? Naruto's eyes finally opened, meeting the concerned eyes of the very girl who had died for him.

She was leaning over the arm of the couch awkwardly, as he had nearly yanked her over it on reflex, but still, even though it had hurt her, she still was so worried. All of the rage and the pain that had spilled over from his dream into reality evaporated.

Gently this time, he pulled her over the arm of the couch into his lap, loosely wrapping his arms around her waist and rested his forehead against the back of her neck. Naruto ignored her flustered stuttering, her embarrassment, for the time being. He took comfort in the warmth of her in his arms, her racing heartbeat, and that familiar scent that hung around her, blocking out the horrible memories of his past. How he had lost her because she had refused to lose him.

It wasn't until much later, when, after she learned of his deeper secrets, Hinata realized that the moisture that fell on her neck wasn't sweatcaused by the nightmare, but tears. For her.

* * *

Three hours later, Team Seven glared as a unit at their tardy teacher. Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, backing away, for the waves of menace coming from them made him a little nervous.

"I've got a good excuse this time." he said, waving his hands in defense when they gave them disbelieving looks. He handed each one of them a slip of paper as a peace offering. "I've entered you in the Chuunin Exam! You've till the end of the week to decide." He sighed in relief when his students became more occupied with the thoughts of the Chuunin Exam than his usual tardiness. It's wasn't that he was afraid of them, per say. It was just that Sakura and Naruto both had a healthy set of lungs and he already had a headache. No sense adding to it.

"So Iruka-sensei isn't giving you a hard time about it?" Naruto asked, distinctly remembering that his old teacher and his present teacher had gotten into an argument over whether or not the Rookie Nine were strong enough to survive the Chuunin Exam. Of course, Iruka had no real reason to worry, as four of the nine made it all the way to the finals and there were only one serious injury. His eyes clouded over as he remembered exactly who had gotten that injury and that reminded him of that morning. _Hinata-chan.._

"Nope!" Kakashi said cheerfully, as if he didn't enter them into an exam that could end their lives. Sasuke glared at him. _Kakashi could be just a little worried for our sakes.. _"He said that, after talking to you, he believed that, even if you all weren't strong enough, you'd at least be mature enough to call it quits if it became too much for you. By the way, Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai also entered their students in, so if you want to scope out the competition.."

Sasuke looked down at the small slip of paper, Kakashi's words flowing in one ear and going out the other. He frowned as he recalled the words of the strange sand nin the night before. _First Naruto seems to know what's going to happen, smug little bastard, then someone else had the insight to send Team Gai after us, then that creepy sand thug predicts that we'll be in the Chuunin Exam? There's a connection, I know it!  
_  
"Heh, imagine that.." Naruto murmured to himself, gazing at the slip of paper in his hand.  
_  
Am I even strong enough to be in this exam? _Sakura wondered realistically. _Naruto and Sasuke would get pretty far, I know. All I'd do is drag us down._ Even with her growing skill in medical jutsus, she was still the weakest and the slowest member of the team. And she could do much to help that. Sakura was training, of course, had even tried the technique that Naruto had taught Sasuke, and the latter had used to save them in Wave Country, but she was still so far behind them. For her team mates, the sky was the limit, their innate skills being enough to soar them through the clouds. But she, other than her knack for healing and her excellent chakra control, had nothing.

Naruto didn't even pause to think, he said what was on his mind. "Ha! We'll sail past this stupid test! Our team is the best!" The others smiled at his confidence. Somehow, his assured statement, though biased, since it was his team, made them feel a lot better. It was strange how such arrogant sounding words could cheer them up. Maybe it wasn't the words, but the person who said them.

"Yeah, we'll get through." Sakura said, grinning at her friends. "As a team!"

"Together!" Naruto said, pumping his fist in the air. "Sasuke as the skill, me as the decoy, and Sakura-chan as the most important component!" He knew her fear, so he attacked it straight on. Sasuke smirked, catching onto his well intentioned ploy.

"How?" Sakura murmured, looking shocked. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks at the mere thought of being the most important part of their strange team.

"As the healer, of course." Sasuke said, pushing aside all other thoughts. He smiled at her. "Healing our, how did you put it.. Mental and physical wounds?" She blushed even deeper. He had remembered what she said.

Naruto blinked owlishly at the pair of them. _Holy crap, did Sasuke-bastard just smile! _The thought of the aloof genin doing something other than scowling, glaring, looking blank, or smirking knocked Naruto on ass with shock.

Kakashi coughed, regaining their attention. "Got more news." he said calmly. "It's about a moody devil and an ice boy." They leaned forward, eager to hear what was to be Haku and Zabuza's fate. Kakashi coughed again, his mask hiding his smirk. "Well, nobody liked them so we fed them to the hungry homeless people." While Sakura and Sasuke looked horrified and surprised at the news, Naruto rolled his eyes. And just when he thought that Naruto would be easiest to fool..

"Dammit, Kakashi-sensei, stop screwing around and tell us what the old farts said about Haku and Zabuza." the blond said impatiently. Kakashi sighed in defeat while Sasuke and Sakura, realizing that they had been fooled, shot him annoyed glares.

"Well, the vote was in favor of them staying." Kakashi said, shrugging. "They both are classified as 'chuunins', but Zabuza is going to be given jonin style missions with half of the pay until he has proven his loyalty. Then he'll be classified as a jonin."

"And Haku-kun?" Sakura persisted, curious about the kind boy who always seemed nervous around her. Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. Naruto, catching the souring of the Uchiha's mood, stuck his tongue out at his friend. Sasuke glared, finding a more useful vent for his annoyance in the blond standing next to him, and stomped on the genin's foot. Reflexive tears of pain sprang up in Naruto's eyes. He growled. _Just wait, you bastard.. I've got a prank with your name on it.  
_  
"The crowd took to him more." Kakashi said simply, not bothering to explain. "He's been labeled a chuunin and will be able to advance to jonin by taking the test next month. His community service is help out with the Chuunin Exam." Naruto whooped, high fiving with Sakura. They both looked pleased that the mist duo was now allies, not enemies. Sasuke rolled his eyes, appearing as if he didn't care either way.

* * *

Two days later, Jiraiya hummed lightly, happily going through his mental planner for the day. First, he'd have a hearty breakfast, then he'd mosey on over to the river and watch the ladies play in the water.. here, his face flushed pink and he laughed pervertedly.. then he'd have lunch, go bother Tsunade and see if she had gotten out of her funk.. then he'd mosey on over to the hot springs..

"What are you laughing at, pervert?" he was jolted out of his thoughts at the sharp call of a familiar genin, the very genin who got him in trouble, and was dumb enough to risk Tsunade's temper. Jiraiya was surprised that she hadn't cracked his jaw, much less taken the kid's head off from the force of her punch.

He looked up at the kid, who crouched on one of the lower store roofs. He looked so much like the Fourth but didn't have half of his student's manners. "Nothing a kid should be worrying about." The frog hermit said, crossing his arms over his chest. Naruto hopped off of the roof to land in front of him.

"So you have nothing planned? Good, you're going to train me." he said, grabbing a hold of the older man's shirt and started tugging him in a certain direction. Jiraiya flailed for a moment, then dug his heels in, refusing to move.

"Hey, hey! I do have something important planned, kid!" he protested.

"Peeping isn't important, you decayed pervert." Naruto grumbled, scowling up at the sanin. "Training the future Hokage is." Jiraiya switched modes, from annoyed to serious.

"Hokages get killed, you know." he said, fixing Naruto with a steady stare. The blond held his gaze.

"That's why you're here, isn't it?" Naruto murmured cooly. He wasn't in the mood for games. He had to study under Jiraiya, no matter how boring and repetitive it would be. If he suddenly knew all of the sanin's tricks and techniques, it would be very suspicious, as he learned from his mistakes. If he could just get the damn pervert to just teach him one thing, Naruto could tell Kakashi, when the masked nin got around to asking, that he was training under Jiraiya. That would take most of the suspicion off of him, right? "How about a deal. If you teach me one jutsu, and I master it in a day, you have to train me." Of course, the deal was completely unfair to Jiraiya, since Naruto already knew most of the old sanin's techniques, but Naruto wasn't feeling particularly guilty.

Jiraiya frowned down on him. _A day?_ he questioned mentally, rolling his eyes. _No one can master one of my techniques in a day. Over confident brat_. "Alright, but what do I get in return?"

Naruto thought for a moment, then made several different hand seals, murmuring the jutsu's title under his breath. With a poof of smoke, the short blond boy was replaced with a lithe feminine woman, with the last wisps of smoke strategically placed the only thing she wore. "You get to spend some quality time with me." she said sweetly, lowering her eyes demurely.

It was a good thing that Jiraiya had already been in an alley where there was no one around when Naruto popped up. The sort of look that crossed the old pervert's face at the sight of Naruto's infamous Sexy no Jutsu wasn't the sort of look that should be seen in public. He laughed again, that perverted and creepy laugh, reaching out to touch her. She smacked his hand away.

"No touchie." she said, then with a poof of smoke, she was Naruto again. The frog hermit sighed, missing her already.

"Very well. We have a deal." he jerked his thumb in the direction of the nearest training area. "Shall we?"

* * *

"If you really want to know something, you sometimes have to play dirty." Sasuke said, countering Sakura's protests. He had been spending more and more time with the kunoichi as of late, but he really couldn't give a honest reason why he would rather not. She no longer clung to his arm, talked incessantly, or try to ask him out on dates. Sasuke wasn't sure what had changed between them, but it was big.

He at least expected her to start acting possessive when Ino attached herself to his arm the day before, but all Sakura did is give him a long look, then a wink and a mouthed word: _'revenge'_. She had sauntered away, without even looking back, leaving him with a very clingy and annoying blond. It took all of his control to not call after Sakura in hopes she'd feel sympathy for him because of the situation she left him in.

Despite his annoyance that she'd leave him with Ino, he knew that Sakura had a good mind, was very loyal, and most importantly, was as curious about the puzzle Naruto proved to be as she was. That's what the blond was now. He was no longer the idiot, or even the rival that was slowly gaining on Sasuke, but a true mystery that the rest of the team longed to solve. Even Kakashi made a couple of comments suggesting that he was as baffled as the rest of them. And what was most disturbing about that was that both Sakura and Sasuke were positive that the jonin knew more about Naruto than he let on.

Neither Sakura, nor Sasuke were all that interested in the blood limit that Naruto had. Sure, it had been shocking and amazing, but it wasn't the essence of the puzzle. The puzzle wasn't _what_ Naruto(they already knew he was an idiot)was, it was _who_ Naruto was.

How many depths were there to the blond? Sasuke had seen the idiot, the hero, the warrior, even a bit of Naruto's darker side when he had been affected by Tessai's genjutsu. Sometimes, the blond seemed completely open to the world, other times, he kept himself as jealously guarded as a secret. What made the blond say those off handed comments? The other day, when Kakashi came late again and started spewing lame excuses, something about a statue and an accident and how he just 'had to help out!', Naruto scowled and said_ "Yeah, and then you'll be late to your own death because you just had to lug a stone around Konoha for a friend." _And, just the day before, Naruto turned to Sasuke, with a serious look darkening his bright eyes, and said_ "Don't let yourself get bitten by a snake, Sasuke."_ They were gardening an overgrown flower bed when he said it, so Sasuke didn't take him too seriously, but it was a rather strange comment to make, since snakes were pretty rare to find around Konoha.

To put it simply, Sasuke was annoyed. By the time he could finally understand Naruto and classify him and put him in his own mental box, he'd be pushing eighty. He wasn't about to let his life revolve around the idiot. He proposed to Sakura that they go to Iruka to find out more about Naruto, which she immediately objected, saying it would be like they were sneaking around behind their team mate's back.

"Yeah, but-" she protested again.

"No." Sasuke said shortly. "Naruto will never tell us anything. The only way we can learn about him is through others." They were walking to the Academy, positive that they would find their old teacher there, grading tests.

"Maybe he hasn't told us because he really doesn't want us to know!" Sakura tried in a last ditch effort. Sasuke paused, stopping just in front of the door. Seeing that she got his attention, she continued on with her train of thought. "Maybe he doesn't want to share what makes him tick, or why he says weird things-"_ So, she noticed that too_. "-but he's our friend. We should respect his space."

"But.. But he's just so damn confusing!" Sasuke growled out. "How can we be his friends, how can we even trust him if he doesn't trust us!" Sakura bit her lip.

"Friendship.." she paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. Sakura clenched her fists for a moment, then said what was one her mind. "Friendship, trust, love.. these things are all uncertain. It's like taking a shot in the dark. You don't know if you'll hit anything, so you just have to.. follow through." Sasuke gave her a sidelong glance. "We just have to trust him. We have to be there for him. No matter how lost we feel sometimes, or how confused. Of all the things in the world, what Naruto needs most is friends. Someday, he'll let us in. Someday, we'll know him even better than we know ourselves. We just need to wait."

Sasuke snorted. "By that time, we'll be confined to wheel chairs and bald." he said humorously. Sakura laughed. The Uchiha pulled away from the door, staring down at his feet. Sasuke was starting to feel guilty about sneaking around. _Yes, that's it. We have to hang in there, and trust Naruto. _"How is it.." he murmured. _Someday, Naruto would tell us everything, probably even more than we wanted to know. _Sasuke turned to Sakura, amazed at her perceptiveness. "How is it that you know.. and say exactly what I need to hear?"

"Sasuke-kun?" she whispered, confused. He took her arm, pulling her away from the Academy.

"Never mind, let's just go." Sasuke said firmly. He looked at her through the corner of his eye. "So, you prepared for the Chuunin Exam?" Sakura smiled merrily, knowing that Sasuke wouldn't turn down a way to prove himself, even if he heard the horrible rumors about it. Knowing that he'd be there, and Naruto was much the same about turning down battles, she felt more confident. Who knew? Team Seven might all be chuunins by the end of the Chuunin Exam. That positive thought made Sakura smile.

"Yep! Ready and prepared to kick some major booty!"

* * *

A little worn out, Naruto jogged back to the place where Jiraiya said to meet. Heh, the pervert had been sure that Naruto would practice and practice away at the summoning jutsu, all afternoon, yet wouldn't be able to harness the power of the frogs. How wrong Jiraiya was.

After he showed Naruto how the jutsu worked, the hermit had rolled out the summoning scroll in front of Naruto and told him to sign the contract. Luckily enough, Jiraiya was too distracted by the sudden appearance of two women to notice the magic that took place right in front of Naruto's eyes. As the genin got ready to bite his finger and sign the contract, the air sudden sizzled with unknown energy and the contract glowed with an unearthly aura that made Naruto's hair stand on end. His signature, in a whirl of otherworldly chakra, bled into the parchment until it appeared as normal as the signatures before. Naruto didn't even have to bite his thumb. If that wasn't a sign from the other realm, he didn't know what was. _How creepy. _

After that phenomenon occurred, Jiraiya came back, apparently seeing nothing wrong with Naruto's signature, and told the fox host to go practice, then go meet him by the river in seven hours. They parted, Jiraiya humming a light tune under his breath. The hermit must have been confident that he would win the bet, and get to spend some time with Naruto's sexy counterpart. Not if Naruto could help it.

Instead of practicing, Naruto went and found Kiba, and demanded a spar. The canine user was all up for a battle with the fox host, though Naruto didn't know why. Maybe a certain Hyuuga was Kiba's motivation?

He was simply using Kiba as a way to use up chakra. After all, the frog hermit would be pretty suspicious if he came back with a full supply of chakra. Besides, Naruto had better control when he had less chakra. Instead of accidentally summoning a frog that might speak and greet Naruto too familiarly, thus ruining his plan of secrecy, he'd add just the right amount of chakra to get a medium sized frog that hadn't yet developed its vocal cords. There were plenty of those floating around.

Kiba was too slow. That single thought plagued him all throughout their battle. He was used to Sasuke, who darted around swiftly while in battle, making Naruto have to rely on his instincts instead of his eyes. Naruto and Kiba's strength were about equal if Naruto didn't use any chakra(damn his little twelve year old body, weak and pathetic it truly was), but Kiba would have had the advantage in the battle because his dog fought along side him, if Naruto wasn't moving so fast. Truthfully, Naruto wasn't fast at all, being built more for power and strength, but he was quick on his feet compared to the sluggish dog user.

It came to be that Naruto's flung insults started to change into different types of advice("Don't put so much power in your swings, Kiba! It'll slow you down, especially if you miss."), such as better way to spring up and kick, or how Kiba and Akamaru could combine attacks to overwhelm an opponent. It also came to be that Kiba no longer started attacking blindly in his anger and actually starting listening("Like this?" "Yeah, that's the way!") and taking Naruto's advice.

An hour and a half later, they parted, tossing good natured insults over their shoulders. Which brought Naruto back to the present. He was there, a little bit early perhaps, but there was no sanin in sight.

Where was the damn pervert, anyway?

"Boo." Naruto jumped abruptly when the softly whispered word reached his ears. He turned around, meeting the slightly glazed eyes of his beloved Godaime. She straightened, the flush on her face all too noticeable, laughing at the surprised look on the genin's face. "You should be more careful, Nawaki." Tsunade said softly, running a hand through his hair before stumbling off.

"She's.. drunk?" Naruto whispered to himself, watching her sway before turning around a corner and disappearing from his sight. The flush on her face was a small clue, but for her to mistake him as her dead brother... she had to be really drunk. "Oh, shit!" Naruto yelled, realizing the implications. "She's drunk!" He had to go after her and make sure she didn't do something stupid or hurt anyone. But he also had to wait and show the damn pervert that he knew the summoning jutsu. Aw, to hell with his neatly laid down plans.

Snapping his fingers, he got an idea. He bit his thumb and summoned a frog. One of his more often summoned creatures, Gamakichi, blinked up at him.

"Hi! Haven't seen you in a while!" the small frog called out. Naruto knelt in front of the frog, his normally cheerful features contorted in a frown.

"Yeah, missed you too." he said hurriedly. "Look, I need you to stay here and wait for the old pervert. Tell him that I mastered the jutsu, but I went after the old hag 'cause she's in a mood and I want to make sure that she doesn't hurt anyone." Gamakichi nodded, but then hopped forward with a question of his own.

"And I suppose the old pervert is.. Jiraiya and the old hag is Tsunade, right?" Naruto nodded. The summon shuddered. "Good luck and hold on to your head." Naruto snorted and stood.

"I'll try. See you." He took off, following the path that Tsunade took. The summon watched his retreating back, shaking his head sadly.

"Better him than me. It took me fifty years to get back to this size after the last time she took her anger out on me." the frog hopped on top of one of the branches. "Hopefully she won't do too much damage."

* * *

"She's getting worse and worse, sensei!" Jiraiya snapped. The Hokage looked up at his student passively, his fingers folded and his gaze calm. "She's getting drunk every night, and Shizune-chan says that she gets in very late. We have to do something before she ends up hurting herself or others."

"To each's own." Sarutobi said. "That is her way of dealing with the past, to forget it for a few hours. I use the mistakes of the past as a guideline to not make those same mistakes in the future. Even you have a method." Sarutobi reached into his desk and pulled out an orange book. Jiraiya's eyes widened at the sight of his perverted book in his sensei's hand. "Did you think I didn't notice the resemblance that Rumiko and Taka share with the Fourth and his girlfriend? Though I doubt their relationship was as.. X-rated as you make it out to be." Jiraiya's eyes clouded over. The Fourth and his girlfriend had gotten a rotten deal in life. He wanted to make a storyline where the two lived happily ever after, but he didn't expect someone to see and point out the similarities in character. He looked at the innocent looking book for a while before he realized exactly what he was seeing. He snickered.

"You're a pervert too." Jiraiya said proudly. "Read my books, did you?" Sarutobi looked at the book in his hand, then back at his student, a little embarrassed. Jiraiya laughed at his discomfort.

"Ahem." The Hokage coughed, putting the book away. "Back to our original topic-" Both men sobered up. "I will see what I can do about Tsunade, but she can only heal on her own." A stubborn frown on his face, Jiraiya finally nodded, his eyes drifting over to the clock hanging on the wall. His eyes widened when he saw what time it was.

"Aw, crap! I'm late!" he said, jumping up. "See you later, need to go see about a girl and a frog." The hermit disappeared out the window. Sarutobi watched him go, envious that the white haired sanin could go any where as he pleased. A chuunin knocked on the door, hesitatingly opening it as he did.

"Um.. there are some things you need to look at." the chuunin said, holding out a couple of forms.

"For the Chuunin Exam, I know." the old man sighed. "I hate paper work."

* * *

The bottle in front of her swayed, dividing into two before melding back into one. Tsunade sighed, resting her head against her hands. She was very aware that she was drunk. It only made her all that more determined to drink some more. Peace only came in the few hours that she remembered nothing at all, too deep into the cloudy haze of sake, or whatever the bottle in front of her was, to care about what was happening, or what had happened years ago.

She reached out for the bottle in front of her, only to scowl as it was swiped away from her by the bar keep. He gave her a stern look. She reached for it again. "No. You don't have enough money."

Tsunade reached into her pockets, pulling out only lint. "Damn.." she muttered. She must have used it the hour before. Slyly, she looked at the bar keep, frowning lightly as she fingered her necklace. She lifted it up to his gaze. "How about this? It's pretty valuable.." The bar keep reached out for the famous Hokage necklace, greed in his eyes. It wasn't often that he was offered something as valuable as the trinket just for some alcohol. He get more for the necklace than she'd get out of handing it over.

Tsunade took the necklace from around her neck, about to hand it over to the bartender. It didn't matter. The necklace would find itself back to her anyway. She was the only one immune to its curse.

It was swiped out of her hand, but not by the man she had been making the deal with.

"Dammit, you stupid hag! Don't throw the old Hokage's necklace around like that!" _Nawaki?_ she thought, then shook her head. His eyes were too blue and he had three scars on each cheek. He glared at her furiously, the necklace hanging from his clenched fist. The bar keep started to protest, but the kid snapped him back in his place with a "I just saved your life, stupid! Sit down and shut up!"

Tsunade reached out for the necklace, feeling the hated pangs of reality seep back into her mind. "Give it back, kid. That thing's a lot more dangerous than it looks." The kid who had been hanging around Jiraiya glared at her. He slipped the necklace around his neck.

"If you want it so badly, come and get it!" he said, running out of the stand. "I, the future Rokudaime, can't allow for you to mistreat it!" Feeling cold terror grip her heart, Tsunade sobered up and stood. Another child was going to die because of that stupid necklace and an even more foolish dream. The sanin ran after the kid, knocking over the stool that she had been sitting on.

"Get back here, you brat!"

* * *

He found his foolish student on top of the Hokage Monument, silently looking down on the rest of the village. The blond sat with his legs hanging over the First Hokage's forehead, his arms crossed over his chest. For a moment, it wasn't the genin that sat there, it was the Fourth, just as Jiraiya remembered him on the day before Kyuubi was defeated. Same distracted look, same twitching right foot, as well as that old look in their eyes, one that the Fourth had worn because he knew that he was going to die. Then the vision faded, but the similarities stayed.

"Naruto!" Gamakichi called out, waving a webbed limb at the distracted looking genin. Naruto turned around at the call, eyes widening at the sight of the frog hermit and the frog that had made himself comfy on the former's head. His lips twitched upward.

"Don't say a word." Jiraiya growled when Naruto started to snicker. The older man crouched down next to Naruto, sighing as he did. "Good job, by the way. Didn't expect you to be able to summon in one day, but I suppose you know your own limits better than anyone else." He gave Naruto a sidelong glance. "After the Chuunin Exam, I guess I have to teach you."

Guilt got the better of Naruto. "You don't have to if you don't want to." Gamakichi jumped off of Jiraiya's head and onto the ground.

"No, I do. Might revive the old feelings of youth!" Jiraiya said, with a silly grin. Naruto scowled at him.

"Nothing short of a kinjutsu can revive that." he said. The sanin looked wounded, hand covering his heart with a dramatic sigh. Naruto grinned. _Same stupid pervert_.

"Oh, shit." Gamakichi murmured, looking behind them. They turned as one, wide eyes taking in a very pissed off Tsunade. "I'm out of here." The summon disappeared in a cloud of smoke.  
_  
Coward._ Naruto thought as he stood. "What do you want, granny?" he said, making a valiant attempt at being nonchalant. The withering glare she sent his way didn't help.

"You know very well what I want." she said coldly. She stretched out her hand. "Give it back." Jiraiya straightened and stood in front of Naruto.

"Look-" he started to say.

"Shut up." she hissed. "I don't want to hear a word out of you." Tsunade shifted her gaze to Naruto. "Give it back!" Jiraiya frowned. It was the first time in a while that he had seen her in such a worked up temper. The only thing that would push her over the edge was that one item, the very reason why she lost so much in her life in the first place.

Jiraiya turned to Naruto. "I know what you have. Give it back to her." The old hermit looked very serious. "That innocent looking necklace is more dangerous than it appears." Naruto reached into his vest, pulling out the trinket. He waved it furiously.

"Not a snowball's chance in hell!" he jerked his thumb toward Tsunade. "There is no way I'm letting the Hokage's legacy to be.. man handled by that vain woman! Until she can prove that she's good enough for it, I'm keeping it! May the Hokages be my witnesses!" While Jiraiya paled at the sight of the cursed necklace hanging around his student's neck, Tsunade stomped forward, her anger overcoming her logic for the briefest moment. And in that moment, things went downhill.

Naruto, self preservation instincts kicking it, started backing up hastily away from the enraged woman until the one step back where there was no solid ground to land on. A surprised look crossed his face as he fell back, his teacher lunging forward to grasp a hold on his vest. Jiraiya grasped at air, just missing Naruto by an inch.

Tsunade fell to her knees, frozen as her mind conjured up horrific images. Naruto falling down the Hokage's Monument, coating her dear grandfather's face in his blood. The final crash of genin meeting ground ringing through the air like a pin drop in utter silence, like a gun shot in still air, his bones crushing with the force of gravity. Tsunade was well into one of her fits, ones that tended to bite her in the ass when she wasn't looking, bringing up years of pent up guilt and sorrow. And the most hated questions. _If I had been there, would anything would have changed? If I was just a little bit quicker, if I hadn't frozen up.. Oh, Dan, Nawaki. I must shame you two so much. _Memories of the dark aura around the cursed necklace when it disapproved of it's wearer and the horrible events that happened quickly afterward haunted her.

Jiraiya leapt into action. "Naruto!" he shouted. "Use the summoning jutsu!" Naruto, only about half way down the First's forehead quickly bit his thumb, crying out the name of the life saving jutsu. A large frog appeared out of nowhere, instinctively clinging to the First's nose. Naruto snagged onto the frog back with his chakra, finally being near a surface to use it on.  
Nearly a mile away, the Third happened to glance out the window at his predecessors and his one successor, only to see a reddish blob covering almost a third of one of the Hokages' faces. Sarutobi blinked owlishly at the sight. He was just one of the many who paused in their duties to gaze and scratch their heads in confusion.

Grinning and a bit flushed from the sudden surge of adrenaline, the genin ordered the frog to jump back up the monument. He snickered, dismissing the frog with a small pat on the frog's head. Naruto landed on the ground neatly when the frog disappeared. His grin was wide. "Good thing the First had such a big nose, eh Ero-sanin?" The worried expression on Jiraiya's face shifted to that of an annoyed one. He bopped Naruto on the head, his left eye twitching.

"Dammit, you brat! Don't pull shit like that!" he grumbled.

"Aw, come on. You know that was so cool!" So they argued, squabbling like two five year olds, while Tsunade just stared at them, emotionally drained.

Why was it, that the idiot of their old three man team, could have turned out to be such a strong ninja? He hadn't frozen, he didn't think of the past. He thought of the future, of Konoha's future, of the future of that stupidly grinning kid. Jiraiya had jumped forward, shouting advice, while she collapsed and started day dreaming.

Orochimaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya. The prodigy, the genius, and the idiot. More like, the villain, the coward, and the hero. She _should have _known that Orochimaru was going bad, she _should have _noticed Jiraiya and his growing strength, and she _shouldn't _have taken the path she took. Where was all of that genius when she needed it?

Tsunade barely noticed when their argument ended rather abruptly when both idiots looked at her. "Hey, granny." Naruto murmured. He tugged on the necklace very seriously. Tsunade stared at it. There was no dark aura surrounding it. It looked rather ordinary. Was it content to be with Naruto? "I, as the future Rokudaime and as a ninja, never break my promises. When you prove that you are worthy of this necklace and are no longer in your damn pissy 'tude, I'll consider giving it back to you." his eyes narrowed. "Maybe."

That's what she had to do, she realized as she stood. She had to become better. She had to revert back to the old Tsunade that Dan had admired and her brother had adored. Tired beyond imagination, she reached out and ruffled the kid's hair. "I'll keep you to that, kid."

Naruto blinked rapidly, trying to push back the growing heat and liquid behind his eyes. His granny was back.

* * *

Next Chapter: The day before the much longed for Chuunin Exam! But first, Naruto, nervous as hell, follows an impulse and ends up spilling one of his most guarded secrets to someone, just to see if they'd believe him or not. Here's a little bit of their conversation:  
_  
"If I told you that I was really twenty-two years old and had come from the future to save all of your sorry asses, what would you say?"  
"If that's supposed to be some kind of deep and meaningful question in the same league as 'how was the universe created?' or 'why do girls like Sasuke?', then you're wasting it on the wrong person."_  
Guess who Naruto tells: ) 


	35. The Day Before the Chuunin Exam

Two things you all should know. One, my computer is being evil, and while it's on its rebellion strike, I seriously doubt if I'll be able to keep my 'one chapter a week' updates. I am updating now because I managed to snag some me time on my friend's laptop, but it won't always be so. My warning is this: I might not be able to update for the next few weeks. So please accept this crappy and measly excuse for a chapter(in size more than content) and be assured that I will make the chapters longeronce things start working as they should. 

Two, the content of this chapter is bound to bring some debate, but hear me out: I don't know whether or not Rin lives or dies, but for this story, she lives. I will listen to anyone who says they know her real fate, but I am sticking with my story, no matter what anyone says. Maybe in another story, I will research her more, but for now, the explanation in this chapter is her story.

By the way, most of you got the person right! Good for you! -showers them in confetti-

* * *

For the Love of my Friends 

Chapter Thirty-five: The Day Before the Chuunin Exam

by Foxie

* * *

He gave his team the day off. Very generous of him, if you asked his opinion. They were all nervous, probably scared out of their wits. Even Sasuke was edgy, and it took a lot to make the last Uchiha edgy. It was very kind of him to give them the day before the Chuunin Exam off. 

But Kakashi had to admit one thing. He didn't give a rat's ass about the Chuunin Exam, or his students' fears about it. To him, it was simple. They'd either lose or succeed. If they lost, they'd try again in six months. If they succeeded, well.. He would just have to lose that bet with Zabuza, now wouldn't he?

Kakashi had a lot of faith in his team. They were strong, resourceful, gutsy, and most important of them all, very loyal to one another. But he seriously doubted them when compared to the top notch genins coming in all over the world for the exam. Could Sasuke compare to the cold blooded genins from the sand? Could Naruto match the strength of the mysterious sound genins? Could Sakura match the cunning of the genins of the grass?

Zabuza had much more faith in Kakashi's team than Kakashi himself. The copy cat jonin found that small fact to be strangely sad.

He let the kids off for the day for something a bit more personal. Like the letter than was burning a hole in his desk. It was about time he answered it.

In only a pair of sweats, Kakashi grabbed a mug and filled it with some tea. His apartment was dark, though the sun beat furiously against the other side of his closed curtains. Sighing, he ran a hand through his wild hair and slowly walked over to his desk. There, sitting innocently, was a scroll, a letter from his only surviving team mate. And it had sat there, for the last month, touched only by Kakashi's occasional glances in its direction.

It was the routine. Though the messenger birds could get their letters back from the northern mountain ranges to Konoha in less than two days, neither of them sent a reply back rapidly. If he knew Rin, he knew that she hated the reminders of the past almost as much as he did. But, where he lived with the reminders just _because_ he hated them, she had fled, seeking shelter from it and using the excuse of training in the ancient way of the healers, in the only place where the traditions were still kept, in northern Fire Country, a hundred miles from anything resembling civilization.

_Did the silence help any? Or did it only serve to bring her more pain?_ Those were questions he didn't dare ask, lest she cut off her one connection with Konoha.

He sat down heavily, putting down his tea as his other hand reached out for the scroll. Kakashi considered for a moment, when the texture of the paper registered in his palm, putting it off for a few days. His sharingan suddenly throbbed with intensity.

_Alright, alright. Today it is.._ he thought to himself, grimacing slightly. He opened the scroll, unconsciously frowning when he saw how short it was. Rin was the sort of person who wrote epic length letters, no matter what was the situation at home. Was she already withdrawing from them?

_Hey, Kakashi. How are things in Konoha? Just great, I can imagine._ He replaced his own mental voice with the memory of hers._ Sorry I took so long answering the last time. Things came up_. Things always came up. But Kakashi understood, so he never said a word. She then gave him a brief description of what was happening in her training. They were apparently coming up with a type of instant heal sutra that, with a brief surge of chakra and with the application on the injured person, could instantly heal them. _It's one of the best things we thought of so far, don't you think? It makes me wonder though. If we had one of them, would Obito have lived?  
_  
It was strange. So many things, brutal and gory scenes, terrifying sights of a demon, even crueler humans killing their fellow man.. none of that shaped him more than Obito's death. It was the same with Rin. Though it had been a bit more than a decade, still, they both silently debated: _If I had done this, or had said that.. Maybe if I had just been a bit quicker..._ But the fact of the matter was that they were just three kids stuck in the middle of a war. There was nothing they could have done.

_I have a confession to make. I am seriously considering leaving Konoha for good._ The mug, only a scant inch away from Kakashi's lips, slipped from his grasp, hitting and shattering against the table. The tea quickly spread and made the words on the letter smudged and illegible.

* * *

She woke up to the sounds of knocking. The loud knocks pounded on the door frame. From her position on the couch, tangled up in blankets and a warm body, she could see the door shake under the force. 

"Dammit Naruto!" Hinata's eyes widened, recognizing Sakura's voice. "If you don't open the door right now, I'll beat your stupid head in!" Hinata started to get nervous. Half up out of the comfortable cocoon of blankets(and Naruto) and half trying to hide, her hands started flapping in a anxious state. There were consequences in opening the door for Naruto's team mate, but even more if she kept the door closed. There was no believable excuse for Hinata to be over Naruto's house so early in the morning. Not to mention that they had slept together! Sakura was a big gossip. Would Hiashi refuse to let her see Naruto if he heard?

She chanced a look down at Naruto. He was awake, a faint smile on his face, clearly amused at her nervousness. They, in celebration of the next day being completely to themselves, had stayed up until midnight, watching an anime marathon, and had ended up falling asleep next to each other. Continuation of the knocks jolted her out of her thoughts and she started spazzing again, looking between the door and Naruto. He lazily reached out and tugged her back on the couch. Hinata didn't resist.

"I'll take care of it." he assured her, tugging so she'd lie back down. "You just go back to sleep"

"B-but.." she stuttered nervously, hands fiddling with one of the blankets. Naruto smiled easily, shushing her with one finger. The knocking started again.

"_Naruto_!" Sakura yelled, about to threaten her team mate again.

Naruto lifted his upper body off of the couch. "**GO TO HELL**!" he bellowed. Hinata squeaked. _This is his idea of handling things! _With a loud bang, Sakura kicked in the door, effectively breaking off a part of the wall and the lock. Miraculously, the hinges held. Squeaking again, Hinata tried to get up and hide but the light pressure of Naruto's hand on her stomach kept her in place. Sakura stomped over, anger all too clear in her green eyes.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan." Naruto said pleasantly, as if he hadn't been the one to provoke the kunoichi into nearly breaking down his door. "Must you go to such extremes? The door didn't do anything to you.."

"Why the hell didn't you open the door, you damn fool?" she sputtered, her hands clenched in fists. Hinata bit her lip, waiting for the pink haired kunoichi to notice her there.

"I was sleeping." Naruto said, with a hint of a smirk. "Most people sleep, you know. It's a fairly common habit of humans. I'm sure you've heard of it.." Sakura growled.

"_You.."_she hissed, advancing on him. In midstep, she seemed to remember herself."Ugh, never mind, it's too early for your wise ass remarks." she crossed her arms over her chest, sighing and looking very annoyed. "Do you have those extra clothes? We're exchanging them, Tenten and I, so we can give them back to the right people. Here's your stuff that I had, by the way." She tossed him a pair of shorts and his forehead protector. Naruto was quick to keep them from falling on Hinata.

"Sweet! I was wondering where this was.." he said. Hinata, in horror, watched as Sakura looked over at her.. past her.. through her? Naruto seemed to remember her question. "Oh, yeah, they're by the door, on the ground."

While Sakura grumbled and picked the carelessly tossed clothes off of the ground, Naruto glanced at Hinata and grinned. The Hyuuga was confused. Was Sakura blind?

"Ugh. No respect for other people's things.." Sakura grumbled under her breath. She opened the door, quick to leave.

"Don't let the door hit you on the ass!" Naruto called out cheerfully. Sakura slammed the door shut violently. More plaster fell. Snickering, he gazed down at the small girl trying to meld with the couch. "See? Was that so bad?"

"I.. she.. I.." Hinata was at a loss for words. Then she happened to glance down. Where there was supposed to be her body, somewhat tangled up in the blankets, there was nothing. "N-Naruto-kun!" Naruto looked, first confused then understanding.

"Ah, right, sorry." his hand retreated from her stomach. Her body reappeared. There was a silence between the two. "I don't.. understand." she said softly, breaking the pause. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Henge no Jutsu. Made you look like the couch and the blankets." he said with a grin. "An extremely bastardized version of it. No hand seals or anything. Cool huh? 'Course, if Sasuke-bastard was here, he'd probably be able to see through it.. it's not too strong, you know.. kinda need the hand seals to make it strong..." and he continued to babble, for some reason, embarrassed by the admiring look in Hinata's eyes.

After all, it took a lot of raw skill to mold chakra into a jutsu without the hand seals. Hinata knew that, and knowing that only made her more proud of Naruto. "Eh.. well.." he mumbled, staring into her eyes. This time, it was she who shushed him with a finger.

"Let's go back to sleep, Naruto-kun." she whispered with a faint blush. Naruto glanced at her, then at the door, naturally aware of the broken lock as much as a streaker would be of his or her own nakedness.

_Aw what the hell.._ he thought, settling back into the couch._ I can worry about that later_...

* * *

With a sense of urgency, Kakashi whipped out some paper and a pen. He didn't bother with the polite formalities. Hey, Rin. he wrote quickly, don't be so hasty._ Before you make your final decision, come back to us. See your family. Exchange tips with Konoha's finest medic nins,not thatthey couldn't hold a candle to you. Visit us-_ here, he crossed out us and put me. The strange duality of his existence that was brought up in Tessai's genjutsu still had a lingering effect on him. 

_You have to meet my team. They're really something else. One's aloof, one's a prankster, and the other is in love. You can just imagine how much they get on each other's nerves. I entered them in the Chuunin Exam and plan to nab them seats for the Chuunin Final Exam._ He paused, wondering if they would get mad at his assumption that they wouldn't make it all the way through. Oh well, they'd thank him later for the seats.

_Come watch it with us, and we can relive old memories. Then, if you really want to, we'll go up to the Hokage's office and request that you be permanently suspended of your ninja license._ He bit the end of his pen, reading it over. It would just have to do. He signed his name and rolled up the piece of paper. He planned on going to the post office and sending it out later. But for now, Kakashi sighed heavily, resting his forehead in his palm. He wondered if the Fourth or Obito could have handled it better.

* * *

Shikamaru blinked, the involuntary motion doing nothing to ease the intensity of his stare. Many had fallen, yet there was still a great number of the enemy left. They surrounded his group, blocking every avenue of escape with one of their men. Dark eyes took in the situation, assessed it, tried to find a way out of it, then found a simple solution in all of the chaos. 

He moved his queen forward three spaces. "Checkmate." he said blandly, indifferent to the curses that spewed out of his teacher's mouth.

"Aw, this is so boring.." Ino muttered, attention shifting from Chouji's frantic eating to Asuma and Shikamaru's game. The four of them had met up in the street, all in varying degrees of boredom. Although Asuma, like all of the other jonins, gave his team the day off, they ended up eating at Chouji's favorite barbeque restaurant, just like every week's end.

"I would play you," Shikamaru said slowly, mocking her, "but you'd lose faster than he would." She gave him the look of death, one that made him feel grateful that she was sitting on the other side of the table. His shin felt her wrath, though.

Ignoring Shikamaru's wince when her foot made her opinion of his crappy attitude perfectly clear, Ino looked out the window. The Chuunin Exam was tomorrow. She felt conflicted, both nervous and excited. She couldn't wait to show everyone why she was the best kunoichi of their year! But, then again, what if her best wasn't good enough?

Chouji stopped eating, the vulnerable look on his face nearly identical to Ino's. Shikamaru stopped fiddling with the pawn piece in his hand and stared at the table, a frown contorting his face.

Asuma was suddenly aware of the mood change in his team. Each were probably thinking of the next day. He couldn't blame them. His first Chuunin Exam had ended horribly. His two team mates had been mauled by the vicious liger that they were supposed to be taming and had barely survived. Asuma, though he had escaped mauling, had been dragged a half of a mile by his broken arm by the hybrid before he was rescued by a fellow leaf nin. Needless to say, he was always very edgy when he was in hidden grass territory, unsure if a tiger or something of the sort would jump out at him and maul him to death.

Asuma decided to leave his story for a rainy day. No sense in making them more jittery than they already were.

"Hey.. isn't that one of Hinata's relatives?" Ino said suddenly, drawing them all away from their own thoughts. They all looked out of the window. Neji stood there, arms crossed over his chest. He was speaking to Kiba, who looked pissed off. Obviously, their conversation wasn't pleasant.

"The eyes kinda give it away.." Shikamaru muttered, without his usual biting tone.

Wanting to see the action up close, Ino pushed Asuma out of the way and ran out of the restaurant. Shikamaru and Chouji slowly followed, leaving Asuma with the hefty bill.

"..don't know where she is, you arrogant bastard." Kiba was growling out when Ino caught up to them. "Is there something wrong?" she asked hesitatingly. She had heard rumors about the boy in front of her. Strong, ruthless, and one of the most promising genins of the Hyuuga clan. What would he want with one of the Rookie Nine? Kiba shot her a grateful look.

Neji glanced over, barely noticing her flinch when his cold eyes met hers. "I am merely following orders." he shot a venom filled glare at Kiba. "That is no reason to get mouthy with me."

Akamaru growled. "Like hell, you ass. Why do you wanna know where Hinata is? It's not like you've ever cared before." Kiba said, hackles rising.Shikamaru and Chouji caught up to them, both standing behind Kiba.

Neji sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're so dense.. or maybe she didn't mention it?" he murmured to himself. He closed his eyes. "Hanabi-sama and Hinata-sama.. got into a bit of a disagreement. Hinata-sama left home and hasn't been back for the last couple of weeks."

"Hinata's gone!" Ino cried out, her hands covering her mouth. "That's horrible." Kiba started to shake his head.

"I dunno what the hell you're blabbering about but Hinata-chan only missed one practice in the last couple of weeks." he said doggedly. "She seems just fine." _Better, actually_.

"Then she must be over someone's house." Shikamaru said, sighing as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Case closed."

Neji shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Hiashi-sama- that is, Hinata-sama's father- wishes to speak with her."

"Have you asked Sakura if Hinata is staying over?" Chouji added in, thinking of the few  
people he saw Hinata with that were outside of her team. "Or.. Naruto."

Ino started coughing, a misplaced gasp and a laugh choking her up. "N-Naruto!" she said, shaking her head. "They may be good friends, but Hinata's too shy to ask if she could stay over." Which was very logical, and what would have happened if Naruto hadn't practically forced the girl to stay over, after he learned of her plight.

"Hm.." Neji murmured, loathing to ask for help but knowing it was necessary. "Where does Sakura usually... 'hang out'?"

* * *

Several hours later, Naruto cornered a very irritated shadow user in one of the training areas during his cloud watching. He stretched out on the grass next to him and waited for the other to say something first. He didn't have to wait long. In a rare ranting mood, Shikamaru told him about the encounter between Kiba and Neji. Naruto gulped nervously and tugged on the collar of his vest. 

_Neji's looking for Hinata?That can't bevery good.._

**Can't he go get his own girl?** Kyuubi grumbled. Naruto completely missed the fact that the demon seemed truly annoyed instead of just being his sarcastic and mocking self as usual.

Feeling much more relaxed, now that he had vented his annoyances on Naruto's listening ear, Shikamaru glanced at the blond. "What was it you said you wanted again?"

Naruto fiddled with a blade of grass, his eyes focused on the seemingly endless stretch of blue sky. "I didn't." What did he want? Comfort. Confidence. Hell, even an order would be accepted with open arms. But the Shikamaru he wanted to hear an order from was ten years in the future. And dead, for that matter.

The war's origin point was the Chuunin Exam. From Orochimaru fighting and killing Sarutobi, to Sasuke getting bitten and having his mind warped and corrupted by tainted chakra, to Kabuto betraying them all.. It all had something to do with the Chuunin Exam. And, directly and indirectly, Sasuke himself.

If Naruto could just, somehow, prevent Sasuke from getting bitten, he just knew, even if it wouldn't prevent a war, it would definitely make things easier in the long run. But that wasn't his only reason for wanting to protect Sasuke. He was naturally possessive of his friends, the few and far between. No way in hell he'd allow Orochimaru to steal Sasuke for the second time.

He considered not accepting the invitation, thus disqualifying his team, but two things stopped him. One, Hinata was entered in the Chuunin Exam and he wasn't going to let anything bad happen to her just because he ducked out, and two, his other natural personality trait: competitiveness. He hated losing, retreating, and any other path that had something to do with him not winning.

Besides general feelings of anxiety, annoyance, and anticipation.. Naruto was really scared. He didn't want to relive his bloody and gory life over again. Nor did he want his friends to suffer the same fate.

"..If I told you that I was really twenty-two years old, and had come from the future to save all of your sorry asses, what would you say?" he asked Shikamaru on a whim. Shikamaru glanced at him through the corner of his eye, pulling out of his trance. He considered for a moment, then answered evasively.

"If that's supposed to be some kind of deep and meaningful question in the same league as 'how was the universe created?' or 'why do girls like Sasuke?', then you're wasting it on the wrong person." Naruto quirked a smile at Shikamaru's escape, but patiently waited for the shadow user to realize that he really had to answer the question. Shikamaru grimaced. "Ah, crap. You're not going to let go of this are you?" Naruto shook his head. "Okay then.. I'd say 'that's a pretty elaborate prank'. Or something along those lines."

"And if it wasn't a prank?" Naruto prodded. The other boy sighed.

"Then it would be one hell of a story." Shikamaru said truthfully. He waited for a moment, very aware of the almost unnoticeable signs of nervousness pouring off of Naruto. He sighed again. "Go ahead. I'll listen, but I probably won't believe"

Naruto launched into his story, leaving out the Kyuubi and any personal parts of the ten year period of time. He focused instead on the enemies, their names, and the cold hard statistics. Even though Shikamaru told himself not to believe, he was sickened at the idea that Konoha could fall, that so many powerful people could die in such a short time. And curious too, dammit. He wanted to know what happened to him. Where the hell was he when all of that happened!

_Just a story,_ he reminded himself when his temper spiked. It cooled down a little. "So.. hypothetically.. If you were a time traveler, and you came back to prevent a war, wouldn't that screw just about every scientific theory man has ever made about time and space?"

Naruto looked at him blankly, but not in ignorance. He smiled. _Trust Shika to be the only one who thinks of it that way._

Shikamaru continued, misinterpreting the look on Naruto's face. "There's a bunch of problems with the time travel theory. Paradoxes, especially. Such as the grandfather paradox. If you went back in time, met and killed your grandfather, how could you have ever existed if your father wasn't born?" Naruto sat up, fascinated with the turn in the conversation. "Of course, there's the theory that every event, every choice(since humans have free will) creates a parallel universe, and there's an infinite number of universes to begin with. It could be something as simple as whether or not you wore your underwear. So if time travel was possible, you'd be creating a parallel universe to your future, and if you tried to get back, you might just accidentally go to a different universe. Ever seen Planet of the Apes?" Shikamaru continued, not expecting an answer. "But, all of that aside, time is one of three things: fixed, flexible, or fluid. Meaning that time cannot be changed, it could only be changed a little, or it could be changed a lot. Don't even let me start on religious views of it.." he said, a bit of a groan at the last part.

Naruto flipped on his stomach. "Hmph. Ninja theories are better than scientists."

"A bit biased, aren't you?" the other said with a half smirk. Naruto shrugged.

"Anyway, smart ass, back to what I was saying before.." he trailed off for a moment, trying to think of the best way to say what he thought. "Look, I don't expect you to believe me, all I ask is that you listen to a few things I have to say, and treat them as if they weren't just a fairy tale you plan to wipe from your mind the second I leave." Shikamaru winced. Damn, Naruto had caught on to him. "Just a couple of warnings. Stay away from the sound trio, Dosu, Zaku, and.. Kin, I think the girl's name was. And Kabuto, though he's a leaf nin. He's a damn back stabber, trying to get information for his leader, Orochimaru. Stay away from the sand trio, but if they fight you, go for Temari or Kankurou. Do not, by any means, go after Gaara. He's a demon host, he'll kill you faster than you can say 'Chuunin Exam'." Naruto stood, shoving his hands in his pockets. "When.. not if, _when_.. you realize that I'm telling you the truth, come to me, and I'll tell you more." He started to walk away.

His mind full of jumbled questions, Shikamaru sat up, throwing out the first thing on his mind at the blond's retreating back. "Why are you telling me this?" Naruto paused in mid step, then turned slightly.

"I really.. need help." Naruto admitted in a quiet voice. "I don't.. know shit about anything other than fighting. And in this body, I can't even take on Kakashi without getting my ass kicked, let alone Orochimaru. I need a sharp mind, I need your mind, Shika." he laughed quietly. "You may be ten years younger than the Shika I remember but at least he always steered me in the right direction. Can you do the same?" he waved. "Talk to you after the first test."

Shikamaru stood, watching Naruto walk away. "What makes you think your secret is safe with me?" he murmured to himself, surprised at Naruto's strange sense of logic. Naruto, to Shikamaru's great surprise, just laughed. _How could he have heard! He's out of ear shot! A normal human's ear shot, that is.. _he was suddenly remembering the dark red eyes he saw in Ino's vision, the one she showed the Hokage in his orb.

"Really, Shika... Who would believe you?"

* * *

TBC.. 

Next Chapter: _"There are certain things allies must know in order to work seamlessly with each other, but this is one thing I know you want to keep to yourself. Remember, secrets have consequences. Telling people that you are who you are will endear you more to them than if they learn about it by themselves." He paused, one hand going to his comrade's shoulder. "Be careful, Naruto."  
_The day of the Chuunin Exam! Naruto extracts a promise, sees that randomized really means just that, and runs into one of his most hated enemies, Kabuto! Even though control keeps him from riping the traitor's face off, he cautiously keeps an eye out. Where is Orochimaru?


	36. Those Who Honor Their Loved Ones

The formatting for the last chapter was really crappy(two or more words shoved together, two people talking in a paragraph, I'm sure you noticed..) because I was using the most ancient and Stone Age like of writing software that I have ever heard of. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was using Notepad. -shudders- But this time, I managed to.. um, talk a different friend into letting me borrow her laptop(alright, it was a combination of bribery and blackmail, I'll be honest..) and I am using her OpenOffice text thing. And, despite the fear of sounding like a dork, I will honestly tell you that.. _it's so cool! _Of course, this is coming from a person who, on a regular basis, uses the Word pad and the speck check from her email to write her stories.. My point is, the quality should be better this time around. Or not. We'll see.

**Warning: **_Hiashi gets nostalgic. _Hehehe..

And yes, I do seem to have a thing for pictures in this chapter. And other chapters. A reoccurring theme? Or maybe my lack of creativity? I'll let you decide.

Interested in fan art? Guess what! I got my first piece of fan art from the very talented Lizeth. -claps, ogles art before remembering what she was supposed to be doing- The link is in my profile. It is so awesome. If you are prepared to stare at it for the next hour, impulsively send it to your ignorant friends who don't know the first thing about Naruto, and feel insanely jealous of her skill, click on my profile and look under Fan Art for the lonely link. I sure did. : )

* * *

For the Love of my Friends 

Chapter Thirty-Six: Those Who Honor Their Loved Ones

by Foxie

* * *

They had to get to the meeting place by noon. Naruto, with the grace and skill of a fox, managed to evade Kakashi when he started to ask questions, just as the jonin promised he would. 

_"I'm training under Jiraiya!"_ Naruto had said quickly, before Kakashi could finish his question. It was a bit suspicious, but the jonin figured that he'd ask Jiraiya and see if it was true later.

And train under Jiraiya was what Naruto did, during the last half of the day before. They had started to working out the kinks in his chakra control, which were still there. Naruto had no concept of the meaning of 'conservation', having the insanely dangerous habit of pouring large amounts of chakra into whatever he was doing, no matter how little chakra there was to be needed. It was only because of the Kyuubi and his own unnatural amount of stamina that he hadn't been seriously hurt the first time around.

Naruto begged and pleaded, even teased a little, to try and get Jiraiya to 'teach' him the rasengan. The frog hermit relented, showing him how it was done and telling him the first step in understanding how it worked, with a promise that they would work more on it after the first two parts of the Chuunin Exam. Naruto, of course, promptly made a bet that he could figure out how the attack worked by the next time he saw Jiraiya. Was his gambling streak a bad habit that had rubbed off from Tsunade? Probably as much as Jiraiya's habit of cheating.

All of Naruto's screw ups had been somewhat fixed except for one big major goof.. as long as nobody mentioned dates, or said goof, he was in the clear.

If Kakashi asked about the rasengan, Jiraiya would say that Naruto was in the beginning stages of mastering it. Not really understanding the rasengan all that well to notice the difference between a mastered rasengan and one that was barely kept together, he'd mention that he thought that Naruto was doing really well with his training.

If Kakashi asked about the summoning jutsu, which he could have only known about if he guessed that the 'monster frog' that Tazuna mumbled about was a summon, Jiraiya would say that Naruto had already mastered the technique.

If Kakashi asked about Shunshin no Jutsu.. Naruto was screwed. No amount of teasing, pleading, or bribing could pry the frog hermit's prized student's jutsu out of his mouth. The only excuse that Naruto could make is that he had heard of the Fourth's jutsu and tried to replicate it, but even that perfectly reasonable lie was stretching it. He had, the first time around, started to receive beginning training on how to properly perform Shunshin no Jutsu, but Jiraiya had died before the rest of the training was complete. Naruto's version of Shunshin no Jutsu was purely his own, touch-and-go version based on the basics he learned, and in his own honest opinion, inferior to the late Yondaime's original body flicker technique.

Naruto stretched, staring at the village below him from a high perch on one of the stores. It was only around ten o'clock. He had time before he had to meet up with his team. _A written test, a survival test, and a one-on-one battle. Give or take that one-on-one battle if there isn't enough people for the preliminaries._ All of that was going to happen within the next week.

_I guess I really don't have to worry about the written test. The tenth question is the only_ _one that matters. The prelims and the final exam, no problem at all. But the survival exam.._ Naruto frowned, his fist clenching when he remembered Orochimaru. _How are we going dodge him? _He did have some insane, half assed ideas how to sneak Sasuke past Orochimaru's eye, some involving Naruto as a decoy, a mere punching bag for Orochimaru to knock around, while others involved an experiment to see if Orochimaru was as hot blooded about naked women as his old team mate by using, of course, his infamous Sexy no Jutsu. Somehow, he doubted if the latter would work.

"Hey." Naruto turned sharply around, having been too deep in his thoughts to realize that someone had been behind him. Shikamaru, his arms crossed and looking sour, sat next to him. "You really are troublesome."

Naruto blinked. It was such a common Shikamaru saying that it took a minute for him to realize that it wasn't a greeting, but a reluctant statement that hinted at the hell Shikamaru had been through due to Naruto's designs. He then smirked. "Couldn't stop thinking about it, could ya?" Naruto said lightly, eyes dancing with mischief. Shikamaru grimly shook his head. "Want me to tell you more?" Still grim, he nodded.

"Okay, let's start with something recent.. Ah, I know. I'll tell you what to expect for the Chuunin Exam." Naruto pulled his legs up and shifted them underneath him. "The Chuunin Exam consists of three parts: A written test, a survival exam, and one-on-one fights between those who are left. The written test is full of questions that, theoretically, only chuunins can answer. Go figure. Thus, it is not really a test of knowledge, it is a test of how well you can _cheat_." He pouted, remembering that he hadn't realized that he was supposed to cheat until Ibiki had told them that he was.

"Information gathering.." Shikamaru muttered. "Let me guess. Those who cheat in a noticeable way are kicked out?"

"Nope. They are docked points. If they run out of points, _then_ they get kicked out." Naruto replied, trying to remember the intensely complicated rules that Ibiki had wrote on the board. "Oh well.. anyway, the real exam winner is the last question. It's a do or die, fight or flight sorta thing. Just ignore everything the examiner says and stay in the room, no matter what."

"And then?" the shadow user asked.

"And then, Anko will come in. Shattering glass and all. She's really creepy. She'll take us to training ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death for our survival exam. Heh.." Naruto started to get nostalgic. "We had to train there before we became jonins, but instead of a week, we had a month. Kiba started calling it training ground 666."

Shikamaru frowned. He was really started to regret that he promised his team that he would enter himself in the Chuunin Exam. "What is the objective?"

"It's a kinda.. capture the flag sorta thing, except a lot more deadly. You have to get these heaven and earth scrolls-well, you kinda have one already, you just have to get the other one- and get to the tower in the middle in five days, without losing a team member, looking in the scrolls till you reach the tower, and without leaving the training area." Naruto's voice changed from somewhat hyper to a lower, more somber tone. Shikamaru noticed.

"What's wrong? Did something bad happen then?" That was all the prompting Naruto needed to spill his worries. He told Shikamaru about _everything_ that happened in the forest, from being nearly cut off from his chakra, to Orochimaru and his disguise, to Sasuke being bitten and Sakura having to fight off the Sound, with help from Lee, Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru himself.

"And I know everything will end better if Sasuke doesn't get bitten, but I don't know _how_ we can avoid the freaky bastard!"

"Is Orochimaru poisonous?" Shikamaru asked, a bit confused. Irritated, Naruto shook his head.

"No. When he bites someone, they get this thing called a cursed seal. It makes the victim able to tap into Orochimaru's power and to also transform into.. a sorta demonic like being. But it corrupts people's minds into thinking _exactly_ like him. The most loyal jonin could easily turn into an enemy, if under the cursed seal's influence." Naruto sighed, his hand absently going over his chest where once, his best friend ran him through with a chidori, under the influence of his cursed seal. "Sasuke left the village to seek out Orochimaru and his power, his mind corrupted so that he thought that the most important thing in the world was defeating his brother, where now, an _uncorrupted_ Sasuke might give up his revenge if steered in the right direction."

_Sasuke betrayed the village!_ was all Shikamaru could think._ The perfect Uchiha joined the dark side!_ It was almost harder to swallow than Konoha falling to invaders.

"Why did -_does_- Orochimaru want Sasuke anyway?" he had to ask. "He's not that great.." Naruto smirked, glad that someone in the village shared his opinion.

"Eh, I think it had something to do with the sharingan. You know, the Uchiha blood limit that copies almost everything that it sees. Orochimaru has this way of.. putting himself in other people's bodies. So if he has Sasuke and puts himself into his body.. Orochimaru would have the sharingan." Naruto muttered, not happy about that prospect.

"That can't be sanitary.." Shikamaru said, prompting another smile from the somber blond.

"Anyway, there's the one-on-one battles next. There will be preliminaries if too many people make it past the second test, so try to conserve your energy. And then, a month after that, there's the final exam, where all the people who make it fight each other and a bunch of stuck up politicians watch." Naruto finished. He sighed, just realizing how much work there was ahead of him, not just the survival exam. Then he flinched, suddenly remembering his appointment with his team. "Ugh.. I should go. General Sakura ordered me to show up in thirty minutes for a 'pep talk'." He made a disgusted sound and stood. Shikamaru waited until Naruto was a couple of feet away before addressing the real reason why he had come.

"Hey, Naruto. I still don't believe you." he said, an unreadable look on his face. His hands were curved in his infamous thinking pose. _I need a sharp mind, I need your mind, Shika._ Naruto's words from the night before came back to him. _You may be ten years younger than the Shika I remember but at least he always steered me in the right direction. Can you do the same? _It was strange, how much Naruto seemed to respect his opinion. Never before had someone placed so much value on what he thought. It was just only recently that his own team began to notice his skills at being a strategist, and started to suggest that he make up different types of battle formations to increase their chances of success. Shikamaru liked those types of things, they were like little mental games that he could tweak to his own desires. But, they were still just _games_. Naruto seemed to want his opinion in a real life situation. That, even though he was still in the mind set that Naruto was playing a prank, made Shikamaru nervous.

Naruto turned around, scowling. Shikamaru sighed, giving the blond what he wanted. "But.. Keep to the highest tree branches. Stay silent and stealthy. Suppress your chakra at all times, and if possible, send copies of your teams out in all directions to evade any pursuers. Go for the second scroll when you are close to the tower. And most important of all.. don't stop unless you're exhausted." Naruto's scowl melted. He looked uncertain, but then he realized what Shikamaru was doing: Giving him a logical order to evade Orochimaru, even though he still didn't believe Naruto. He slowly smiled, his eyes showing more thanks than he could put into words.

"Thank you, Shika.."

* * *

The bathroom was cold, impersonal. Just like the rest of his apartment. The only sign of life was the stupid comic that Naruto drew on his bedroom wall some time ago. In _permanent _ink. _Stupid idiotic dobe.._

Sasuke glared at his reflection. Mirror Sasuke glared back, his face a shade paler because of the lighting. Clad in a over sized black shirt that he had fished out of the back of his closet, black shorts, and the arm guards that Naruto had given him a while ago as a late birthday gift, as well as his normal ninja accessories, he looked ready for battle. _Well, Kakashi had said to come prepared.._

There was one more thing Sasuke had to make sure he had in his arsenal. He braced his hands on the counter, his eyes closing and his face contorted into a concentrating frown. He reached inside himself, tugging at the tendril of chakra, pulling at it till.. His eyes warmed, started to ache.

He opened his eyes to stare directly into a pair of immature sharingan eyes, the red offsetting his entire appearance while giving an unnatural glow as the two comma marks in each eye seemed to swirl. He smirked at his reflection. Mirror Sasuke smirked back, just as prideful.

Kakashi had come around a few days before and informed him that, yes, Sasuke had tapped into his blood limit while in the Wave Country, yes, he'd eventually train him how to use it, and no, he didn't want a kunai shoved up in unpleasant places for not telling Sasuke earlier.

Sasuke found that he was getting to be impatient, a nasty habit that Naruto must have knocked into him, and decided to teach himself. It was a long and laborious task, but, after three days, he could finally call it to surface.

Everything was so clear! He could see the small lines in the counter, the bumps in the walls.. Everything was brighter! The shadows were nearly nonexistent, the light beat on his sensitive eyes.

Covering them for a moment, he turned the light off and stumbled out of the bathroom. In the somewhat dim lights of his living room, he felt some relief.

Fascinated at how different things looked through his new eyes, he took special care in looking over the things he took granted. He wandered in his room, took a moment to scowl at the comic(like the idiot would ever beat him!), then looked over the few personal things he had in his room.

The painted Uchiha crest stood out even more, making Sasuke wince in guilt. Here he was, like a simpleton, walking around and looking at things when he should be training..

_This kinda** is** like training.._ a inner voice whispered to him. He ignored it in favor of the picture sitting by his bed. He picked it up, looking down at the only three people in Konoha that he cared about.

Sasuke looked at himself, an eyebrow quirking up at the strange look on his face. He looked unfriendly with his mocking look at someone beyond the camera. If he remembered correctly, he had been refusing a date with the cameraman's assistant. Did he really look that mean? It was with pride that he observed it, not guilt. The patented Uchiha glare could still scare the crowds.. if only the crowds were of normal citizens instead of rabid fan girls who'd think his glare was_ cute,_ or something as dumb as that. Really, half of those girls needed a brain transplant, one that removed all of the bubbles from their head.

Naruto, in typical fashion, grinned at the camera and flashed the cameraman a thumbs up. His mouth was open, as he had been arguing with the man the second he took the picture, his eyes flashing in defiance. _"You'll see!"_ Sasuke remembered Naruto ranting, _"I'll be the Rokudaime, and then I'll fire your ass!"_

Sasuke always wondered why Naruto always said 'Rokudaime' instead of 'Godaime'. It wasn't something that he always lingered on(he had _better_ things to do than to be a Naruto groupie), but it would be a good question for later on. Most likely Naruto thought, since Sarutobi was so old, he'd get another successor quickly, and Naruto wasn't quite old enough, nor strong enough, to keep and hold the position of Hokage as the Godaime.

Between the two boys, Sakura was in the middle of elbowing Naruto, but she still smiled at the camera. She was still glowing over their collective success as a team and her own success over the jutsu that Naruto taught her. But what made Sasuke smile was the memory of her cussing out the cameraman's assistant because she told Sakura that she should wear some makeup and her headband over her forehead, or better yet, get out of the picture. The whole time, the assistant was fluttering her eyelashes at Sasuke, implying that she's be better in the picture than Sakura. By the time Sakura was done with her, the girl was nothing more than a trembling form in the corner of the room.

Kakashi, looking a little bewildered as he always did, had a hand on each boy's head. His eye wasn't curved, the one way they knew he was smiling, rather, looking down at Sakura and Naruto. _"Now now, children.. Be nice to the nice man and the nice lady.." _he had said soothingly. _"Don't call us kids, pervert!"_ Sakura and Naruto had snapped in a collective cry while getting ready for the picture.

Sasuke smirked, then froze. In the reflection of the glass frame, he had seen something. Turning around sharply, he saw that no one was there. He put down the picture carefully, switching to a kunai instead.

Stealthily, he snuck back into the main room, eyes wary for an enemy and senses spread out in all direction. There had been someone in his apartment, that he was sure of. But they were gone now.

_Wait!_ There was a chakra signature behind his door. He didn't take the time to try and match it with memories of the other signatures he had sensed before, he just attacked.

Swinging the door open, he lashed out with his kunai at the enemy. The enemy squeaked, ducking low under the swing while knocking Sasuke's feet right out from under him instinctively with a sweeping kick along the ground. Sasuke saw the attack coming, but he fell, not being able to react fast enough. He immediately rolled back into his home and launched several shuriken at his enemy. Who he realized was starting to look very familiar. _Oh crap._

Luckily, his unfortunate 'enemy' was quick and managed to catch the flying stars, but not before one sliced deep into his palm.

"Owie." he said, watching the thick blood ooze from the wound. He scowled at Sasuke. "That's it. That's the last time I bug you when you're brooding."

"Sorry." Sasuke leaned forward and examined the wound on Naruto's hand. "Didn't realize it was you. And I wasn't brooding."

Naruto scoffed at him. "Yeah, that's what they all say. Their eyes turn red and then they attack me like I'm the last bowl of ramen at a ramen lover's festival." he idly licked the blood off of his palm, ignoring Sasuke's look of disgust. "And you _were_ brooding. You musta walked past your window three times. You brood like an old woman, Sasuke."

"Stalking me now, are you?" Sasuke grumbled, shooting a glare with no heat behind it at the boy standing in front of him.

"Nope. Trying to gage your mood. You were late to Sakura's _whatchamacallit_... meeting thing. She ordered me to make sure you didn't slip on and fall on your clothes. Yep, she had a fit when you didn't come. She was getting to be a real pain in the ass about it." he said calmly, watching as the wound closed. Sasuke groaned, just remembering the meeting. "Don't worry. You're Sasuke. She's bound to forgive you." Naruto flexed his hand once to make sure it was completely healed. With a half smile, he handed over Sasuke's shurikens.

Sasuke took them back. "How much longer till the exam?"

"Oh, about a hour. You still got time." he blinked, as if he just saw the sharingan in Sasuke's eyes. "If you.. wanna practice that thingy or something."

"Are you offering?" Sasuke asked, wondering how much information about the sharingan that Naruto picked up from Kakashi. Naruto only grinned, the glint in his eyes the only warning Sasuke got.

* * *

Hinata kept her head down and her breathing slow. Kneeling made her seem smaller than she really was, but the way she seemed to curl into herself made her seem even smaller than that. She ducked her head so the bottom half of her face was out of sight, knowing that her father would not like to see his daughter biting her lips.

Imposing in the regal confidence that seemed to roll off of him, and in the way he kept ignoring her, Hiashi shifted through some papers importantly. Of course, there was no real reason for him to be shuffling through the papers, but he was trying to think of what to say to his daughter. His daughter's face was something he knew very well, as she looked exactly like her mother, but his daughter's spirit was something he was unfamiliar with.

How could someone with the honor of being born in the noble Hyuuga clan be so much more like a shy mouse than a fearsome ninja? It was just something he couldn't understand.

Hinata twisted her fingers in her lap, getting more nervous as the seconds wore on. Why did her father want her here? Was it to forbid her from seeing Naruto? Or, she theorized when she took a look at the clock that ticked away the minutes until the Chuunin Exam, did he plan to keep her from entering?

Hiashi glanced at the clock, realizing how much time he was wasted away. He was expected to make sure the Chuunin Exam was running its courses smoothly. Sighing, he decided to word himself in the best way he knew how: orders.

"You will give your thanks to whoever let you stay in their home, then you will return home." he said, reshuffling the stacks of papers into their original piles.

Hinata froze, her hand immediately going to the rusty key that hung around her neck. Flashes of memory went through her head: Naruto just waking up, bleary eyed and mumbling curses about coffee, the carefree grins he'd toss her way when she'd least expect it, the pout on his face after she won a game on his ancient game console, the surprised look on his face when she impulsively hugged him the day before, and the gentle way he hugged her back.

Over the last few weeks in his company, they had gotten closer than she could have ever hoped for. Hinata no longer shied away from his eyes, she stuttered very little in his presence, and she no longer saw Naruto as an unattainable person she had set upon a mile high pedestal. She saw him as what he was, a human who got annoyed very easily, wasn't at all immune from hurts and pains, and who, overall, was far from perfect. Hinata found herself in even more love with the Naruto she knew than the Naruto she idolized. Of course, despite the strange situations they'd get in together, she knew she wasn't good girlfriend material in Naruto's eyes. _After all, who would want little Hinata when they had the confident and beautiful Sakura-san on their team? _

Unfortunately, the more Hinata got to know Naruto, she also became very aware that she wasn't strong enough for Naruto. What she didn't know was that if he, in a life or death situation, was forced to make a choice over her and Sakura, even though Sakura was like the overly bossy, yet kind older sister that he never had, he'd save Hinata without a second thought.

But, oblivious to what Naruto really thought of her, she'd settle for what he could give her, the smallest tidbit of affection he'd throw her way. Hinata would settle for having his friendship, if she could have no more.

But, the knowledge that she'd no longer see him, day after day, ate at her heart. Hinata wasn't dumb. She knew, that one day, she'd have to go back home, but she didn't want to return home while things were so delicate between her and her sister. _No, not while there was so much. No.._

"..No." she said out loud. Hiashi looked up from his papers, frowning when he realized that she should have been gone already.

"Excuse me?" he said, almost sharply. Was the little mouse defying his direct order? Somehow, that didn't make him mad, rather, made him lean forward slightly, with his full attention on his oldest daughter.

"I.." she said, her throat nearly failing on her. No, she would not return. Not until her and Hanabi's differences had been settled. The last thing she wanted was to be feuding with her own family. One thing that she had realized, almost painfully so, how lonely Naruto was without the echo of a family in his home.

He had once told her that he had never met his parents, hardly even knew who they were. He said that, if he had the chance, he would have held on to them, and never would have let go. He said to her, _"Hinata-chan, I don't care what kinda feud it is, family is family._ _Family means so much more than the people who look kinda like you and share your blood. Family is **home**. Don't loose yours over something as stupid as the leadership of the clan." _

Her resolve firmed, she looked up, making rare eye contact with the father she barely knew. "I will return when my sister and I have resolved our differences, though that maybe almost impossible with the position of heir that you have been slinging about." she winced when she sounded too sharp. She gentled her tone, taking a different tactic. "This family means so much to me. I do not want to bring any h-hostility or bad blood, over something that seems almost trivial."

"I do not.. sling." Hiashi said, arching an eyebrow. "And that is not trivial." But he didn't stop her from talking, only making a gesture for her to continue.

"Whatever it is that you may or may not do," she said quickly, "the fact of the matter is that this cannot be forced. This is our problem. I'm.. sorry Father."

"I.. see." he was calm, as he usually was. Hiashi looked carefully at her, alert for weaknesses. "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?"

Hinata paused, staring down at her folded hands, nervously twitching. _Well, might as well get it all out while I can. _"Yes, actually." she swallowed hard, knowing her next words might seriously make her father angry. "I do not want to be the heir, so please give that to Hanabi."

"It is a privilege." Hiashi was frowning.

"One that I'm not well equipped for." Hinata said hastily. "I.. want to heal. That is my goal. To be a healer. The leader of the clan should be strong, like Hanabi. The leader of the clan should be a warrior." She waited, knowing she said too much of what was on her mind. Hinata stared at her hands, trembling in her slight terror. _I said too much.. I said too much! _Naruto always badgered her to speak her mind when he thought she looked sad. Hinata had gotten used to it, even started to crave telling others what she thought.

Just the day before, when Kurenai ordered Kiba to bathe his dog when she smelt Akamaru's growing odor and Kiba started to argue, Shino put his two cents in and nearly got into a fight with Kiba. Hinata murmured her agreement with Shino, which surprised everyone. She was the unofficial peace keeper of the team, it was extremely rare for her to take a side. Luckily, Kiba was so surprised that he made no more fuss and got to giving Akamaru his bath. Shino, muttering something about dogs and dog users smelling alike, booted Kiba into the river when he wasn't looking._  
_

A low chuckle brought her attention back up. All nervousness faded into shock when she saw the faint smile on Hiashi's normally blank features."I should have foreseen this.." he said, for the first time, looking straight at her. He reached into his desk, pulling out an old picture. "Come here."

Hinata stood unsteadily. The long wait had made her legs numb. Slowly, she walked over, wary of what he was to show her and, she was sad to admit, that almost wistful and soft look in his eyes.

Hiashi pushed the picture to her, flipping it over so she could see it. There, amongst a small crowd of men and women in white uniforms, stood her mother. The woman smiled easily for the camera, her blue tinted hair pulled back into a neat ponytail and a clipboard hugged to her chest. Her blue-gray eyes were kind. A familiar necklace glinted in the light of the sun, the same necklace that Hinata wore around her neck.

"Mother.." she whispered, shaking fingers reaching out to touch the picture. The beautiful woman in the picture had died when she was seven.

Hiashi folded his hands under his chin, his eyes unfocusing. "Your mother was a medic nin. I remember, when we were younger, she was always trying to get one up on my brother or myself. Said that even though she didn't have a blood limit or she was a girl, there was no way she was going to let a bunch of 'pretty boys' get the better of her. She had this.. aggressive way of looking at things." he paused, looking at Hinata for a moment. She was transfixed on his every word. "I have no idea where you got your shyness, but it's definitely not from her. She used to say 'Fight to the death, but live for love.' It never made any sense to me. _She_ never made any sense to me. My brother and she got along very well, I'm sure she was the one who got him into medical jutsu in the first place." he smiled, seeing her in his mind. "Our marriage was arranged. She was spitting mad about it too. Said she'd rather marry a rabid cat with three legs. We fought a lot. It was.. strangely fun. No one could push my buttons like your mother could." He sighed with the wistfulness of a man who missed his wife, looking down at his desk.

"W-what made her want to be a medic nin?" Hinata prompted anxiously, wanting to hear more about her mother. Fuzzy memories of being held and talked to by her wasn't enough to tell Hinata the kind of woman her mother was.

"She wanted to heal." Hiashi said simply. "Just what you said." He sighed again. His shoulders slumped and his eyes, weary and tired, met hers. "I've spent so much time trying to make you two into my clones, but, without her presence, I've seemed to forget that you both are half of her as well. Leading this clan.. makes me forget that sometimes, I'm not just the head of the clan. I am a father as well." The weary and tired Hiashi disappeared. His eyes became more determined as his posture straightened. "If you wish to become a medic nin, I will give you my full support. As I'm sure.. your mother would."

"B-but.. I t-thought.." she took a deep breath, trying to calm down her giddy heart. "I thought there were to be no medic nins in the Hyuuga clan."

Hiashi waved his hand. "Just because there _are _no medic nins with the byakugan, doesn't mean that there _can't_ be." A little embarrassed by the excited look on Hinata's face, he glanced over at the clock, starting when he realized what time it was. "You should be off already." She followed his gaze, gasping when she saw the time.

"Oh no!" she cried. Hinata started to run out the door, but paused in mid step, looking back at her father. She nodded firmly to herself, as if she just made a mental decision. She moved toward him. "I promise to return home, _and_ speak with my sister as soon as possible."

He nodded. "As will I. Though she may want a fight with you, even though you passed to the position to her."

Hinata bit her lip, then threw all caution to the wind. She walked around the table. She was too happy to worry about repercussions. "I apologize if this offends you." she said, quickly hugging him. The gesture was brief and she had almost made it to the door in her haste before he reacted.

"Hinata!" she paused, the door halfway open. Hiashi seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if he was trying to think of what to say. "Do well in the exam." She smiled, blushing a little.

"For the Hyuuga clan!" Hinata said cheerfully, turning around.

"No." he said quietly. Hinata blinked owlishly, confused. Hiashi smiled. "For yourself."

* * *

"Isn't it a little early for you to be so beaten up?" Naruto scowled at him, one eye bruised to the point of being completely shut while the other spat fire. 

"Isn't it a little early for me to whip your scrawny ass?" he replied, poking the bruised skin below his eye. "Besides, this thing will be healed up in a few minutes while your ass will be on fire for the next week, Shino. Dare to challenge me?"

Shino bowed his head once. "Fair enough. I shall leave you alone." he started to walk away.

"Wait." Naruto said, jogging to catch up. "I mean, we're going the same way, right?" he looked nervous. "And.. well, I need to talk to you about something, seriously. You know what I need to talk to you about."

Shino nodded, silently agreeing that he did. He had wondered how long it would take for Naruto to either plead or threaten for him not to spread his secret. "It's going to be hard to speak with you seriously while you look like that." he said.

Naruto scowled, his hand coming up self consciously over the eye. "Then don't look at me!" Shino nodded again, resisting the urge to look over at the short blond. "Hmph."

They walked that way for several moments, Shino stubbornly trying to not smile while Naruto squirmed, trying to figure out a way to approach the situation.

Obviously, dealing with Shikamaru was easier. He knew, someday, when Shikamaru figured out what was needed to perform a time traveling jutsu, he'd ask how Naruto had done it. Then, Naruto would have to tell him about the Kyuubi. But until then, he had time to figure out an answer. _Ugh, I hate when people get smart and figure things out on their own. _He glared at Shino. Shino looked at him, then looked away, his high collar hiding his small smile.

Naruto really didn't know how much of a fool he looked like with that black eye.

"Alright.." Naruto said quietly, looking at his feet. Left right, left right.. his eyes followed the hypnotic rhythm of his moving feet before continuing. "You know what I know. You know what every _adult_ in this village knows, but what every kid doesn't. The question is, are they, the naive and oblivious kids, going to find out about it from you?" he sighed, his hand going over his stomach. Shino could only imagine that was where the demon was sealed. "I'm not gonna beg. I'm not gonna plead. And, I'm not gonna threaten you either. If you want blackmail, well, you can shove it up your ass. I don't care."

"But you do." Shino murmured, echoing his sigh. "You don't know me very well, do you?"

"Does anyone?" Naruto grumbled. Shino smiled.

"Fair enough." he said, nodding. "But, my point was, I'm not going to blackmail you, or anything of the sort." he paused, lifting his hand up. A fragile butterfly with black and gold wings landed on his finger. "Secrets are secrets, Naruto, though I am well aware that secrets are best keep with one person, I assure and promise you this: The only way your secret will pass through my lips is if it is physically forced by another." Naruto's head slumped forward to his chest, sighing in relief. Shino glanced at him through the corner of his eye. _So I was right. He does care. _

"But heed my warning." the bug user said seriously. The butterfly flew off. "There are certain things allies must know in order to work seamlessly with each other, but this is one thing I know you want to keep to yourself. Remember, secrets have consequences. Telling people that you are who you are will endear you more to them than if they learn about it by themselves." He paused, one hand going to his comrade's shoulder. "Be careful, Naruto."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I will." he paused for a moment, trying to figure out how he was going to word what he wanted to say. "Also I.. uh... I wanted you to know that.." Words suddenly flowed to him. "I'm not gonna hurt anyone who isn't already asking for it. And I also want you to know that, even with my.. companion, I'm still no different than the guy you've known all of these years."

Shino arched an eyebrow. "I should hope not." he said blandly. Naruto sharply turned his head toward the bug user, eyes wide. "I mean, you're not going to use that barbaric and highly offensive jutsu to get out of the Chuunin Exam, are you?" It took Naruto a moment before he realized what Shino was talking about. Then he started to laugh.

"Aw, no way. Sexy no Jutsu is reserved for only a few people. Mainly, perverts and closet perverts, you know?" They shared a laugh. "No no, I guess I have changed a bit. At least, I_ think_ I'm more mature." There was a peaceful silence between the two for almost the rest of the walk. They had finally got within sight of the building they were supposed to go in before Shino said what he had wanted to say all along.

"I believe that I, of all of our peers, understand your situation the best." he said, drawing Naruto's attention to him. Understanding that Naruto was confused, he lifted his arm. Bugs crawled out of the hole in his wrist. "I'm the icky bug kid, remember?" His tone was bitter, but he was gentle with the bugs crawling into his palm. "I realize this pales in comparison with a demon but.." Naruto was nodding.

"Yeah, I think you _do _understand." he looked at the bugs, then at the user. "Really, thanks, Shino." Shino nodded, ordering the bugs to go back into his body.

"Hey, Shino!" Both the owner of the name and the person he was talking to turned to the shout. Kiba, the one who called out, and Hinata trailing after him, ran to them. They stopped just within a few feet, panting. "Oh good, we're not late."

"Naruto-kun." Hinata said with a smile. Naruto waved, returning the easy smile. Noticing the confident way they both addressed each other, Shino narrowed his eyes. _I suppose.. Hinata did live with Naruto during the time she was absent from her house? _He considered asking, but realized it was rude to, and could, not to mention, make Kiba want to fight Naruto. Which would be very messy, since Naruto was a demon host, and could easily rip a hole into the dog user.

Just as Naruto promised, the black eye had already healed. However, within a few minutes of a conversation with Hinata, Kiba was already threatening to give him another.

Shino sighed. Such bothersome people he was forced to be around..

* * *

Team Eight went inside while Naruto waited for his team. After ten minutes, Sasuke and Sakura finally showed up. 

"Cutting it a little close, aren't we?" Sakura murmured as they ran up the stairs to the third floor. Knowing that there would be a hold up, Naruto purposely steered them to the first set of stairs they could find. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Izumo and Kotetsu.

"Kakashi would be proud." Sasuke said. Naruto snickered while Sakura tried to hide a smile behind her hand.

"Zabuza was so disappointed to hear that the famous copy cat nin was a pathological liar, an exposed pervert, and chronicly tardy all in one." Naruto revealed with a grin. He had talked to Haku a few days before and they had a laugh over it. "He said something about how the 'bingo book' succeeded in telling him of his opponents strengths and weaknesses but failed him when it came to their true personalities." They rounded a corner, the door to the real room '301' and its guardian in their sights.

"While in battle, all that matters is skill, strength, agility, and smarts. Personalities are for peaceful times." Kakashi murmured, his nose in his book. He was leaning casually against the wall. He had been, of course, shamelessly eavesdropping. "You must remember that. There are many battles ahead of you where, at the slightest hint of a screw up, you will die."

"Well, that's one way to cheer us up." Sakura grumbled. The jonin smiled absently, taking his gaze off of the text in front of him.

"I do my best!" he said cheerfully. They glared at him, moving to open the door. Kakashi stretched his hand out, keeping the door shut. He sobered up, looking very serious for a man with a perverted book in his hand. "You still have time to refuse. You don't have to go through with this."

"Look, Kakashi-sensei.." Naruto said, prying his hand off of the door. "We've gotten this far. What makes you think we're gonna stop now? Don't go all 'Iruka-sensei' on us." Naruto grinned. Kakashi's eyes drifted to Sasuke and Sakura. They both had the same confident looks that Naruto had. Wondering if he would later regret it, the jonin stepped away from the door, gesturing that they could go through.

Sasuke and Sakura grabbed a hold of the handles on the double doors and opened the doors. Naruto walked through first, his arms crossing behind his head. Sasuke and Sakura followed, the door swinging shut behind them.

Kakashi sighed. _Those kids have spunk.. but is it just for show?_

* * *

It wasn't hardly as impressive the second time around, Naruto reflected as his team took in the sheer amount of people in the room. The large crowd of foreign and various fellow leaf genins was a formidable force, especially with all of them glaring at the Rookie Nine. 

It had been five years, or ten Chuunin Exams, since the last rookies had entered in. Most of the chuunin hopefuls were on their second or third rounds of entering, while others had been held back until their respective teachers thought they were strong enough. In any case, there wasn't a welcoming committee for the rookies.

_That should have tipped us off. _Naruto thought darkly, his thoughts once again centering around Kabuto. _There's no way a genin with that much experience would have helped us out unless he had something up his sleeve.  
_

The other two rookie genin teams walked up to Team Seven, apparently feeling the anger and jealousy directed at them from the older genins. Though Kiba disguised himself with a casual insult and challenge thrown at them, and Sasuke just as easily parried, it was clear to the keenly observing eye that they were nervous.

Ino glomped Sasuke almost immediately after sighting him, causing an argument with Sakura and enough distraction so no one would notice Shikamaru looking over the genin teams. Near the back, he noticed a trio with a musical note etched on their forehead protectors. He memorized their faces for a moment, heeding Naruto's warnings. The one in front, whom he thought looked like a walking mummy, looked especially dangerous. Or just plain weird. But weird in the ninja world was usually a synonym with dangerous.

While Shikamaru was on the look out for suspicious ninjas, one slipped past his guard. The glasses wearing genin only got a moment's glance. He was too kind looking, too normal, too.. Iruka like. Well, a glasses wearing, silver haired, scarless Iruka. Kabuto was ignored in favor of a grumpy looking Gaara.

"I'm hungry." Chouji whined. Ino rounded on him.

"What? You just enough food for a third world country!" she said, her voice slightly shrill. "You keep eating so much and you'll end up being the size of a whale." Being a girl who watched her carb and calorie intake like a hawk, she didn't really understand that the Akimichi clan needed more food most normal people. She threw her hands up in the air in a classic 'I give up!' gesture. She stomped away to angrily start a conversation with Sakura, that quickly escalated into a verbal battle.

"What did I do?" Chouji asked of no one in particular. Shino, Chouji, a distracted Shikamaru, an equally distracted Naruto, and Hinata stood in one group while Ino and Sakura argued in another. Sasuke completely separated himself from all of them, preferring to lean against the wall than engage himself in one of their conversations.

"What didn't you do?" Kiba said sagely. Having an older sister, he considered himself an expert on women. "Girls are weird like that." Realizing what he said at the last moment, and exactly who was standing next to him, he hastened to redeem himself. "N-not you, Hinata-chan! You're the best!" Hinata nodded absently. She hadn't been listening in their conversation at all, rather, she had been watching someone approach them. She tugged on Naruto's sleeve to gain his attention.

He blinked, looking at her in askance, then followed her gaze. A sudden growl erupted from his throat. All of those within earshot silenced immediately, noticing Naruto's sudden fierce expression. They followed his gaze.

"..name's Kabuto." An older genin was addressing Sasuke. His hair was pulled up in a ponytail and his dark eyes were glinting behind a pair of glasses. The symbol on his forehead protector was that of a leaf. The two girls had stopped bickering and were almost protectively hovering in the background behind the man who would later be revealed as one of Orochimaru's top spies and right hand man. "And I suppose you are Uchiha Sasuke?"

_Don't answer that._ The thought, fleeting and unbidden, came to Naruto's mind. He wished that he knew some type of telepathy to communicate that to his friend.

Sasuke was looking at Kabuto the same way he looked at everyone outside his circle of friends and accepted acquaintances, cold and superior like, as if he was a king sitting on a throne. His shifted his gaze, for one split second, to Naruto's, as if he could sense the other boy's distress.

Naruto calmed. Sasuke didn't trust anybody without due cause. Still, he gestured to the group to follow him, momentarily forgetting that he wasn't in the future, he wasn't their captain, and there was no reason why they'd follow _him_. But still, they did. Later, Shikamaru would reflect upon this, and many other moments, where Naruto's more serious side would come out, giving a slight glimpse at who Naruto really was.

Sasuke waited until the rest of the Rookie Nine had assembled behind Kabuto before answering. "And if I was?" Kabuto noticed the crowd behind him. He glanced back, secretly uneasy at the sheer unfriendly looks on most of their faces, most of it stemming from the unremarkable blond boy in front of them, radiating blood lust and anger. His worry grew when those blue eyes flashed red for a moment. Was he one of the demon hosts that Orochimaru warned him about?

Between a rock and a hard place. He thought, looking from Naruto to Sasuke. That's very unusual. Kabuto gazed at Sasuke's impassive face, frowning lightly. _One guy gets cornered and the rest of them come running to the rescue. Orochimaru-sama will be very interested to hear this._ Adopting an innocent, yet slightly bewildered smile, he held his hands up in defense.

"No need for hostility!" he said, addressing them all. "I was just curious, that's all. It's been a long time since an Uchiha has been in the exam.." He trailed off, leaving the uncompleted thought to drift through the air.

The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. Naruto nearly smiled, knowing that Kabuto had said the wrong thing if he had hoped to get Sasuke on his side.

Sasuke slowly pushed himself away from the wall. His shoulders were stiff and his dark eyes were colder than ice. "You trailed off." he stated, walking up to Kabuto. "Finish it." He was menacing, his chakra spiking to the point where people could feel it, but just stopping short of becoming visible to the naked eye. His eyes widening, Kabuto backed up, his hands coming up in defense again.

_Such an unusually strong chakra level for a child!_ He thought, still backing away._ No wonder why he is interested in him._

"No, finish it." Sasuke hissed at Kabuto's denial. "No? Preservation instincts kicking in? Fine, I'll finish it for you. You were going to say that it had been a long time since an Uchiha was in a Chuunin Exam.. and that it'll be a longer time after to see another. You think it's funny that I'm the last of my clan?" Now, had it been anyone else, Naruto would have stepped in and yelled at Sasuke for assuming too much. But since it was Kabuto...

Naruto grinned, his arms crossing behind his head. The only thing that would make this better was a bowl of ramen and a couch to sit and watch it from.

**It would be a _lot _better if we could.. **Kyuubi sent him many bloody images involving Naruto, rasengan, and an interestingly placed '1000 years of pain'.

_In time, Kyuubi, in time. _The promise was enough for Kyuubi.

Sasuke grabbed a hold of the front of Kabuto's shirt and dragged the taller genin down to his height. "I better not run across you during this exam, or you might lose an important limb." The thinly veiled threat was enough for Kabuto to yank himself out of the shorter boy's grasp and to tuck himself into a shadowy corner far away from the Uchiha, lamenting his failed mission to 'Become Sasuke's Friend'.

Sasuke slowly released his anger, realizing quickly when the haze of rage disappeared that the rest of the Rookie Nine were giving him weird looks. Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru were eying him like they expected him to attack at a moment's notice. Slightly behind everyone else, Hinata and Sakura were looking at him worriedly while Ino looked confused. Shino was Shino, finding that a conversation with a fly was more interesting than Sasuke's latest flare of temper. However, Naruto was looking at him with a strange sense of.. Sasuke couldn't put a finger on it, it was familiar but..

The answer came to him in a flash. It had him hastily backing up with his hands up in defense, just as Kabuto had moments before.

It was _adoration. _Sasuke swore, he must have died and gone straight to hell. There was no other explanation for an expression home on any of his fan girl's faces to be worn on his rival.

"I swear, Sasuke.." Naruto said in an awed tone. "No one can scare off another person like you can. I got chills!" he was grinning, but then he pointed a finger at the surprised sharingan user. He stubbornly stomped his foot on the ground. "I'm still gonna kick your ass though, mark my words!" Sasuke didn't know what to say to that bold declaration.

Luckily, the examiner chose to appear right at that moment with group of grim faced chuunins. "Hey hey, you brats!" he said loudly. "Stop gossiping and listen!" All of the genins turned to looked at the newly arrived ninjas, the smoke from their teleportation still in the air.

"Who the hell.." Kiba murmured. Sakura pushed past him and discretely waved to one of the chuunins. The chuunin, formally as grim faced as the rest of them, cracked a smile and nodded to her.

"Look, Sasuke-kun, Naruto!" Sakura whispered, turning back to her team mates with an excited grin. "It's Haku-kun!"

* * *

Grumbling to himself, Kiba threw himself rather harshly into his assigned seat. Three rows away from him, Chouji carefully sat down, his eyes meeting Shikamaru's. The other boy assured him with his eyes. I'll take care of everything. 

Ino slid into her seat, frowning when she realized the only person that she knew near her was in the row directly in front of her. Naruto, unaware of her gaze on the back of his head, glared hatefully at the test in front of him. He was more annoyed at the fact that he wasn't sitting next to Hinata than the test itself. Stupid random numbers...

Shino had the dubious honor of sitting in the farthest row back, in the corner seat. He frowned. His eyesight wasn't very good, and the board looked like nothing more than a blurry black blob. Sasuke sat two rows ahead of him, and, thankfully, had been blessed with good eyesight, so seeing the board wasn't as much of a problem as it was for Shino.

Hinata sat near the front, only three seats left and one seat back from Sakura. If the girl looked out of the corner of her eye, she could see her cousin several seats and rows back.  
Tenten was lucky enough to get one of the middle seats in the classroom. Already, she had spied the collection of mirrors on the ceiling and was already coming up with an idea how to use them to her advantage. Lee sat three rows ahead of her, already twitching from being inactive.

Naruto's senses tingled when he felt the heavy gaze of another on him. He turned, looking more casual than he felt, meeting the heavily outlined eyes of Gaara. One had to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to notice the blood lust in that dark gaze. Gaara wanted to kill him. He_ longed_ for Naruto's blood to stain his hands. For what purpose? Hell if Naruto knew..

Naruto grinned at the sand nin. The pure happiness and competitiveness rolled in one in those calm blue eyes were enough to unbalance the sand nin. Naruto wanted to fight him. He_ longed_ for the battle that would inevitably happen, looked forward to it. And then he wanted to treat Gaara to a bowl of ramen afterwards. For what purpose? Hell if Gaara knew...

But he found himself smiling(a small weak smile), for once looking forward to a battle not because of the blood, but for the_ fun _of it. Naruto would give him the battle he needed. He would _show_ Gaara what his true purpose was. Either that, or the blond would kill him. Gaara found himself longing for either one. Relief from his lonely pathetic existence.. The wistful expression on his face faded when Kankurou discretely looked over at him. But until then, his purpose was still the same: Kill everyone else. Maybe then, he'd find some sort of relief.

Once everyone was seated, Ibiki took up his place in the front of the room. He grinned. There was just something about freaking out overconfident and arrogant genins that made his day. Maybe it was the cracking of their self esteem or very visible shows of their overwhelming fear that would threaten to swamp them. Anko understood. If he happened to mention his fetish to any other jonin, he'd get weird looks. Ibiki and Anko had a lot of fun making up this Chuunin Exam, so much fun that half of the jonins who wanted to enter their subordinates ended up backing out when they heard who had organized it.

"Ahem. My name is Morino Ibiki. I'm the chief examiner for the first of this exam." _And so, the fun begins._

_

* * *

_

This chapter is definitely a bit longer than the rest, I believe. Unfortunately, it was just finished, so much editing must be done.. but you all have waited so long, I just didn't have the heart to leave it for tomorrow. So please forgive any grammatical, spelling, or any other general errors. I just didn't have enough time to edit.

Ah, my crystal ball was fixed. And here's a glimpse of the future.. er, next chapter:

_Something intruded on his thinking, a mental prod that was completely unrelated to his unwilling tenant. He clammed up immediately, having some mental defenses in stock, but something about the desperation he could feel from the person attempting to possess him made him shush Kyuubi's snarls and let her in.  
_

_**Ino?** He tried experimentally. She winced.  
_

_**Be quieter, will you?** Naruto winced in turn, not because of the reprimand, but because of the exhaustion he could feel from her**. I-I'm sorry.. I shouldn't be so.. I m-mean.. I felt your defenses come up, but you still let me in.. Thank you.**  
_

_**Save it for later. **He said gently. **Why are you weakened so much, Ino?**_

_**S-something.. happened. **Her softly whispered mental voice drifted through his head.  
_

_**Like what? **Naruto thought to her. **You're supposed to possess me, not become another annoying voice in my head.** Kami knew he didn't need another one.  
_

_**This is only a partial possession, I don't have enough chakra left to fully possess you. **Her somewhat calm tone ended with a sob. **Like I would think to even possess you in the first place! **He knew she could see the half completed answers through his eyes.  
_

_**What happened?** The demon host prodded again.  
_

_**I..** her voice was growing weaker. Ino's hold on the jutsu was weakening as the desperate call of her body to her spirit grew strong.** I.. t-tried to possess that weird panda kid. And.. Naruto.. a demon jumped out and attacked me! **_

Computer is still being a dork, but we're closer to seeing what's a matter with it than we were before. Until then, I thank my buddy for allowing me to borrow her laptop during break. Expect a long break between updates, again. -sigh-


	37. Success and Failure

One of the problems on the exam is almost directly copied from the manga, paraphrased only slightly because I typically use the term 'ninja' instead of 'shinobi'. Sorry, I can't come up with an evil math problem on cue. It's vacation time where I'm at, not school time, otherwise I might have been able to actually make one. In fact, a lot of this chapter is like the manga version. Don't worry, the survival exam, the prelims, and the final exam will be a lot different.

And two more fan arts by Lizeth! The links are in my profile. And, personally, I want that cloak. I'd buy it and wear it all the time until the ends would become ragged because of my short height and friction against the ground instead of the design. Haha, I'm weird..

* * *

For the Love of my Friends 

Chapter Thirty-seven: Success and Failure

by Foxie

* * *

Naruto grinned, stretching out his arms. For now, he was in the clear. He didn't need to do no stupid test! Nope, he just needed to wait for an hour or so. 

He realized the error of his wonderful plan with a jolt that almost immediately preceded what he feared the most.  
**  
..I'm bored.** And with that casual comment, Naruto's carefully laid plans were thrown out the window.

Sakura frowned, bending over her paper to fix one of her answers. She had forgotten to carry the two. The rules of the exam were still running through her head. _So.. if we get some wrong answers.. we get points off. If we're caught cheating.. we get points off. _She bit the end of her pencil in thought. _There's something fishy about this.._

Sasuke looked over the questions quickly, then smirked to himself. He couldn't answer any of them. The purpose of the exam was obvious. _I'll simply have to lie and wait,_ he thought deviously, _and gather the information._

Shikamaru managed to exchange a look with his female team mate. She looked antsy. She had to wait to get the answers. He nodded to Chouji when he turned back, mouthing 'Wait'. He settled more into his chair, his hands curling up in his typical thinking pose. While he waited for Ino to possess him and write down the answers, he might as well try to figure out Naruto's strange proposed time line for the future.

All other ninjas were similarly distracted, either trying to figure out the answers, or waiting for the smart ones to finish so they could copy off of them. And then there was Naruto who hated tests of any kind and would gladly escort them to hell's front gate to be eaten by the three headed dog guardian along with piles of half done homework, but was actually attempting to do the test because his own 'friendly' neighborhood demon demanded some entertainment, whether that be his host struggling through evil math, or his own thirst for puzzles.

He squinted at the first problem. _Cryptography.._ he thought, starting to slowly smile. _Piece of cake. _Jiraiya had practically beaten codes and secret spy languages into his head when they had taken their three year training trip. The one in front of him was basic and simple. It merely commented on how the Kages came to power.

Feeling confident, he moved on to the next one._ The parabola marked B represents the greatest effective distance the enemy ninja, A, could throw a shuriken from the top of a 23.3-foot tall tree._ He read off of the paper. _Calculate the specific features of the scenario and deduce the range of the shuriken's effectiveness, assuming a consistent speed for ninja A's assault upon any ninja within the arc that the shuriken describes. Show your work. _The easy smile slipped off of his face and he quickly turned green. _Oh,** evil**..._

At the same time, Kyuubi looked over the problem, announcing his opinion. **Oh, _fun_..** he chuckled evilly.

Naruto paled. _No.. NO! You can't make me! _

Time passed. The exam paused for a moment while the first team was kicked out, bringing everyone's anxieties to the boiling point. There was one, then two.. soon there was ten teams that were already eliminated. Most of them had one member in a particular row...

Izumo scratched down another mark for another cocky genin. Just two more strikes and the kid would be out. He smirked, rather liking the new style of Chuunin Exam that Anko and Ibiki had proposed.  
_  
Going for the old 'oops, I dropped my pencil' gig, huh? So childish.._ He made a signal to Ibiki using basic Anbu gestures, just as they had been told to the hour before. Ibiki looked at his clipboard, smirked, then nodded to Izumo. Apparently, the genin's team wasn't doing much better. "62. Get your cheating ass out of here. Take your buds with you." The genin stood, glaring at the dark haired chuunin before walking stiffly out, his team mates following. Izumo grinned. He felt so special. An elbow in his side distracted him from a different genin trying to cheat. "What?" he whined.

"Look at the new guy." Izumo looked over at Haku, feeling his jaw dropping. Where a normal chuunin would occasionally miss over a few cheating genins, the former mist nin left no survivors. There were only three people left in the row that Haku was supposed to be watching over: a nervous looking rain genin who was probably down to his last two points, a twitchy rock genin who kept on tapping her fingers against the desk, and a bored looking leaf nin who bore a resemblance to one of the infamous Ino-Shika-Chou group.

"Dammit, that bastard's beating me!" Izumo muttered. He didn't feel annoyance towards Haku, knowing full well that the boy had enough skill to be a _jonin _and this was probably a piece of cake for him, but felt annoyed because he had made a bet with Kotetsu that _he'd _be the one with the most cheaters spotted. _Aw, damn. There goes my paycheck.._

"This isn't a contest." the chuunin next to him said disapprovingly.

"Come on man, what about life _isn't_ a contest?"  
**  
Carry the two. **Naruto valiantly ignored the voice in his head, preferring to attempt the evil problem of doom on his own. **Carry.. the.. fricking.._ two_!**

Sighing, Naruto relented, went back to the part that Kyuubi was whining about, and carried the two. Suddenly, the problem started to make more sense._ Eh.._  
**  
NYAH! **Naruto could only imagine that Kyuubi was sticking his tongue out at him. The bastard was gloating.** How do you little people put it.. ah yes. Boo ya! **

It was one thing to have a evil demon lord, who demanded the destruction of everything you know and love, inside of your body. It was quite another to have a slightly hyper and intelligent fox, who loved to prove you wrong, bonded to you. In fact, it was worse.

It was the halfway point of the exam. This was where the smarter cheaters would start gathering their information. This was also where many more teams were kicked out of the room.

"95 and 98. You fail." Haku murmured just loud enough for everyone to hear. That left only Shikamaru in his row. Yawning, the Nara looked over at the chuunin who now only focused on him. He knew he had no marks against him because he hadn't done anything yet. _You're not gonna catch me cheating_. He thought lazily. _Ino's cheating **for **me, thanks. Don't you just love blood limits? _

Tenten shifted the mirrors on the ceiling with some almost transparent wires. _Come on, Lee.. Just you and me. Neji can take care of himself.._ Lee put on his forehead protector, signaling that he could see the mirrors. He had known the second that they had walked into the room that she was going to use them. Something about the way she grinned and started pulling out wires..

Sasuke had picked out a person in the group. Something about him was different than the other people near him. He wasn't shaking, shivering, or discretely looking at someone else's paper. No, he was calm, too calm. The Uchiha used sharingan on him and was gifted with the wealth of many answers to the questions. He had hit the jackpot.

The two Hyuugas in the room had also activated their blood limit and were hastily copying down answers. Neji closed his eyes after he was done, and focused his eyes behind him so he could check up on how his two team mates were doing. Assured of their success, he deactivated his blood limit and flipped his paper over. He was done. Hinata did the same, feeling slightly guilty for cheating but knowing there was no way around it.

"Woof, woof.." Akamaru barked quietly to his owner. He sat on his usual perch, looking over other genins' heads to see their answers.

"Great! Now, number four.." Kiba hissed.

Buzzing around the room wasn't much fun. Looking over people's shoulders to memorize their answers was a lot more fun for Bee-chan. Bee-chan didn't have a very good memory, so after she had memorized one answer, she would go immediately back to her master to report.

"Excellent." Shino murmured when she landed on his finger. "Tell me more.."

Gaara made his eye of sand and reconnected his optic nerve to it. _Too simple.. _Kankurou already left for the bathroom and Temari was patiently waiting for his return so he could sneak her the answers.  
_  
Alright, it's my time to shine. _Ino smirked, hiding her hand seals under the table. _But who to possess?_ Sakura was too far away to attempt without possible consequences, Naruto was an idiot and the three other ninjas in her range were shaking and trembling. Her gaze landed on the only calm ninja in her range. With his messy red hair and his weird gourd sitting by his seat, Gaara didn't look that threatening from behind. Even though she got a bad vibe off of him, she firmly convinced herself that he was the only possible one she could copy off of. Shikamaru and Chouji were counting on her! She waited for the perfect moment, then struck.  
_  
Shintenshin no Jutsu!_ Almost immediately, she realized something was wrong. It wasn't the way she performed her jutsu(her astral projection was top notch!). It wasn't that she had aimed wrong. It was more of a feeling she got. An 'Oh crap, what have I done!' instinct the closer and closer she got to Gaara. In spirit form, Ino was more sensitive to people's auras. And, compared to all the other auras she could see around the room, Gaara's was almost.. evil.

At first, everything seemed fine. _Maybe I overreacted? _She questioned herself when she seemed to have full possession over Gaara. The red head had pushed back at her attempts to possess, but she was stronger mentally and easily knocked him back. _Hm, the answers.._ She looked down at the piece of paper in front of her, starting to memorize the answer to the first problem.  
**  
Well well well.. What do we have here?** She immediately clutched her(er, Gaara's) head, the pressure of the opposing force making her feel like her brain was being cooked. She had heard of these types of things, a mental personality that was stronger than the dominate personality and refused to be pushed back no matter what. Sometimes, people made them instinctively to hide the bad aspects of themselves that they didn't want anyone else to see. But some people made them with the intention of them acting as a guardian against mental attacks. Her father had one, she knew, after practicing her technique on him. Ino knew what these things felt like.

But there was just something wrong about this. This didn't feel like a defensive technique. It felt like the presence was invading Gaara's mind as much as she was.  
_  
What the hell?_ It hurt, it really did. Damn, the presence had an aura of its own! Though the feel of it was faintly familiar, it was completely foreign and unknown. Her possession was weakening, Ino could feel Gaara getting past the mental restraints she put him in.

The red head had regained control and was pushing back the foreign presence, and her as well. The foreign presence ignored his efforts and turned to her.  
**  
I wonder if a human spirit would taste as good as a human body.. **Suddenly, something clamped down on her. For a second, she could see something other than the room through Gaara's eyes. She saw the presence in his full glory, at once horrified at the secrets that a mind could hold.

Huge beyond belief, the thing leered at her with a gaping jaw full of wicked looking fangs. From her position in his paw, she could only see one golden eye and fur seemingly made out of sand. He dragged her forward, prepared to swallow her whole.

She unfroze, immediately shoving back with all of her chakra at the demon, for that's what she realized it was. He dropped her, surprised at such a powerful attack. With the three second leeway that he involuntarily gave her, she pushed herself out of Gaara's mind.

Gaara gritted his teeth, shoving at Shukaku, trying to push the raccoon back into the back of his mind. What made him fall asleep all of a sudden? _Control.. control.. _He never noticed Ino's presence, nor her departure.

Kankurou came back, slipping his sister a crumpled up piece of paper. "I hope you washed your hands." she muttered quietly, her lips not moving. He scowled childishly, swearing slightly underneath his breath. It was just like her to say something like that when he couldn't do a thing about it.

He shivered suddenly, feeling as if he had been dunked in a tub full of ice cold water. And then, with the next step, he was warm again. _How odd. Am I getting sick?_ Discretely, he felt his own temperature.

Cursing darkly at her missed opportunity, Ino tried to grasp at the puppet user, but he was too far away. The clumsy idiot had walked right through her, yet she could only be in disgust with herself for not taking advantage of it.

In her terror and loss of precious chakra, she had released the jutsu improperly. Instead of waking up in her body, she was floating around the room. Ino knew that she'd eventually find her way back to her body, but what would happen during that period of time? Would the test end and her team would fail because she failed in her duty? Would that demon force himself out of that weird panda kid and come after her? Or would the energy identifying her as a living person drop down to zero, making it impossible for her to return to her body? Obviously, the only solution was to possess another, and then release the jutsu correctly, immediately bringing her soul back to her body. But, she was afraid she didn't have very much chakra left to possess another person, go back into her body, possess someone with the correct answers, go back into her body, and_ then _possess her team mates so she could write the answers down..

Ino felt herself slowly float slightly down, as if her soul was attracted to the magnetic auras of the genins below her. Feeling the warm touch of another's aura against her, she gathered up her chakra and took the plunge.

Naruto shivered slightly, instinctively reaching behind him and feeling for wetness. _Did someone stick an ice cube down my back? _Only he'd think someone had pulled a prank on him. Kyuubi was instantly snarling, alerting Naruto that something was wrong before he could even finish checking.  
_  
Hey, hey! What the hell is your problem, you dork!_ He yelled at the fox, but the demon ignored him. Naruto blinked, rubbing his temples. Damn, he hadn't had a headache this bad since the last time Kyuubi seriously tried to possess him. Of course, the fox hadn't succeeded and had settled down with a cross between a fearsome scowl and a childish pout, giving Naruto three years of peace before he pushed himself into Naruto's thoughts and proposed an alliance.

Something intruded on his thinking, a mental prod that was completely unrelated to his unwilling tenant. He clammed up immediately, having some mental defenses in stock, but something about the desperation he could feel from the person attempting to possess him made him shush Kyuubi's snarls and let her in. He had a feeling that he knew who it was.  
_  
Ino?_ He tried experimentally. She winced.  
_  
Be quieter, will you?_ Naruto winced in turn, not because of the reprimand, but because of the exhaustion he could feel from her Ino felt guilty for striking out at Naruto when he wasn't the one to blame. _I-I'm sorry.. I shouldn't be so.. I m-mean.. I felt your defenses come up, but you still let me in.. Thank you._  
_  
Save it for later. _He said gently. For now, what was most important was her health. Her chakra was at an all time low. _Why are you weakened so much, Ino? _

_S-something.. happened._ Her softly whispered mental voice drifted through his head. She shivered when she thought of the demon she had faced. Such cold and uncaring eyes. He would have really eaten her.

_Like what?_ Naruto thought to her. _You're supposed to possess me, not become another annoying voice in my head._ Kami knew he didn't need another one.

_This is only a partial possession, I don't have enough chakra left to fully possess you._ Her somewhat calm tone ended with a sob. All of her chakra thrown against him only made him blink. It hadn't made a difference at all. Still terrified, she shrank down against herself, instinctively feeling out for that special type of energy that identified that strange demon. _Like I would think to even possess you in the first place!_ He knew she could see the half completed answers through his eyes. He also knew that her searching eyes would eventually come across Kyuubi, so he hastened to distract her.

_What happened?_ The demon host prodded again.

_I.._ her voice was growing weaker. Ino's hold on the jutsu was weakening as the desperate call of her body to her spirit grew strong. A warm feeling enveloped her, like a warm blanket on a cold winter night. The feel of it was familiar, even somehow similar to the demon in the sand nin's mind, but, strangely and awkwardly comforting. She could almost feel warm fur wrapping around her, but when she struggled to look, all she saw was a flash of red energy before it disappeared.

Naruto nearly chuckled at the quick way Kyuubi ran off. He had been surprised that the demon had cared enough to calm her down, since he rarely thought of humans being anything more than 'insects'. Ino's stuttering voice dragged his attention back to her again. Since when did the confident girl ever stutter?

_I ._._t-tried to possess that weird panda kid. And.. Naruto.. a demon jumped out and attacked me! _He put two and two together, looking at her ravaged spirit, the weak way she talked, and the terror slowly easing from her voice. Ino had a one on one battle with Shukaku.  
_  
What? Are you nuts, woman? Well, no __**shit **he's gonna attack you.. _He blurted out, wishing he knew how to mentally shake her. _Earth to Ino: Don't possess weird ninjas, you don't know where their minds have been!  
_  
Her fear died down to a slow trickle, both anger and the warm feeling of energy beating it back. _Hey, who the hell else was I supposed to possess, you damn jerk!_  
_  
I dunno.. maybe Sakura-chan! _He yelled back._ Not a psychopath! Damn, a five year old has more sense than you!_  
_  
Ha! _Ino snipped, her annoyance apparent._ This is coming from the person nearly fell off of the Hokage Monument because he decided to pull a prank! You wanna talk about stupid? Start looking at your past actions for the definition! _  
_  
Hey, that wasn't stupid! _He protested, quite fond of his own artwork. _That's not called pranking either, it's called extreme sports! _

_Eh? How is painting rude gestures and words on a sacred mountain 'extreme sports'?_ She questioned.

_When Iruka-sensei is involved._ He said seriously. For a second, there was only silence. An empty and almost awkward silence that, if they had been standing face to face in their physical bodies, they would have been staring blankly at each other.

A small sound erupted from Ino that she tried so hard to suppress, a small snicker. But once it was out, she couldn't stop. Soon, she was roaring with laughter, the mental image of Iruka, in one of his tempers that seemed to only be triggered by Naruto and his questionable actions, chasing after said blond, waving a frying pan over his head and screaming bloody murder. Extreme sport indeed.  
_**  
Ever** so glad to amuse you. _Naruto snapped sarcastically. Ino shakily apologized, this time unsteady because of the power of her amusement instead of the power of her fear. _So.. you're okay now? _

Maybe not okay, but close enough. She said, reminded of her duties. She adopted her most flirty tone. _Can I look at your answers? Pretty please?_

Naruto made a big show of flipping his paper over so only the blank side showed. _How about this.. no. _

_But.. Naruto!_ She was surprised to hear herself whine. _I need the answers! Shika and Chouji will fail if I don't, and I don't have enough chakra to keep possessing people!  
_  
Naruto shook his head. _Typical. So lazy that he's making his team mate cheat for him.. _he muttered to himself. Settling back into his chair, he casually glanced around the room. Who could possibly have the answers? He suddenly grinned, his eyes locking on the back of Sasuke's head._ I'll make a deal with you, blondie._

Suspicious, she answered tentatively._ Go on.. _

I'll give you some chakra, allow you to bounce from my body to Sasuke's, then after you're done, you can attempt(but fail miserably) to possess me again, and then bounce back to your body so you can possess Shika and Chouji. How does that sound? Feeling oddly villainous, he folded his fingers together and rested his chin against them. He was grinning evilly.

_What do** you** get out of this?_ She replied, rightly questioning his motives.

_Revenge._ He answered easily. _Sasuke-bastard has messed with me one too many times. I figure it's about time for payback. Even indirectly.  
_  
Ino could feel herself tensing, readying for a rant._ Mind control isn't something to be used as a prank, Naruto!_ She winced when she realized she sounded like her father.

_I know._ Naruto was calm._ That's why I'm letting **you** control him. The last thing you'd do is try to harm him._ The gentle tone faded into a slightly sarcastic one._ He's practically your god.. stupid Sasuke.. knock him down a peg.._ The boy continued to mutter to himself.

Weighing her choices, Ino tried to decide on a course of action. On one hand, she could accept Naruto's proposal, play a puppet in Naruto's scheme to show the Uchiha that he wasn't as invincible as he pretended to be, and still have enough chakra to get her team mates the answers they needed to pass this exam from hell. On the other hand, she could just push herself out of Naruto, wait until her soul found its way back to her body, and then pop a solider pill and hope that she still had enough time to do everything.  
_  
That's what it always ends up coming to a halt to, huh? _Naruto murmured. _Time. We always think we have so much of it, yet when we need it, it suddenly seems so short. _

Ino scowled. _Stay out of my thoughts, pervert!_  
_  
Kinda hard to not hear you thoughts when you're practically yelling them out at me. _He whined. _And you're in my mind, I'm not in yours! Talk about invading **privacy**, sheesh..  
_  
The choice was simple, yet she feared its consequences. It felt like she was making a deal with the devil. _Oh well.. I'll apologize to him later.. with a date! _She declared with a determined cry.  
_  
You go, girl.._ Naruto chuckled, gathering what little chakra he had that hadn't bled into youki and mixed. He had no idea what effects youki would have on the average human, and he wasn't about to take any chances.

He passed it along to Ino, feeling her presence grow stronger in his mind as her chakra increased. When she started protesting about the amount, he stopped, not wanting to accident make her suffer from chakra overload, knowing the hell it could put a person through. Naruto glanced at his hand, the seal just beyond the surface of skin a glowing reminder of what lengths he had to go to in order to stay alive.  
_  
Alrighty then! Off to pillage the mind of my love! _Ino shouted, making the two other occupants of Naruto's mind wince in pain. _Shintenshin no Jutsu! _And then she was gone.

Immediately, Naruto started snickering. _Ah, what was that? A little bit of, oh, I dunno.. comforting from the big nasty fox?_  
**  
Shut up.** Kyuubi growled at his highly amused host. **I don't care about humans.**  
_  
Yeah. Uh-huh. I believe you, you softy. _Naruto said in a mocking voice. Making a disgusted rumble, Kyuubi seemed to airily preen himself.  
**  
I don't.** He became a little bit uncertain of himself as he continued. **It's just.. the terror of a woman makes my stomach turn.** Naruto's laughter cut off abruptly.  
_  
Why?_ He prodded. But the demon would say no more.

Sasuke smirked, looking down at his answers. _Perfect. _He thought, assured of his victory. _Naruto and Sakura better not be screwing around.._ A bout of dizziness overtook him. He barely had enough time to question whether or not he was sick when Ino shoved his consciousness off to the side and took over.  
_  
Sorry Sasuke dear. _She said with a devious grin. Even though he was her crush, the thrill of taking over someone's mind was still there.

There was such power in it. Knowing that she could stand up and make Sasuke do a strip tease on top of the table, jump back into her body, and watch the chaos she had created. Knowing that if she changed the way she was using her jutsu and didn't restrain him, she could hear his thoughts, or better yet, delve further into his mind and dig up memories, feelings, and any little thing she wanted. Ino could even twist his thinking so that, if he liked Sakura(kami forbid!), she could make him hate her instead.

But this was _Sasuke_. And she felt guilty enough just cheating off of him.

Ino quickly finished, bouncing back to Naruto and making a half hearted attempt to take over the blond's mind, leaving a slightly woozy and confused Sasuke. _Did I fall asleep?_

Naruto flicked at her twice with a strand of chakra. _Nice try, but no cigar. _He said, letting her in, but not letting her have the control that she craved.  
_  
Ew._ Was all she said before jumping back into her own body. Ino stretched with a relieved yawn, happy to be back in her own body. Blinking back the reflexive tears, she glared at Naruto's back. His shoulders were shaking slightly, as if he was laughing at her. _Hmph. Jerk. _  
As soon as the negative thought entered and left her thoughts, she felt nauseous and dizzy. _Karma, huh?_ She grumbled to herself, burying her head into her arms for a moment. Ino couldn't think of a good reason why she was suddenly sick. Repetitive Jutsu Syndrome didn't effect blood limits, and she was usually as healthy as a horse.

Frowning, she recalled another time when she had felt this bad. It had been after the weird rock nin attacked Sakura's team with his blood limit genjutsu. Ino had been sick for a whole week, confined to her bed and tormented with hot flashes and cold sweats. And worst of all, nightmares. It was after she started feeling better that she had started to have her visions.

For the moment, Ino ignored her physical discomforts, getting the much needed jolt back into reality when she saw the time. She only had twenty minutes left. Angling her body more to the left, she whispered the name of her technique under her breath, and in the next moment, was flying towards an unsuspecting Shikamaru.

Feeling a cold sensation suddenly touch him, the genin mentally prepared himself for when his team mate would take over his mind. It always was a weird sensation, loosing his control and falling into a sleep, only to wake up and find that the blond had done something.

Ino poked his consciousness, deciding at the last moment to not fully possess him. _Yo,_ _Shika! Lemme in._ Not quite sure what was going on, he allowed her in.

"I thought you were supposed to possess me." he mumbled to himself. He remembered himself, and repeated the comment in his mind.  
_  
Yeah well, I don't wanna run out of energy and have to borrow some again. So it's kinda a partial possession_. Ino said with a mental shrug._ I had to borrow some from Naruto after I had a nasty experience with the sand kid.._

Naruto's words came to mind. _"Stay away from the sand trio, but if they fight you, go for Temari or Kankurou. Do not, by any means, go after Gaara. He's a demon host, he'll kill you faster than you can say 'Chuunin Exam'." _  
_  
Hey, why did you bring that up?_ Ino asked, poking around it nosily. She attempted to delve further and see what memory that was a part of when Shikamaru suddenly pushed her away from it, erecting a mental maze between Ino and that particular memory. She backed up hastily. She didn't know that Shikamaru could do that.

Feeling illogically nervous, Shikamaru clenched at the wood of the table. He hadn't known how to do that. He had felt her prod around that memory and panicked, wishing there was something he could do to defend it. Something told him that Ino knowing about Naruto's so called 'prank' wouldn't be a good idea. Not until Shikamaru was more certain about it, at least. Being more of a puzzle and thinking person than a muscle bound person, he came up with a maze instead of a wall.  
_  
Come on, Ino. Time's running out._ He said blandly, his indifferent tone making her think that the memory that he had hidden was one that embarrassed him. That only made Ino's hands itch to grab a hold of it.  
_  
Duty calls._ She murmured, mourning the loss of another opportunity. _But I can't get a good angle to possess Chouji. What should we do?_  
_  
Tell me the answers. _Shikamaru said, making a few hand seals. His first movement caught Haku's eye. The shadow user only smirked at the ice user and finished the set of hand seals. _I'll use my shadow on Chouji._

The shadows underneath his desk started moving, twisting and stretching out experimentally before shooting off into Chouji's direction, dodging all other genins. The shadow was long enough because of the extra shadows it had picked up during its journey to the Akimichi.

Chewing on his pencil(he wasn't allowed to bring his chips), Chouji suddenly stiffened under the shadow's influence. For a second, he panicked, fighting against it. Then his hand, not under his control, took the pencil out of his mouth, and wrote down a small note on the corner of his paper in the spidery handwriting that Chouji recognized as Shikamaru's. _Hey, chill.- NS_

Chouji relaxed under the hold of the shadow, allowing it to move him as it saw fit. He trusted Shikamaru.

Naruto looked down at his answers, squinting slightly. As far as he could tell, they were right. Not that it mattered. _All of that wasted brain power.._ he moaned. _Just 'cause of a bored fox._ The demon didn't take the bait.  
_  
Damn.. I hope I didn't hurt his feelings or something..._ Naruto thought privately to himself. It was laughable, really, his concern for his demon. But it was rare for Kyuubi to stay quiet and not insert his opinions when he felt like it. It was even rarer to not feel the demon lingering in the back of his mind, listening and observing. It seemed that he had retreated to the cell that had once kept him captive and now served as a sort of 'bedroom'.

Nearly everyone was done with their tests. Chouji, aided by Shikamaru's shadow, quickly wrote down the last few answers. The shadow retreated, as did Ino from the shadow user's mind.

Ibiki looked around, grinning at the sight of so many empty desks. _Now that we've got all of the slackers out.._ he decided to call time even though there was ten minutes left. Just enough time for him to screw with their heads.

"Alright, the tenth question..." Everyone sat forward, full attention on Ibiki. "But there's one more rule that needs to be added." Several people groaned.

Shikamaru frowned, idly erasing the note on the corner of his paper. "Another rule?" he mumbled to himself. Once again, Naruto's warning came to mind. _"The real exam winner is the last question. It's a do or die, fight or flight sorta thing. Just ignore everything the examiner says and stay in the room, no matter what." _Folding his fingers together, he grimly observed the examiner. _Great. Now we're going to gamble everything on something Naruto said..._

"This rule is absolute." Ibiki said, all of the warmth leaving his gaze. He coldly looked over the group of genins. "First, you have to decide whether or not you want to answer this question.."

Just as Naruto remembered, Temari immediately questioned the rules, despite Ibiki's early rulings that there was to be no questions. "Ch-chose!" she looked nervous, no doubt wondering about the success of their plan if all three sand nins happened to fail. And that was why, Naruto reasoned to himself in an attempt to view the three that he had considered family as outsiders, he mustn't forget that they were in league with Orochimaru. "What happens if someone rejects the question?"

Ibiki paused for a moment, closing his eyes in thought. When he opened them again, they were filled with a distinct lack of pity. "If you reject the question, you lose all of your points, and you will fail this exam, your team mates along side of you."

_So.. the simple solution is to accept the damn question._ Sasuke thought, rolling his eyes.

"But.. the other rule." Ibiki was smirking. "If you accept this question, and fail to answer it correctly, you will be stuck as a genin for the rest of your life."  
_  
"Stay in the room, no matter what." _Ino shot a side glance at her stiff team mate. He distractedly nodded to her, mouthing 'Stay'. She nodded, passing along the message to Chouji, who had leaned back and looked for her. _No matter what. _The phrase haunted him. _No matter what. _He could practically imagine Naruto's too serious and stern eyes as they were at that moment, glowing in their determination. A flash of red had overtaken them for a moment, hiding the honest gaze with something more sinister, but just as stubborn.

He let out a low breath. It wasn't the thought of being a genin for the rest of his life that was scaring him. No, his eyes had been opened to the more important things in the world. If Naruto's advice wasn't given in jest.. If Shikamaru followed it and came to no harm.. If he would for a moment, believe in the other genin.. That would mean the most horrible of things.

Konoha had fallen to Sound troops. Sasuke, the much loved 'hero', had fallen into darkness. And Naruto was doing his best to stop that, and even more, for Shikamaru could sense that the blond had only given him the bare facts, the least bit of information needed to get the shadow user on his side.

Shikamaru let his head drop down to rest against his hands. It was hard enough to live life without knowing the dangers that lie ahead, but it was many times worse to know what actually was waiting for them in the future._ Please let Naruto be lying.._

"You can't be serious!" Kiba shouted, Akamaru adding to the noise with his barking. "There are ninjas here that have gone through this exam before!"

"It is just your rotten luck that Ibiki-san and Anko-san were the ones to make the rules for this year." Haku said blandly. "Sit down and shut up."

The genins who knew Haku well were surprised at his indifference to the hell that they were being put through with this exam, but Naruto had a hard time suppressing his laughter. Maybe it was the stress getting to him, but he found it funny that Kiba quickly quieted under the former mist nin's calm stare and sat down.

"You can accept a failing grade and try next year." Ibiki said with just as much indifference. "And the year after that. Any one with common sense would back out now."

There was a choking silence, a strange sort of empathy passing from genin to genin as they looked at each other, all silently asking their neighbors 'What should we do?' Boundaries and villages seemed to no longer matter.

"Well, let's get to it. All those you reject the question, raise your hand. After your number and your team is confirmed, you will be allowed to leave.

One shaking hand went into the air. "I..I.." one leaf genin stood. "I reject it!"

"Number 36, failed!" Kotetsu announced, looking at his clip board. "Number 12 and Number 47, you fail with him." Hinata swallowed harshly as the genin next to her stood stiffly, and left the room without a word.

"M-me too!" A genin from the hidden grass announced shakily. And so it went, more and more teams leaving the room and rejecting the final question. As each team left, the remaining genins grew more and more hesitant, and more willing to fail the exam than stay a genin forever.

When Sakura turned around to look at Naruto, a question in her eyes, he grinned confidently and gave her a thumbs up, completely dashing her idea of failing the exam to make sure Naruto didn't have to give up his dream of being Hokage. As soon as she turned back around though, the smile dropped.  
_  
Restraint._ His mind echoed. _Control. _It took everything in him to not stand up and yell at Ibiki. Although he knew the outcome of the final question, the twin scents of fear and anxiety made him queasy and just about willing to do anything to make it go away.

Naruto had only realized that his outburst had boosted everyone's courage after the Chuunin Exam when Ibiki came up to him and told him. Then, he had been proud of himself. But now, he knew that the best course of action was to not say anything.

The less people who stayed in the room meant fewer people who went on the survival exam. The less people who stayed for the survival exam meant the less people who got hurt.

There was only about twenty teams left. Ibiki hid a smile._ I bet I can milk it just a little bit more.._ "Trapped forever in a weak genin's body. I wonder how bad that would be. Of course, I'm pretty sure half of you would be able to tell me after you get this question wrong." Two hands immediately went up into the air. _Bingo. _Their numbers were called out and six unhappy and twitchy ninjas left the building.

Sasuke's hand was twitching. He placed his other hand over it, but he could still feel it spasm. Dammit, he wasn't going to let some old man scare a reaction out of him. His face twisted in an angry scowl. "Genin forever huh?" Not when there was much scarier things in the world. Not when there was his brother. "You think that really matters?"

Everyone turned to him. He still stared moodily at his hand, only half aware that he was speaking out loud. "In a situation where there is only the enemy and yourself, do you think that he'd care if you are a genin? Do you really think he'll go easy on you just because you aren't a strong as he is?" _Itachi, you killed our uncle and aunt. They weren't ninjas, they were bakers!_ "Do you think he'd care about the ranks?" His hand clenched around his pencil. It snapped under his grip. "No, he wouldn't. So you can stick your 'ranks' up your ass for all I care." he spat viciously.

"Damn straight!" Kiba announced with a snicker, jolting Sasuke out of his brooding when he smacked the table with his palm. "Just get on with the damn question, will ya?"

Naruto hid a smile behind his hand. _They didn't need my big mouth anyway.._

"Hmph, is that so.." Ibiki said. _Three guesses as to who the Uchiha is referring to. _"Any more rejectors?" No one raised their hands. _Aw, no fun. _"Very well.. the next question."  
_This is it._ Shikamaru thought, leaning forward in his seat.  
_  
Here we go_. Neji thought, pale eyes focused on the examiner. _He pretends to not care but_ _it's obvious by the glint in his eyes that he's amused. _His eyes narrowed. _Why is he amused?_

Finally, Ibiki allowed a grin to appear on his face. Anko was not going to be happy. "Good call. All fifty-four of you." he said, doing quick calculations in his head. "You've just passed the first exam!"

* * *

"Ugh.. I can't believe that was a bogus question." Ino moaned to any of the listening genins. "And all of that cheating I had to do!" She was successfully ignored. 

"Ugh.. I can't believe so many brats passed." Anko moaned to one of the listening chuunins. "And all of that time I spent plotting deviously!" The jonin took a hold of Haku, who started to look extremely nervous, and asked if he thought Ibiki did a good job at scaring off the slackers. She was _not_ successfully ignored.

The remaining teams stood far apart, once again siding with their own villages. They all cast suspicious glances towards the training area that Anko had lead them to. Their initial fears had only increased when they heard Anko say something about devious plots.

Shikamaru looked decidedly ill, now knowing that Naruto either had extraordinary resources for his information about the Chuunin Exam, or he had been telling the truth. And since Ibiki and Anko were the only ones privy to their own plans, he was leaning towards the latter one.

Gaara was standing off in a corner, clenching his head and wondering why Shukaku wanted to take a bite out of one of the leaf rookie girls. He ignored the demon's blood lust. The only blond leaf nin that he wanted to fight was male.

Chouji and Kiba were talking about the combat pills that they had on them while their teams got their scrolls. "So, those thingys make you more powerful?" Kiba asked incredulously, looking at the innocent looking pills in their plastic case. Akamaru barked, sniffing the case suspiciously. Chouji pulled it away, afraid that the dog might eat them.

"Yeah, way better than your solider pills. These are Akimichi food pills! There's nothing else that can compete with it." he coughed, a little embarrassed. "But, you know, they're really dangerous. Only to be used in certain occasions." As Kiba 'ah'ed, Ino bopped Chouji in the back of the head, trying to get his attention so that they could leave.

Kabuto faced off with his two team mates. He looked grim. "So what did he say?" he asked them stiffly.

"We are to get through this exam, then you are to forfeit before the final exam. He said he needed your help with something." Yoroi said calmly.

"And what will you two be doing?" Misumi and Yoroi looked at each other, then back at Kabuto. The gray haired genin was higher up in the food chain than them, so unless their leader ordered against it, they technically had to tell him everything.

"We are to infiltrate the semi finals of the final exam." Misumi said.

"You think you'll get that far?" Kabuto also could easily beat them. That was the only thing that kept them from reaching for their weapons.

"We belong to two powerful blood lines. I think we'll manage." Yoroi growled out. Kabuto smirked, having a feeling that the two wouldn't get very far at all.

Ino leapt on Sasuke, affectionately nuzzling his hair. Sakura started to growl. "I owe you a date, cutie!" Before he could knock her off, she was already gone, a blond ponytail disappearing in the distance. Sasuke's scowl disappeared when he saw Sakura glaring at Ino's retreating back. She caught his gaze and his satisfied smirk. The dark look on her face dropped into panic.

"You were-" Sasuke began teasingly.

"No I wasn't! You were hallucinating!" Sakura protested. Every since that weird day in the middle of Haku's jutsu, she had been down right determined to prove to Sasuke that she wasn't possessive of him in an attempt to show him that she wasn't as dependent of him as he thought. Sasuke might have not know her true intentions, but he recognized her attempt to act less jealous when he was around other girls. However, every time she slipped, he started to tease her. "Under a genjutsu! You didn't see anything!"

He leaned forward, a smile quirking the corners of his mouth up. He was having fun. "You were _growling_, like a possessive-"

"Shut up!" she rubbed her temples. Never would she have thought that Sasuke could easily become as irritating as Naruto if he had her at a disadvantage. "I'm going to go get those damn forms.."

Neji, Lee, and Tenten stood near the chuunin passing out the forms. Neji was deep in thought while Lee was talking in his ear about how much fun the exam was going to be. Tenten, seeing a familiar head of blond hair, pounced on her prey, who let out a surprised cry.

"Don't let us down, slacker." she said affectionately. "You've been whining about all this time about not having any challenges. Don't back down now." Naruto pushed her away.

"I know, I know. Stop treating me like such a kid." he said, both annoyed and touched. She may have been treating him like a kid, but her affection for him was like that for a younger brother, and that's what made him smile.

Tenten pretended to think. "Hm. Maybe I have." she tapped the side of her cheek. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers. "I got it! You grow just a wee bit taller, and I'll start treating you like an adult." She beamed while he pouted.

"That was low, Tenten-chan." Naruto said disapprovingly. The side of his mouth almost twitched upward. "Extremely low."

"I know! Take a look in the mirror!" She sauntered away with her team while Naruto cursed fluently. He hated it when she played with his words.

Sakura walked back to them, giving them each the form she had nabbed. "Whoo. Long line." she said calmly. "Here are the consent forms."

Sasuke looked at the sheet of paper in his hand. "Consent forms?" he said incredulously. "So they won't be held liable for our deaths?" His was still blank, while Naruto hastily scribbled out the form with a pen he whipped out of nowhere.

"Weren't you listening to the crazy lady, Sasuke?" Naruto muttered distractedly.

"I make it a point not to listen to crazy ladies." he replied darkly. He took turns glaring at the paper, then at the examiner.

"That's a vote of confidence right there." Sakura said sarcastically, taking the pen that Naruto tossed at her. "Hoo boy, I can't wait to die."

Haku moved closer to them, his voice pitched low. "Between us.." he said quietly to Team Seven, "I doubt that there will be many deaths. Chuunins are supposed to be patrolling much of the forest, and they will call medic teams in if someone is fatally injured."

"Not gonna help if someone has a one strike death move." Naruto said, taking Sakura's form when she completed it. Sasuke quickly filled his out, then handed it over to Naruto. It had been decided that Naruto was the one who was going to hold on to the scroll. Naruto had naturally thought of Gaara and his coffin of death.

"True." Haku agreed, waiting for them as they went through the tent. Naruto palmed the heaven scroll in his hand, then stuck it in his vest. He handed over the three filled out forms to the chuunin collecting them. "But it should still lower the death toll." He smiled gently at the tense looks on their faces. "Here, I'm supposed to escort you to your gate.."

"Wait." Naruto said, lifting his hand. "Gimme two minutes. Tops." Many of the teams had already left for their respective gates, but a few still lingered.

"Alright, hurry up dobe." Sasuke said, looking faintly annoyed. The blond ran off. "And just what the hell does he think he's doing?"

"Bathroom maybe?" Haku supplied. Sakura smiled secretively.

"I have a pretty good idea..."

Naruto had seen Team Eight. He ran over, sliding to a spot right in front of Hinata.

"What the.." Kiba shouted in surprise, jumping back. Grinning, Naruto stuck his tongue out at him.

"Wanted to say 'good luck', so break a leg, yeah?" he said, meeting Hinata's eyes.

"Thank you." Shino said with a nod, walking past him without a second glance. "Same with your team, Naruto."

"Keh." Kiba scoffed with a feral grin. "Keep it, you need the luck."

"And this is coming from a guy whose reflexes aren't as sharp as he pretends they are." Naruto said, shaking his head. "So cocky. Remember-"

"Yeah yeah. Less power, more speed." Kiba cut him off, punching his shoulder lightly. "If you get your scrawny ass killed, I'll never forgive you." He walked away, following Shino.

"Like wise." Naruto was left with just Hinata. He gave her his full attention, unaware of how his eyes warmed and sparkled, but she was. She was also aware of the tension around his eyes, and the slight twitch of paranoia in his shoulders. Perhaps he was worried about the Chuunin Exam.

Then, it seemed to rush out of him when he took in a deep breath. His shoulders relaxed and his face dawned a perfect smile. He took her hands in his, seriously regarding her. "Hey, stay alive, alright?" Naruto murmured quietly. Somehow it had more meaning than the two boys' jesting calls. Almost as if he expected her to slip through his fingers. Hinata felt a chill when a random thought drifted though her head. He didn't want to see her die .._again. _

Off to the side, Sakura was elbowing the two boys with her, nodding towards Naruto with a knowing smile. Haku looked surprised and started asking questions, but Sasuke just smirked.

"O-okay." she whispered. All discomfort seemed to melt away when she met his eyes. It reminded her of what she had planned to ask. "I.. um..-" Where had Hinata's resolve gone? She had made a decision during the first exam, when she had thirty minutes to do nothing but think. The Hyuuga had decided, with a firm foot on the ground, that she would at least_ try _to get Naruto to like her the way she liked him. She wasn't going to be lazy. She was going to stand up, say what she wanted, and if he rejected her, well.. it was very doubtful that they would meet up in the forest.

"I...-" Naruto really didn't know how hard it was for her to get it out, especially when he had that cute look of confusion on his face, slightly tipped to the side and regarding her silently. What was her problem! Girls did this sort of thing all the time these days. "Afterthisdoyouwanttogooutonadate?" she said in one rushed breath. Hinata was automatically bowing in apology.

Blinking, Naruto looked at the back of her head, rewinding what she had said, then playing it in slow motion. "Oh!" he said out loud, realizing what she asked. He had to hand it to her: he never thought she'd be the first to ask. _YES! _He cheered silently.

**Point to Hinata.** Kyuubi thought proudly, snickering at Naruto. Naruto scowled mentally. The demon host had been too cowardly to go up and ask first, making up excuses like the lame _'It's better if we don't get involved this time around, she might get hurt'_ or the '_I'm mentally older, wouldn't it be like I'm a pedophile?'_ To which Kyuubi countered that most people were more mature mentally than they were physically, so it didn't make much of a difference at all. All Naruto had on Hinata was knowledge.

Kyuubi's logic didn't make sense to Naruto. All that he knew was he didn't mind Hinata at twelve. To him, Hinata was Hinata, no matter her age.  
**  
Well, if anything, it's going to be a long time till she invites you in for coffee, if you know what I mean.**

Naruto winced. At least his hormones weren't developed enough to be going haywire. _Shut up, Kyuubi._

He put his hands on her shoulders to stop her frantic bowing. "Yeah, sure." he said in what he hoped was a casual tone. "But it's on me though, okay?"

Hinata looked up, her face flaming red. She couldn't believe that he had said yes. _YES!_ She cheered mentally. "But we can't very well go out on a date-" here, he turned a shade redder than the girl in front of him. After years and years of Kakashi and Jiraiya influence, he couldn't believe that he still could be embarrassed. "-if we're six feet under. So, that's more of an incentive to get by, right?" Naruto knew he was on the verge of blabbing, so he found a quick way to end the conversation before he said something stupid.

He grabbed her arm and tugged her closer to him in a tentative embrace. Sighing, Hinata remembered the friendly hugs she had given him back in his apartment. She rested her head against his collarbone, relaxing when she could feel the soothing vibrations of his somewhat erratic heartbeat.

Grinning evilly, Sakura cupped her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice. "Hey, Naruto!" she bellowed. The sudden call made the two jumped away from each other in shock. "Stop the romancin' and get a move on!"

"S-Sakura-san?" Hinata whispered, looking at the grinning pink haired kunoichi.

"You're evil and heartless!" Naruto yelled back, scowling at her.

"Tell it to the judge!" was her witty reply. With a final good bye and a sour look towards his team mate, Team Seven, escorted by a highly amused Haku, left for their gate. Hinata ran after her team, making it to them before they reached the gate that Izumo was leading them to. One watched them both depart.

There were so many things he wanted to ask, but knew his cover would be blown. For once, he wished he was on their side for a moment so he could go up to his former student and ask what the hell was that dratted demon still doing alive.

Jerking his head, he motioned for the other two to follow the oblivious chuunin that led them to their gate. Oh, how easy it would be to sneak up to that unprotected back, reach forward, and snap the little ninja's neck.

Reacting to the cold aura of blood lust behind him, Kotetsu hurried up his pace, leading the three ominous grass nin to the gate assigned to them. He explained the rules one more time, then left quickly, looking back at the trio only once. _There's something wrong with those people._ He thought, tugging lightly on the bandage on his face. _I'll warn Anko, and see if she can have someone follow them.  
_  
The leading grass nin stepped forward, flicking his black hair over one shoulder as his dark and cruel eyes drifted over the pitiful locking mechanism for the gates. They swung open, a loud bell signaling to all entrants that the survival exam just started. The three darted forward, looking like nothing more than dark flashes against the forest back ground. "We go for the rookies first." And his word was law. They would not dare to oppose Orochimaru, after all

* * *

"Ah, this is fun!" Anko said with a grin, turning on all of the monitors. The forest was bugged with cameras and listening devices. Granted, most of them would be destroyed by the end of the five days, if not accidentally by the genins, then by the creatures that inhabited that forest, but Anko still wanted them there. 

The official reason was to judge the teams and their work ethic by monitoring them, but Anko's reason was just a bit darker than that. She liked to watch them squirm.

Ibiki leaned against a table, his arms folded over his chest. "So the alpha team is already patrolling?" he asked, sure that she'd forget something that important over her interest in the cameras.

"Yeah yeah." she said dismissively. Her eyes were glued to the screen. "Ooh, that musta hurt." She grabbed the radio, and tuned into a well known frequency. "Yo. We need a medic team over here. Over." There was a garbled reaction on the other end. "Whaddya mean, 'already?' Does the name 'Forest of Death' mean anything to you? Get 'em over here, or you're gonna have a dead leaf nin on your conscience! Over." Anko swore quietly to herself.

"Why are you using that old thing?" Ibiki asked, his attention flickering from the monitor to the radio that Anko barely resisted throwing.

"They forgot to pay the damn telephone bill." she seethed. Ibiki looked startled, but then he started chuckling. If there was one thing Anko hated more than her old teacher, it was people who couldn't pay their bills on time. When she shot him a dirty look, he pretended to be listening to someone else on the communicator in his ear.

* * *

"High and quiet." had been Naruto's only response when Sasuke brought up the situation on how they should go in. None of the three had any doubts that they'd be targeted because they were rookies. Seeing their questioning glances, Naruto explained. "Humans rarely look up. Let's use that to our advantage." 

And so they did. Sasuke refrained from pointing out that being so high up would both get them lost and also make them easily traceable since the branches were weaker and tended to fall. Naruto seemed desperate to at least get them half way to the tower before night fall.

They barely escaped the notice of the three grass nins. Far away from them, Orochimaru grew angry as his opportunity to test the last Uchiha faded away, and took it out on a different genin team.

As soon as they had fallen, Orochimaru started to go for the tower, hoping to cut Team Seven off there, but a group of chuunins stood in his way. After Haku had reported a rather grisly scene he had chanced upon, three genins with their faces torn off, Anko had noticed his style of fighting through the monitors and had sent them there to hold him off until the Anbu team arrived. She had to be restrained by Ibiki in order not to go there herself when the cameras in that area were destroyed.

Angry, she ordered Haku to go after them as well. The former mist nin did just that, coming upon an even worse scene: all eight chuunins either unconscious or dead.

"Anko-san." he said, his perfected shinobi mask sliding over his heart. He spoke in the small microphone hanging from the communicator in his ear. "We need medic teams in here. All of Team Alpha has been taken down. Over." Even though his voice was lacking of any emotion, he still felt the pain inside. All of those chuunins had welcomed him in with opened arms. They may not have been his friends, but they had shown him rare kindness in not turning him away because of his blood limit.

Haku stiffened, realizing too late that he wasn't alone. The communicator was plucked from his ear by a pale hand.

What he felt was much more than Zabuza, or Kakashi, or even that weird green jonin who often fought with the copy nin. It was more than the three put together. He was frozen in place, helpless to do anything by register the feeling of someone standing behind him.

"Interesting, how far technology has gone." the voice in his ear was both soft and hard, like a hiss of a snake. Haku's hackles rose. "You know, back in the day, ninjas who used technology were considered somewhat of a ..heretic to other ninjas. Something about ancient ways and what not.. I'm not quite sure, I never really paid attention to things like socially acceptable things." There was a cracking noise, like plastic shattered under an unforgiving heel. _He broke it._ Haku thought distantly.

"What is your purpose?" he spoke quietly with dignity.

"To live forever." the person behind him hissed. Haku ducked under the swing of a kunai, keen ears catching the almost silent catch of metal against cloth as his enemy lifted it from its pouch. He rolled on his shoulder, stopping in a crouch. The former mist nin whipped out several senbon, prepared to fight to the death, if only to avenge his comrades.

His eyes met the cold eyes of the snake. And so it began.

* * *

..Aren't I so evil : )  
Preview of the next chapter:  
_They were so close. After two days, he would have never dreamed that he'd be so close to the tower, the safe haven, without at least running into Kabuto. Just ten steps forward, and he could touch the door. A few more steps in, they could open up the scrolls and officially be done with the survival exam. _

_He started to retreat. His team mates turned around, landing questioning gazes on him. He couldn't do it. Not while that girl who screamed was still fighting._

_Every emotion or ideal he had stuck by so closely when he was a child came back with avenge, chivalry and justice butting heads with common sense. He couldn't leave while she was still in danger!_

_Sasuke noticed his retreat. "No." the aspiring avenger saw the conflict in his eyes. "We were lucky. Don't screw up our lucky streak by doing something stupid."_

_"You should be thinking about karma." Naruto replied, wild eyes swiveling in the direction of the previous scream._

_Sakura darted forward, grabbing his wrist in case he decided to run for it. "Naruto, think about it! She's probably already defeated her opponents-" he twisted his wrist out of her grasp roughly, ignoring the hurt look in her eyes. He started to run in the direction of the scream._

_"Naruto!" Sasuke snapped sharply. Naruto did not turn around but he paused. "Don't act like a hero!"_

_Very slowly, Naruto turned his head, one crimson eye narrowing on Sasuke. Though the eye was dark, they could see that Naruto was clearly stressed and nervous. "If I'm not the hero, then who will be?"  
_  
Random author's notes but.. have you seen the latest Naruto episodes? Ha! I cracked up at the NaruHina scenes. Perfect examples of super oblivious Naruto and super shy Hinata. I wonder if NaruHina is the pairing that Naruto's creator planned. I, like many other NaruHina fans, can only hope. (doubt he knows anything about writing romance though. Then again.. I shouldn't be passing out judgment.)

--Important!-- Regarding updates and the such. My computer will be fixed this weekend. But would you rather have chapters as long as this and the last one(both eighteen pages and about ten thousand words each) but two weeks or two and a half week's update absences, or the smaller(about seven pages and roughly four thousand words) with only one week's absence?


	38. Teachers and Students

The episode with NaruHina like interaction was episode 148: _Even Akamaru is jealous of his searching ability! Search for the phantom Bikouchuu!_ Naturally, I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to Naruto, so, with my crappy dial up modem, I waited some where around six or so hours to download forty minutes of subtitled Japanese Naruto off of the only place I know of that lets me download it free without Bit Torrent thing.(narutocentral, of course.) So, if you really want to see it, download it! I don't want to spoil it for everyone else by spilling what they did. Yes, my computer is finally fixed(I even downloaded OpenOffice for it! Yay!), but I'm going with the longer chapters because the wait time is easier on me and my creative spirit(and the piles of homework that are going to be dropped on me soon). So two to three weeks wait between chapters, if my schedule is really bad.  
BTW, Conrad, my version of your idea is somewhere in this chapter. Not exactly poker, but I still had a lot of fun with it.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Thirty-eight: Teachers and Students

by Foxie

* * *

Things happened so quickly. The enemy had been the first to attack, that of which Haku was most certain. And then, all attacks after seemed to blur into one.

At first, the grass nin had almost seemed to be of an average level, jonin at best. He was fast, but Haku proved to him that he was just as fast, as strong, and as cunning. When the former mist nin paused just long enough to offer the grass nin a way out for him to surrender, the enemy just laughed and upped his power. Instead of fighting head to head with the strange enemy, Haku found himself defending more often, trying to block the attacks that threatened to go under his guard.

He was utterly horrified, and then in complete understanding, when the snake easily broke free of his prized blood limit technique. What he understood wasn't an error he made in technique, but rather in judgment.

He had assumed that the mysterious grass nin would fight in the usual fighting style of most other grass nins. He had assumed that, even though his fellow chuunins had fallen against him, he could still defeat the grass nin. He had assumed that when the nin fought him initially, he had been fighting with his all.

Haku had never hated being wrong so much before in his life.

Clenching a hand over an open wound in his shoulder, Haku ducked behind a tree when he heard the tell tale whistling of knives flying through the air. He gently put his power to use, numbing his injury even as he looked with more than just his eyes for his enemy.

"Doesn't matter where you hide.." Haku stiffened he he heard the voice right behind. He hastily pulled away from the tree, watching as the grass nin pulled himself out of the tree. _Genjutsu!_ "I will always find you."

"W-who are you!" Haku demanded. He had never seen the grass nin's face in Zabuza's bingo book of popular ninjas. _Shouldn't someone with this much power at least be known by the ninja community?  
_  
The grass nin laughed. There was something vaguely creepy about the way he took pleasure in Haku's confusion. "Ah, you see, I usually am wearing.. something else in public." He touched the side of his face, making Haku wonder just what the heck he was talking about. "But I am called Orochimaru."

Haku went cold. Though the enemy's face was unfamiliar, the name was not. Orochimaru, one of Konoha's worst outlaws. One of the three legendary sanins of an older time. One of the few ninjas that Zabuza specifically warned him to retreat if he ever was unlucky enough to engage in battle with. It was unfortunate that, now that he'd caught Orochimaru's attention, he could not flee. _I'm sorry, Zabuza-san. I must ignore your order for now._

"Why are you here?" Haku asked urgently. "Don't you have something better to do than to mettle in a simple exam? Go take over the world or something. Leave these kids alone."

"Oh, but my _dear_ Haku-" Haku flinched, surprised that the man knew his name. "-in order to take over the world, one would need an army, yes? And an army is made up of people who believe in the same cause that their leader does. Or at least, they are forced to. But forcing people gets so tiresome." He made a big show of yawning.

Haku reached into his pouch, pulling out his senbon. However, he waited to attack. "What's your point?"

Orochimaru shrugged, that simple yet infuriating smile on his face. "Is it not easier to get them while they're young? Mold them into your image, so that the one they adore is you? The one that they'd fight to the death for is you?" Seeing Haku's distaste of his brilliant genius, he sighed. "Well, I'd figure you, of all people, would know. After all, isn't that what Zabuza of the mist did to you?"

"Don't drag Zabuza-san into this!" Haku snapped, throwing his senbon. Eyes widening, Orochimaru dodged as many as he could. One clipped his cheek while two other buried deep in his chest. Still, he chuckled, pulling the two bloody needles out of him.

"See? So quick to protect, so much more _loyal_ than the average ninja. I rest my case." he said with a grin. He touched his cheek, feeling where the skin of his borrowed face had started to peel. "Where you see me as 'meddling' I see me as making investments for my future." _And how bright it will be, once I have the Uchiha's sharingan. Itachi, Sasuke, or even that bastard Kakashi, it doesn't matter. It will be **mine**!_

"Zabuza-san is nothing like you!" Haku shouted angrily, making several hand seals. And it rapidly downscaled from there. Orochimaru not only knew a lot about mist techniques, but he also had uncanny knowledge of Haku's own techniques. He was there in front of him before Haku could finish his last seal.

"Tsk tsk tsk.." he whispered, delivering a fist into Haku's stomach before he could react. All chakra that the boy had been gathering immediately was lost as he gasped for precious air. "You should be running, not fighting."

"Y-you.. killed and harmed my comrades." Haku wheezed. "I cannot allow you to get away with that, even if you should prove to be more powerful than anyone in this village."

"You flatter me." Orochimaru said dryly. He griped Haku's neck, casually flaunting his strength as he lifted the former mist nin into the air with one arm. "Why worry about comrades? Why do you insist on involving yourself in the buddy-buddy ways of the Konoha ninja? Those who care more about the well being of others over themselves are as weak as the very people who they try to protect. If you had any common sense, you would be either begging for mercy or running away."

Haku grabbed the constricting grip and pulled, but Orochimaru wouldn't ease up on his hold. "If I.." he coughed twice, then glared hatefully at Orochimaru. "If I gave in so easily, w-what's the point? There would be no reason for my existence." He braced his foot against Orochimaru's stomach and managed to use the leverage to push himself out of the snake's grip. He landed awkwardly and coughed, greedily taking in air.

"Existence is fleeting." Orochimaru said calmly, pulling up his sleeve. A tattoo on his wrist caught Haku's eye.

"Yes, it is." Haku agreed. He discretely reached into his pouch, mentally counting how many explosive tags he still had. It was really the best way to take a summon down. "But that's only the more reason to treasure it. Every moment is precious, and we must live it to its full potential. That is why I refuse to lie down for you. I shall not bow down to the wills of those stronger than me, if that will is not something I agree with. If I do that, then my existence, my reason to be, is completely worthless."

"And that, my young friend, is the closed minded thinking of a mortal being." Orochimaru activated his tattoo. A massive snake summon appeared out of nowhere, landing right next to Orochimaru. It hissed at Haku, darting its head down lightening fast to snap at the former mist nin's heels. Fortunately, the snake was slower than the ninja.

He flipped out of the way of the jaws, dodging the consistent attacks until he was backed up against a tree. A tail came flying his way and only by ducking did he save his head, but the hundred year old and quite a few feet thick tree wasn't as lucky. With a groan, the entire tree fell.

He quickly tagged three of his senbon with the explosive tags, sticking one in the snake's under belly when he rolled forward. He threw the other two at Orochimaru, then ducked behind the fallen tree when they exploded.

"Sneaky, resourceful, and a good potential as a ninja." Orochimaru said approvingly. He looked worse for wear, having withstood an explosion in his face. He reached under his chin and under a flap of skin, and tore it off, revealing a pale face and gold snake like eyes. "You would have done well as one of my underlings, if you weren't so loyal to the leaf weaklings and that mist swordsman." Haku was nowhere in sight, or in sensing range. Orochimaru smirked, taking deliberate steps to where he knew Haku was. _You won't last forever in the darkness of ignorance, Haku. You shine too brightly._

* * *

**Many centuries ago, there was a fair maiden. She was kind and beautiful, and all those who met her came to love her and was loyal to her. But none of them was as devoted to her than her young companion. They both had escaped from their pack's unfair rulings, one to escape forced marriage, the other to escape being left alone. They had nothing but each other. And they, Naruto, were perfectly content with just that. But some things are just too perfect, too_ right_ to last very long.. **

The thick smell of blood and death was heavy in the air. The trees' branches hung low in sorrow while the sky steadily worsened, turning in a dark gray that would precede heavy rain. The dark omens were there, so clear to his eyes as he stumbled towards his den, coming back from a long day of messing with humans.

Foxes were the tricksters that men cursed, either as the animal or as the demon, either because of stolen livestock or stolen brides. But either way, foxes were more peaceful and willing to mingle in with humans than any another animal or demon, both seeing the potential in humans and their strange habits. Or at least the easy ways they could be taken advantage of.

Awkward in his human form, he ran as fast as he could to the source of it, pleading to every ancient god he could think of that the smell wasn't from her.  
_  
Nariko._ The love of his life, the soul that bound his soul to the earth. The only one who he would let his guard down around and be himself. She wasn't someone he could imagine being with in the most physical way possible since Nariko was practically his sister, but he could easily imagine spending the rest of with her. No one else mattered, not the little human girls he flirted with, the lords he stole from, or even the rest of demon society.

He really wasn't old by demon standards, considered a mere kit when compared to the eldest members of his formerly abandoned pack. But what he knew was what he had been taught by her, his pack mate, his sister, his best friend. And that had been good enough for him, even when they had fled from their pack's territory when the alpha male had promised her hand in marriage to a powerful ninja in order to end the ninja's attacks on their lands.

He stumbled on the uneven ground, the rough dirt meeting his knees in an unforgiving way that he'd remember for centuries afterward. He pushed himself off of the ground, his nose tentatively scenting the air. The blood, as he had feared, was hers.  
_  
Maybe she's scraped her knee, or accidentally sliced herself on a sharp rock._ He tried to reassure himself as he came closer to their den. He completely ignored the scent of death, so deep in denial that he didn't notice the crumpled form on the ground until he almost tripped over it.

When he righted himself and recognized that head of rich bronze hair, he dropped to his knees beside her, gasping out his concerns for the almost dead girl in the language of the foxes.

Heavy lidded gold eyes met his own, filling with more pain when she recognized his face. He gently lifted Nariko partially in a seated position in his lap. His clawed hands went over the still bleeding wound on her stomach, supporting her head in crook of his arm, gently handling her like fragile china. Even for a demon, a wound to the stomach could easily turn fatal. Just like this.

"Nari.. I.. I can-" he whispered, shakily slipping back into human speech. A gentle touch to his lips stopped his stammering.

"No.. no you cannot." Nariko said, barely getting the words through her parched throat. Her hand trembled, then came down from his face. It was strange how death sapped all warmth and comfort from someone with such ease. She rested her hand against his arm, gently squeezing it in comfort. "I did not wish for you to see this, my friend."

He stumbled over words for a couple of moments, slipping in and out of the instinctive fox language before he finally settled on what he wanted to say. "W-who? Why.. How could someone do this to you, Nari!" The horrid smell of her previous terror still hung around her in thick waves. He felt sick to his stomach.

She looked away, focusing on something behind him. Curious in spite of his sorrow, he turned to see what she was looking at. A middle aged man was attached to the trunk of one of the trees by youki sharpened blades of grass, where he bled out from fatal wounds and died in pain.

"Ninja." he hissed, his eyes darkening with hate. He didn't bother looking at the forehead protector to see which village the man was from. He knew the man was from the village that their leader had bribed, had recognized him from sight alone. Damn ninjas from the thunder village!"Wretched.. human!"

She was crying. Not from pain but from guilt. Her power was in controlling plants, a skill she used quite frequently to aid the growth of the many herbs she grew by their den.

She was a gentle hearted woman, giving free aid and healing to the villagers near by. The children always gathered around her, drawn in by both her beauty and her kind soul. Although the humans of the nearby village knew there was something _different_ about her, they trusted her with their weak and elderly, and with their children, where they were more paranoid about him, the unpredictable and fiery companion of their walking miracle.

She had never killed someone before.

Anger was a must. He was a being of fire, one accustomed to passionate emotions and quick changes in temper. He was angry at himself, for being to slow to come to her rescue. He was angry at her, for feeling guilt for killing the man that had dealt the finishing blow to her. He was angry at the gods for allowing such a kind hearted person to be killed. But nothing compared to his sheer fury and hatred he felt for the human.

Even though he contemplated ways of retribution by use of his hell fires, he still was gentle with the girl in his arms. "I'll get them for you." he swore to her. Her eyes widened as she started to shake her head. He cut off her protests. "Those ninjas will learn to fear my name. Why stop at one village. I'll kill them all.. Every last human. They will feel the taste of my claws." His eyes no longer gleamed as she remembered, warm with the emotions that he was feeling. They were now cold, glassy like as he observed something past her, past her reach.

His lovely crimson eyes were no longer familiar and comforting. More tears fell as she realized the futility of the situation. With every gasping breath, she was losing the last shreds of her life. "No... K-Kyuu-" she stilled.

He stiffened when he registered the final smell of her death. The warmth was sapped from her body, her gold eyes frozen, looking at him with a sad gaze. With a steady hand, he softly swiped his palm over her eyes, closing them for the last time. He drew her close to him, burying his nose in her hair to use her fragrant scent to block out the horrid smell of death.

His shoulders shook slightly, betraying his emotions. His more human characteristics faded away as the sorrow and anger brought along blood lust and the over powering instinct to kill.  
If one single, perfect being in the world wasn't allowed to grace the earth with her presence, then no tainted, greedy, and smelly human was going to be allowed to either.

The only warning the villagers got before the brutal massacre was a demonic snarl.

* * *

Naruto snapped awake with a sudden cry. He kicked out reflexively, attacking an imaginary enemy. The sudden movement unbalanced him and he rolled off of the branch he had claimed for his own.

The surprised cries of his team mates were ignored, as were their attempts to catch him. He landed on his hands and feet, feeling the ground brutally punish him for not being careful. Just like in his dream. Still trembling from the aftereffects of his nightmare, he stayed there, dropping slightly to his knees and trying concentrate only on slowing his erratic breathing.

"Naruto!" Two thumps on the ground behind him alerted him to the arrival of his team mates. They both knelt next to him, one on either side. Sakura soothingly rubbed his shoulders, murmuring comforting words in his ear.

"Nightmare?" Sasuke asked casually when the blond eased back into a upright kneeling position. Naruto nodded grimly.

"Yeah." he said gruffly. "Sorry about that."

"No big." Sakura said quietly. "We were just wondering when we should start moving again." To this, Naruto grimaced, looking between the two.

"And I was sleeping the entire time?" he whined. For five straight hours, he had forced his team to keep going towards the tower without any stops. He ignored any questions as to why he was so eager to get to the tower so soon and kept snapping at them when they made a sound louder than a wind's whisper. When Sakura tripped and nearly fell down the length of one of the trees in her exhaustion, Sasuke had had about enough. Using some quick thinking and the creative use of wire and kunai, he had Naruto trussed up in the middle of a clearing in the matter of no time, cussing a blue streak and trying to wiggle out of the wires.

After some argument, the blond finally agreed(not that he had any other choice) that they could rest for a few hours before continuing on. And then he promptly fell asleep, securing Sasuke's belief that he was pushing himself just as hard as he was pushing them.

"Why are you so gung ho on getting to the tower so soon?" Sakura asked, helping Naruto to his feet. Sasuke stood as well. "We have five days... well, four days and a couple of hours now."

"This forest creeps me out." Naruto said truthfully. "I'd just rather get close to the tower, nab a scroll, and get inside before any of the weirdos from the other villages decide to eat us." _Or something._ He added silently.

Sasuke nodded. "Yes, this forest is creeping me out too." he said, crossing his arms over his chest. He glared at Naruto. "But push us like that again, and I'll chop off your legs so you're even closer to the ground."

"Haha, more short jokes." Naruto growled, cracking his knuckles. "You wanna fight, pretty boy?" As always, Sakura stepped in. She smacked them both in the back of the heads, something that made Naruto gasp in surprise. No matter what kind of argument that the two boys would get into, she'd always gently chastise Sasuke and physically reprimand him.  
_  
Finally he's getting what's coming to him_. Still shocked, he started laughing. When Sasuke growled out an explanation for Naruto's amusement, he choked out "S-she hit you too!" Sasuke blinked, looking at Sakura for a moment to see if she thought this was a rare occurrence too.

She didn't notice his questioning look. The girl was too busy staring at her hand in horror. Naruto only laughed harder.

"Am I the only one who doesn't get it?" Sasuke asked himself, looking back and forth between the highly amused blond and the increasingly embarrassed kunoichi.

Sakura's temper snapped. "Shut up, stupid!" She smacked the blond in the back of the head again for good measure.

* * *

Danger was a must in a ninja's life. Just like any other high risk job he could think of. Police had to worry about the criminals fighting back. Fire fighters had to be careful about carbon monoxide poisoning and falling debris. Sailors had to worry about the fickle sea, and soldiers had to worry about attacks from their enemies.

Slumped against one of the trees, Izumo watched from the sidelines as Orochimaru_ played _with Haku. No, it could not even fit the definition of a fight. A fight required the participation of two or more people. A fight required that the contenders would fight their opponent with their all until one fell. A fight was _not_ what he was seeing. What he was seeing was a cat briefly toying with a mouse before the mouse's inevitable demise.

He knew that Haku, though younger than him, was a lot stronger than him. But the gap between their powers paled in comparison with the gap between Orochimaru and Haku. Still, he saw no reason why the boy had to fight that _monster_ of a ninja. Gritting his teeth, Izumo grabbed the back of Kotetsu's shirt, thanking whatever being that was watching over them that his friend was still alive, and only knocked out. He pulled the other chuunin under the roots of a big tree. Sometime ago, water had weakened the roots grip on the soil and the tree had risen from the earth, exposing many roots, but also creating a niche that Izumo used to hide Kotetsu.  
_  
Just me.. and the kid._ He stood and hissed in pain when he put too much weight on his left leg. He wasn't quite sure what was wrong with it yet, but it hurt like hell.

"Hey, you all better hurry up with those back ups.." he muttered in his communicator before taking it off and tossing it on Kotetsu's chest. "I don't think we'll last long if you don't." he added the last bit to himself, reaching into his pouch for some smoke bombs. The only chance they had for survival was to hide.

Haku attacked, getting more and more desperate as time wore on. Nothing worked! Orochimaru was as deadly of an enemy as the bingo book had said. Haku was neither naïve enough, nor dumb enough to believe for a second that he had a snow ball's chance in hell.

"Hide where ever you want, Haku. I will find you." he had said, startling Haku when he appeared out of nowhere.

"How did you-" Haku was knocked back by an idly waving hand. He hit the tree, the bark shattering on impact. He groaned in pain, dropping down to one knee.

"Haven't you ever heard that snakes feel the vibrations in the ground?" And then, round two had started. Haku threw everything he had into his attacks, getting more and more frustrated when not only did the sanin seem unruffled, but he also was enjoying himself.

The sanin only smiled indulgently at him, defending himself easily and rarely attacking back. _What's his purpose?_ Haku thought, jumping on a tree branch. The sanin kicked out, shattering the branch under his heel. Haku fell a few feet, then twisted so his feet could reach the trunk. Latching on with chakra, he ran down the rest of the way, dodging random attacks from Orochimaru. _Why is he here? Why-.. no, I know why. But **who** is he here for?_

He was too slow. Orochimaru drove his elbow into the back of Haku's head. Both the force of the blow and gravity made the boy crash into the ground face first with a cry of pain. Haku rolled over to his back, flinching when he saw Orochimaru standing over him.

The sanin smirked, putting his foot on the boy's stomach. "I have conquered you." he said humorously. "Now may I move on to conquer Konoha?"

"W-why?" Haku coughed out. He was pretty sure that a few of his ribs had been broken in the crash into the ground, and that was not helped by the heavy foot on him. But still, he wanted answers. His fingers closed over Orochimaru's ankle, trying to ease the pressure off of his ribs. "Who are you after! Why are you going after him?"

Eyes widening in surprise, Orochimaru looked down on him. "What makes you think that I'm after only one person?" he asked, genuinely puzzled. "No, my dear Haku, I'm after many people. If you're so curious, I suppose I could tell you, so you can carry that knowledge into the afterlife." he leaned over, keeping his foot on the former mist nin, lowering his voice. "There will be many people who will die because of me, but my targets are that old fool, Sarutobi, and the Uchiha boy, and his sharingan. Maybe I'll even get in an Elder Council member or too..."

"Sasuke-kun.. Hokage-sama?" Haku whispered in horror. The kind grandfatherly man who allowed him and Zabuza live in Konoha and one of the boys who made it possible for them to live a more peaceful life. He could see Sasuke's smirk and the Hokage's kind smile. Something akin to fury threatened to take over him. "No... I won't let you!"

"I don't think you're in the position to make demands." Orochimaru said quietly. He stiffened, looking off into the surroundings, having heard something crack. Haku painstakingly reached for his pouch once more, grabbing his last explosive tagged senbon. It was getting to the point that he didn't care if he got hurt anymore, as long as he could some how delay Orochimaru from getting to Sasuke.

Several gray balls were thrown from bushes near the two ninjas. They exploded, shrouding them in smoke. "Hmph." Orochimaru could feel the presence of another ninja. "I thought I killed him.."

Haku chose that moment to stick his senbon in Orochimaru's ankle. The sanin jerked away at the sudden pain, giving Haku enough room to roll away before the tag exploded. He received some burns and cuts, but he had managed to get out of the way in time. Instinct told him to keep rolling away, so he did, having had a teacher who made him rely on his instincts over his common sense. He stopped just outside the smoke because he had rolled too hard on his ribs. He gasped, trying to recover.

Izumo cursed when he heard the explosion. _What the hell happened! _He thought. Haku rolled into vision, bloodied up, some his own, some not. He picked up the kid, ignoring the flinch, and ran back towards the niche in the tree.

"I-Izumo-san?" Haku whispered. "I thought you were dead."

Izumo laughed bitterly. "I'm as stubborn as an ox, kid. It's gonna take more than a few sucker punches from a snake freak to make me go down." He gently rested the former mist nin down next to Kotetsu. At his questioning look over to the unconscious chuunin, Izumo only nodded his head. "He's worse than I am."

Haku laughed softly, then winced when the action brought him pain. _Ugh, I feel like a huge bruise._ He thought to himself, running a hand over his ribs. They twinged in pain. He tried to sit up so he could be of use in case Orochimaru followed but the older chuunin pushed him back down.

Orochimaru cursed angrily, gripping the useless stump of his leg. He gave some rude invitations to some gods and Zabuza, and made unfair observations on who Haku's father really was. "Damn you, you brat." he said once he calmed, taking off and wrapping his shirt around the stump to control the bleeding. He wondered how much energy it would take to regrow a limb using medical jutsu. Kabuto would know. "This really sets back my plans." He grinned ferally, his gold eyes shining unnaturally. "I hope you're happy, brat."

Izumo set a genjutsu over their niche, just in case Orochimaru came around. He picked up his communicator and tuned it to the frequency that he needed. "Hey, you got those back up yet?"

There's was some static on the other end before the quiet answer. "You've got three seconds to tell me why you haven't reported in, Kamizuki, or I'm gonna take your flak jacket away!" Eeping in surprise, Izumo dropped the communicator.

"That woman scares the hell outta me!" he said when Haku gave him a weird look. Shaking his head, the former mist nin sat up painfully and grabbed the communicator.

Orochimaru summoned a huge snake, knowing that Konoha's elite were soon to come, and he wanted to get away before his presence caused any more of a ruckus. It would be such a terrible thing for the Chuunin Exam to be called off because Sarutobi was worried about the easily corrupted minds of his subjects. He hobbled awkwardly on the snake's head, snapping at it with chakra when it seemed a little too interested in his blood. One, not even a snake charmer, could not trust a snake.  
_  
I can't have that mist boy leaking my secrets._ He thought with a scowl, regretting his arrogance at the time. He reached into his sleeve, pulling out a squirming black snake with a pale underbelly. There was a thick black strong tied over and around the snake's jaw like a small muzzle. Orochimaru tugged it off, snatching the back of its head when it tried to bite him angrily.

He pressed two fingers to the top of the snake's head and hissed in an unrecognizable speech. "Hey, lazy ass.." he hissed, connecting his mind to the snake's. "Attack the boy who smells like snow and then you can go free." The snake's mind was relatively simple and it hurt when it tried to translate what Orochimaru said to things it could understand. What he did understand that he was given a way out of being shoved in those really hot and cold places, being poked by glowing fingers, and being force fed some really nasty things. If one of the huge mice that walked on two feet was the sacrifice for his freedom, then so be it.

Feeling the snake's agreement to the deal, Orochimaru grinned, letting him go. The dark snake slipped into the bushes and out of sight.

"Alright, let's go." The large summon and its rider left in the same manner.

"Hey, the Anbu are here!" Izumo said with much cheer. He stood and went up to greet the trio of masked elite ninjas. The Anbu looked at the tired and injured chuunin before determining that he was in fact one of the survivors, not Orochimaru in disguise.

"Anko-san?" Haku spoke softly into the communicator, keeping it away from and out of his ear just in case she started to yell. He needn't have worried. Out of all of the chuunins under her temporary control, Anko liked Haku the best. Maybe it was his soft spoken manner, his polite ways, even more so to females, as he wasn't used to them yet, or the fact that, when provoked, he was quite a deadly enemy. Whatever her reasons were, it was no secret that she sighed in relief at the sound of his voice and gentled her tone.

"Hey kid, are you alright?"she asked gruffly. She felt guilty for ordering him off into a danger zone just because she couldn't go herself.

"I'm fine." he said, wincing slightly as his ribs angrily denied that claim. He felt woozy and tired. His adrenaline rush had faded. "Or, I _will_ be fine." Remembering the angry threat he heard her yell at Izumo, he quickly explained. "Izumo-san created a distraction so I could escape from Orochimaru."

"Oh." she said, chewing on the inside of her mouth in a fit of fretfulness. "Then he is forgiven." It was then when she fully digested what Haku said. "Orochimaru!"

Haku opened his mouth to answer, but then he was suddenly aware of a stinging pain on his forearm. Almost lazily he looked over, feeling too calm even as he registered the nearly black snake that had his fangs sunk into his forearm. With a shaking hand, he stabbed the snake through the head with a senbon, killing it instantly. "By the way.." his speech started to slur. As his vision started to fade, he watched the shadowy forms of Izumo and the Anbu team walking toward him. _My, how fast poison spreads.._ "Orochimaru sends his regards."

* * *

"Shikamaru, you ass." What was meant to be a loud insult accompanied by a hard knock on the Nara's head ended up coming out in a sigh as Ino wilted under her exhaustion. Her sickness, caused by unknown reasons after that written exam, had not gone away. She felt weak and shaky, all she wanted was to lie down and sleep for a year. The blissful state of unconsciousness was her only relief from the nausea she felt. He wasn't helping, with his constant demands that they keep on moving. "..Bastard.." Her next insult came out so low, she doubted he could even hear it.

Shikamaru looked back at his pale, sweating, and shivering team mate and felt a twinge of guilt. He had to hand it to her, she hadn't whined the first day, or that very morning, even though he was increasingly aware of how her step faltered every five minutes and she slowed down so much that Chouji and Shikamaru would slow their own so she wouldn't know the difference instead of asking what was wrong. If there was one thing he was sure of, it was that Ino _hated _being pitied.

And as much as he'd like to stop and set up camp for the night, just so she could get some shut eye and hopefully get better, he was too afraid to. Naruto's words of the future and haunted eyes plagued him, making him more paranoid and alert than he had been for years, dating back from when he was four and was so convinced that the boogie man lived under his bed and was going to eat him while he slept.  
_  
Just a little longer_, he silently pleaded with Ino, _then we'll stop_. In the end, Shikamaru didn't really have a choice.

Ino scowled at Shikamaru's back. _Stupid, overworking, bossy son of a- _Her vision blurred and he split off into two different Shikamarus. _Ugh. _Since when did the lazy, good for nothing shadow user want to be leader of their little team anyway? He usually left that duty to her, and she did a pretty spanking good job with it, if you asked her! But this time, he just took charge and expected her to go along with it. _He was just lucky that I don't feel good enough to exact my revenge and make him into a smear on the-.. oh, pretty colors._ The wind felt nice on her hair and oddly enough, the sick feeling in her stomach was disappearing...

"Ino!" Chouji cried when he saw his team mate start to fall. Shikamaru started and turned around. The Akimichi twisted, turning back when his momentum pushed him past her, and reached for her arm. He snagged it, attaching his feet to the underside of a branch. "Whoo.." he wiped sweat off of his forehead with his free hand. "That was close, wasn't it Shika?" Shikamaru landed on the branch, reaching out a hand to help Chouji up. An ominous cracking sound made then stiffen.

Shikamaru uttered in perfect unison with his best friend the words that summed up their next problem. "Oh, shit."

The branch snapped under their combined weights.

* * *

"Touch down!" Kiba called out, pushing the doors open. Shino merely shook his head at his team mate's antics while Hinata smiled in relief. They were finally at the tower.

It was night time, and they still had four days to complete the exam, yet none of them liked the idea of sleeping outside while in possession of two scrolls. It was that thought that made them use all of their effort to get to the tower, and none at all to combat any genin they met along the way. To use time to its fullest potential, Kiba tossed each one of his team mates a solider pill. They didn't need to sleep or recharge, thanks to the handy ninja accessory. But, as Shino pointed out wryly, they would be energized and hyper for the next three days as well.

The only noteworthy teams that they had run across was two sand nins that they found themselves regretfully recognizing, a blond kunoichi with a fan strapped to her back and her brother who apparently had a fetish with face paint, and one of their own rookie teams.

Team Eight made a wide detour around the sand nins and mostly ignored the other rookie team, except for a brief greeting gesture that Kiba had sent them. Though his team mates were sleeping, Naruto saw and waved back, secretly glad that they didn't stop for chit chat or fighting, since he was still a little wound up from his strange dream.

"Hello?" Kiba greeted the empty room. "We're probably the first fools here." He tossed the last bit over his shoulder to his team mates.

They walked in, wary eyes searching for flitting shadows that would hint at an ambush. "Perhaps we are supposed to.. give the scrolls to someone?" Hinata asked, reaching for the tell tale lump in the front of her baggy sweatshirt.

"Or maybe we're supposed to read the damn things." Kiba said, idly unzipping his jacket so Akamaru could jump down. "How about you, Shino?"

Shino was quiet, either divining the future by reading the slight bumps in the walls, or simply finding that the wall was the only soothing thing in the room. "I wish she would have elaborated more." he said instead of a guess.

They sighed in unison, realizing that they had to figure out their next action before they could relax. "I say we read 'em, to hell with the rule." Kiba said, dropping to the ground in a cross legged position. He held out a hand, waiting for a scroll to appear so he could do just that. Shino backed up several paces, physically showing his distaste to the idea.

"No, wait. I think he's on to something." Hinata said, lowering herself to the ground in a kneeling position. She had an idea. "Shino-kun, may I please see the earth scroll?" The bug user nodded, reaching into his pockets and tossing it to her. She took her own scroll and the earth scroll and put them down next to each other. Several quick hand seals later and she was reading the scrolls, just a little differently than Kiba had thought. Hinata looked through the paper to read the scroll, every once in a while adjusting how far she looked through so she could read the next thing.

"I think.. these are summoning scrolls." she concluded after a few moments. "A strange dual summoning scrolls for a single summon. One by itself is useless without the other."

"What type of summon is it?" Shino inquired, crouching down next to her.

"Human."

* * *

"..Kamizuki, is that a snake in your hand?" Anko stared intensely at the limp form of a snake in his loose grip. Fidgeting a little, the chuunin nodded.

"It's a dead one, Anko-san." Izumo said, lifting it up slightly. Anko had immediately dispatched a medic team after the Anbu, and it was that team who had taken the nine chuunins(one poisoned, three unconscious, one alert, but four dead) and brought them to the hospital. Izumo was patched up, given a painkiller, and sent off without a second glance.

Slightly dazed, he hadlimped toward Haku's room, the snake he had snagged still in his grasp as neither of the nurses patching him up wanted to touch it. He had stumbled in, interrupting a quiet conversation between Anko and Ibiki. They had looked at him in surprise before Anko had broken the silence with her question.

"I can see that, stupid. Give it to me." Anko said blandly, forcefully snatching it from his hand. Izumo frowned, more worried about his fellow chuunin's fate than whether or not he had a dead reptile on hand. Anko, however, was looking at the snake with an unusually serious and grim glare.

Ibiki jumped up from his seat, no doubt nervous about the tension in the air. Had Izumo's thinking had been clearer, or if the situation wasn't as serious, he would have been amused to see the large man bouncing around like a hyper child. "Here's the doctor! And Shizune, Tsunade-sama's apprentice! I didn't know she was back in town.."

The doctor, in a normal white uniform, scrubs, and a pair of dainty glasses perched on his nose walked ahead of the darker kunoichi, the former studiously ignoring the latter as she glared at his back.

"Yes, I believe that the boy was poisoned." he said calmly.

Shizune walked past him, not so gently brushing her shoulder against him."What gave that away, doctor? The snake? The bite? Or the venom still leaking out of the wound?" she said bitingly. Her hands were twitching and flexing, but other than that, she was fairly calm.

The doctor ignored her. "We gave him an all purpose antidote, but the venom is strong, so we must make a more specific anti venom." he continued on blandly.

Shizune muttered some choice remarks under her breath before checking Haku's vitals. The doctor tensed at that action, not liking a mere medic nin interfering with his patients. Shizune was aware of his distaste with her instinctive actions, but all she did in face of it was toss her hair over her shoulder haughtily.

"Now now, Shizune-san," Izumo muttered. He felt hazy and tired, the effects of the painkiller kicking in. _Damn, they gave me some pretty strong shit._ He put a hand on her shoulder, more so he could keep standing than in gesture conveying his adverse opinion on how she was treating the doctor. "There's no reason for you to be snippy."

"Shut up Izumo." she growled, directing a glare in the doctor's direction. Her eyes met Anko's. The older woman grimly held up the body of the snake. Shizune paled. She seethed, stalking forward to grab the doctor by the front of his uniform, not noticing Izumo's untimely stutter step then sprawl to the ground. "You don't even know how much danger Haku is. Do you recognize that type of snake? Of course you don't. It doesn't live near Konoha, or even in the whole damn country!"

The doctor was annoyed. Ninjas were merely human weapons in his eyes, yet they were always cluttering up his hospital with their injuries and their obnoxious views on what he should and should not be doing. He had more than eight years of schooling! That was a lot more than them, with their little 'Academy' and all. He attempted to assert control. "Ahem. We need to make anti venom."

"And let me guess: you don't have the means, ingredients, or the skill to." Shizune snapped again, disgustedly shoving away the doctor. He stumbled, surprised at the strength she had.

"Shizune! Show some respect!" Ibiki admonished, standing between her and the doctor. He had never seen Shizune like this, she was usually a calmer and kinder person. But the medic nin had something against the doctor.

"_Respectfully_ sir, bite my ass." she said, crossing her arms over her test. "This fool of a doctor refused to treat a dying ninja, and nothing short of a kinjutsu, Yamanaka techniques, or amnesia is going to make me forget that!"

And that was it. Most medic nins and doctors lived by a code to help and treat anyone they could, whether it was a fellow ninja, or a civilian. Some even went out of their way to help a wounded enemy, as long as they weren't directly ordered not to. Shizune was one of those people. Though her mentor seemed to no longer abide by that code, the younger of the two never abandoned it, even jumping in to help the staff at the hospital once she was given time off.

The doctor met her glare for glare. "I wasn't about to treat that dem- ah!" His hateful rant had been silenced by a prompt fist in his face. The back of his head hit the wall and the good doctor went down. Shizune hadn't moved.

"Way to go Anko-san." Izumo said groggily from his seat on the ground.

"The Hokage isn't going to be pleased that you knocked out a perfectly good doctor." Ibiki said blandly, looking at the doctor's bloody face. She hadn't pulled her punch. "Who's going to make the antidote now?"

"Shut up, Ibiki, you uptight fool." she said lazily, licking the blood off of her knuckles. She turned to Shizune, her gaze strangely hard. "The Hokage isn't gonna like the fact that a doctor is choosy with his patients. It's simply not fair. In fact, why the hell didn't you report that in when the Kyuubi kid-"

"Sssh!" reminded Ibiki, eyes shifting around the room as if he expected someone to be listening in on their private conversation.

Anko's heated rant stuttered and came to a stop. She winced, rephrasing her question. "Uh.. why didn't you report it when Naruto got injured?"

Shizune flinched, immediately bowing. "I apologize, Anko-san." she said, feeling guilty. Honestly, she had forgotten about the doctor. She was too busy trying to say the kid's life, and besides, there were about twenty other nurses and doctors who were extremely helpfulduring the situation, making her forget about the one bad seed.

"You don't have time to apologize." Anko said sharply. She glanced at the clock, then at the pale chuunin in the hospital bed. Something in her gaze softened for a brief moment. "That all purpose antidote is going to wear off soon. Shizune, get the ingredients for the anti venom."

"Yes ma'am!" she saluted, then ran out of the room, glad to be of service.

Anko tossed the snake in Izumo's lap. The chuunin jumped slightly, fumbling with the corpse to make sure that its fangs hadn't dug into his thigh or something. "Kamizuki! Drain the snake of its poison, the antidote cannot be made unless we have it!"

"Yes sir!" he stuttered, pulling himself to his feet and stumbling out of the room.

"Ibiki-" she finally said, turning to him.

He smirked at her. "What, you're ordering me around too?"

"Shut up." But she smiled. "Get water and some rags. I recognize that type of snake. It was one of .. _his_ calling cards. And we only just figured out a way to make the anti venom, but it's going to do a lot of damage to Haku. It's not the safest stuff for him to be drinking, and he has to drink twice the amount, but I'd rather have him living and in some pain rather than dead and cold. Understand?"

Ibiki paused, trying to think of all the information he had heard about anti venoms in his entire life. Sadly, it wasn't much. Anko wasn't an expert herself, but she knew just about everything there was to know about snakes. "So.. what? Muscle damage, fever.. what are the other possible side effects of this antidote thing?" he asked.

"Death." she said grimly. "The antidote isn't gonna kill him, but if he has no desire to live after being beaten by that bastard, the venom will do its duty, with the cure, or not."

* * *

Oblivious of any danger or bad omens, the genins continued their exam. Some failed, some triumphed, and some, like Gaara of the Sand, hunted after their prey.

It was early in the evening of the second day. By this time, many had already fallen, either to injury, or(rarely) to death. Most had stopped their hunt when the light waned, not wanting to be caught by an enemy who was better skilled than they were at fighting in near total darkness. They set up camp, caught their dinners, and slept with one eye open.

Gaara had no need for sleep.

His prey was there, naïve and oblivious that he was hunting them. The night of the full moon was nearly upon him, the night that his inner demon would come forth and do as he pleased. Instead of having the demon kill his prey for him, Gaara chased after them, determined to at least do something that _he_ wanted, leaving his siblings behind in the dust. As the hours of the day grew longer and longer and the sky dimmed, his prey came to a stop.

"Aw man, my butt itches." the girl muttered, her hand drifting down to relieve herself of that itch. Gaara grimaced. Had the girl no modesty?

The dark haired one threw himself against the cradle of the roots of a tree. The way he sat was vaguely reminiscent of a prince on his throne. "I'm bored. Entertain me." he said airily. There was a hint of a smile on his lips, as if he was pleased with something. Frowning, the sand nin struggled to recall their names. _Uchiha.. something.. Uchiha Sasuke.._ he looked at the girl. _And she was.. Sakura.  
_  
His prey glared, dropping down to his haunches. "Entertain yourself, jack ass." _And Uzumaki Naruto._ He was much more interested in the other demon host than his companions. Even though they were acting unusually out of character. Perhaps it was a custom in this country for the ninjas to be eccentric.

In unison, the three yawned, reflexive tears in their eyes. Sakura plopped down next to Naruto. "I'm bored." Sasuke said again, his voice taking on a slightly whiny tone. The other two muttered in agreement. Sakura shifted suddenly, a look of discomfort coming over her face. She was sitting on something, a foot long twig that had lost any signs of vitality.

"Tick tac toe!" she cried, a grin on her face. The other two jumped forward, immediately starting to fight over who could play first. Gaara could feel his surprise rising. Had this team gone nuts? Who would fight over a stick when they should have been out looking for some food?

"Hey, watch it!" Sakura whined, jumping away with the stick in tow. "I'm delicate."

Sasuke snickered. "What? It's not like you're really a girl." Sakura pouted and booted Sasuke right in the middle of his chest.

"Hey! Watch it!" he said, his hand running over the lovely dusty shoe print she left on the front of his black shirt. "Any harder and all of this effort would have went down the drain."

She snickered, sticking her tongue out at him. "Then you're pretty delicate yourself, eh?"

Naruto snagged the stick out of her hand, ignoring her cry of protest. "I shall make a compromise!" he said importantly. The other two(three, if you counted the increasingly annoyed demon host in the bushes) watched him carefully, waiting for his announcement. He suddenly deflated with a sad sigh, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

"You lost your train of thought, didn't you?" Sasuke asked knowingly, grinning at the blond.

"That reminds me!" the blond announced happily. "Let's play hangman!"

It was too much for him. How could three people be so dumb and oblivious? He was in the firm belief that all leaf nins had to be addled in the head. Gaara stood from his crouching position, loudly announcing his presence when he purposely stepped on a twig. The three looked towards him, identical grins on their bright faces.

"Why hello, Gaara dear." Sasuke said with a knowing grin. Gaara was either offended or tramatized by the Uchiha's single sentence, he couldn't decide which.

"So nice of you to finally join us." Sakura said, making a sweeping gesture with her hand, as if to clear off a spot for him to sit.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Naruto finished. Their grins grew larger. Gaara had the feeling that he was being mocked. And that was simply intolerable. _He_ was supposed to be the mocker.

His only response was to lift up his hand in their direction. Sand started drifting towards them.

"Oh me oh my." Sakura said, still grinning like an idiot. "I do believe you'll die without a single humorous bone in your body." Sasuke and Naruto snickered, linking arms with her.

"I say we sing a song, in honor of our grouchy friend!" Naruto announced. "Come on, sing with me! For he's a jolly good fellow.." Team Seven sung the song, swaying lightly. Gaara stared blankly at them. They hadn't noticed the sand creeping up their bodies.

They came to the conclusion, and realized that they were about three seconds away from mortal peril. They pouted in disappointment, saddened that Gaara didn't want to play with them.

"You suck!" they shouted in unison as the sand crept around their necks. Gaara's smirk was halted by a crackling in the air as two henge jutsus fell. Instead of Team Seven, Gaara had three very annoyed looking Narutos trapped in the beginning stages of his coffin of death.

They smirked at his confusion, sparking his temper. Yet his wrath was wasted, because the second that the coffin closed around them, exposing them to extreme pressure and blood thirsty sand, they popped out of existence, a few wisps of smoke the only evidence of the strange evening that Gaara had been having.

They were gone. His prey had slipped through his grip. Actually, if he thought about it some more, Naruto had never really been in his grip at all. All he had had was three shadows of the boy he wanted to fight, sent out to confuse him. And many others.

He could have been at the tower already! But no, he just had to chase the elusive blond and his team around the forest.

He wanted to rant. He wanted to kill. He wanted to have a temper tantrum right then and there. Instead, he only sighed, feeling strangely sad.

* * *

Zabuza looked over Kakashi's shoulder, a suspicious flush settling on his cheeks. Kakashi grinned under his mask. They were in one of the many multi purpose rooms dedicated especially for jonins. A meeting had just finished up, and Zabuza and Kakashi were the last two in the room. The latter had invited the former mist nin to a special 'genin free' day in celebration of getting rid of their students for a while with his other fellow teachers, Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai. But their progress to the event was halted when Zabuza asked about Kakashi's favorite pastime.

"You.." Zabuza sputtered. "Read that trashy crap to your kids?"

"Only on certain occasions." Kakashi said lightly, flipping to the next page of his book.

"Isn't there some kind of law against corrupting children like that?" If Zabuza wasn't blushing so much, his tone could have almost been accusing.

"I like to think of it as giving them helpful advice."

Zabuza lost his temper. "They're twelve, you idiot!" he yelled. "It's not like they're at the age that they be d-duplicating something like that!" Kakashi finally laughed.

"I'm giving them a healthy respect for literature!" he folded down his page and then flipped back a few chapters, showing a particularly interesting section. "I was thinking about reading this one to them once they get back from the survival exam. What do you think?"

Zabuza's color changed from a faint pink to a flaring red. "That's so wrong on so many levels, I don't even know _how_ to respond!" he said finally. The two stared at each other blankly for a moment before breaking out into laughter. "Kakashi, you thug.."

Anko poked her head in the room. "Hey, have you seen-" she saw who was in the room and her face grimed. "Well, speak of the devil."

"We were just going somewhere." Kakashi explained, tucking his book back in his vest. "Do you want to come with us?"

Anko shook her head. "I.. cannot. I have some.. pretty bad news." Delicately, she informed the former mist nin of the situation, looked on sympathetically when he started to get mad, and wished, not for the first or last time, that she had never ordered the chuunin to go out there.

* * *

That same evening, a angry cry ripped through the air, concerning the real members of Team Seven. "Na-ru-to!" Sakura yelled. Sasuke turned, looking over at the furious kunoichi and the guilty looking blond. "Just what the hell were you doing? You had the simple job of finding us some food!" She was in a bad mood. She was sore from running all day, had a blinding migraine, and it wasn't the best time of the month for her, _thank you very much! _

Naruto looked like he had been rolling around in mud instead of doing what she had asked of him. Tears sprung to her eyes. Why were boys so inconsiderate and mean? Did she have to do everything herself?

Naruto, who had initially pulled back in fright of her wrath, jumped forward, awkwardly patting her shoulder. "Don't cry Sakura-chan!" he said desperately. "I.. won't do it again?"

The fact that his assurance had ended up coming out as a confused question made Sakura's temper flare again. "You idiot! We're in an enemy infested forest, what makes you think there's time for screwing around?" She grabbed his shoulder to shake some sense into him, only to have the blond squirm out of her grasp with a soft hiss of pain. Sakura looked at the moisture left on her hand. It was blood.

"..The river was occupied." Naruto said simply, refusing to look in her horrified eyes. "Sorry. Guess I'll go get a rabbit or a snake or something." After a moment's thought, he nodded seriously to himself. "Definitely a snake. The bunny's got the cute factor and I simply am _not _immune to that."

"Naruto." Sakura whispered, her hand reaching out to him. All of her personal worries and complaints suddenly seemed less important. How could they be important, when her team mate was standing right in front of her, fresh out of a brutal fight, and still trying to make lame jokes? "You don't have to-"

"Great." he said with false cheer, cutting her off. He backed out of her arm reach. "Then I'll just go and scout around then while one of you hunts." He walked away, casually tossing something in Sasuke's lap. "I'll be back in an hour or so."

They watched him leave silently. Sasuke sighed. "What a fool." he said, looking into the fire he had created.

Sakura rounded on him. "But, Sasuke-kun, he's injured!" she cried, holding out her hand to show him. She didn't have the heart to wipe it off on her shirt like she'd do with dirt.

Sasuke's frown only increased. He had noticed. Black was a great color to wear if one wanted to hide blood stains, but the rips and tears in Naruto's clothing hinted at his injuries. "He heals faster than we do." Sasuke pointed out.

"That's not the point!" she yelled. When her team mate only continued to look at her blandly, her shoulders slumped. "I'm being over emotional, aren't I?"

"At least you're admitting it." he said indifferently, turning his gaze to what his other team mate had thrown at him. Once he registered the familiar sight, he immediately felt guilty. "Sakura.. look." he whispered. With trembling fingers, he lifted the precious item up.

The earth scroll, the scroll that they needed in order to pass this hell of an exam, innocently rested on his palm, marred only by a few streaks of mud and several bloody finger prints.

Naruto returned later that night, as promised, and never mentioned the fight he went through to get the scroll in Sasuke's possession, simply turning over to his other side when Sakura screwed up enough nerve to ask him later. He refused to boast.

There was one less ninja in the forest because of him. Death wasn't something Naruto liked to brag about, whether it be the death of an ally or the death of a enemy.

* * *

Tenten grinned. The euphoria she felt at their easy victories was leaking over to her team mates; even Neji cracked a smile. Just in the first day, they managed to get a hold of their other scroll! Well, they were on their third day, but still not within eye sight of the tower, but that wasn't too bad! They still had two more days.

Though the genins they fought were hardly strong enough to get past Tenten on her worst day with her hands tied behind her back and her vision impaired, they still kept a sharp eye out, searching for those few genins that could stand up to their superior strength.

In her opinion, even if there was a rare genin or two that could match Lee's taijutsu, Neji's blood limit, or her own skill with weapons, they could not possibly hope to defeat their team work.

Neji made a gesture. They stopped, sliding to a halt down below the branches they had been traveling over. "We are being followed." he stated blandly.

Tenten rolled her eyes. She already knew that! "They haven't bothered us yet, so why are we stopping?" Lee nodded in agreement.

"What, you want to fight them too?" he asked exasperated. Sure, he liked a good fight, but he wasn't fond of frequent fights. Quality over quantity, Gai-sensei always said. That, and he was tired. They had been traveling nonstop for nearly a day and a half.

"They are preparing for battle, and speeding towards us as we speak." As always, the strange effect of the byakugan on their team mate's face made Lee and Tenten. Neji smirked. "It would be rude of us to not accept their challenge." Identical grins appeared on Lee and Tenten's faces as they prepared to face their foe.

* * *

"I can't believe we got a second scroll." Chouji said in awe, staring at the heaven scroll in his hand.

"And I can't believe it's not butter." Ino said sarcastically, snatching the scroll out of his hand. "Stop staring at it, fool!"

Ino had gotten better. It was the morning of the third day and she had rather violently knocked Shikamaru out of the leadership position and claimed it for her own, once again. The Nara didn't argue, since Ino saw the logic in his plan to get the tower quickly and quietly, especially after they stumbled over their second scroll.

After their embarrassing tumble to the ground, they had come across a rather horrifying scene. There were no bodies, but they would tell that someone had died in that clearing. All that hinted at it was large scatterings of blood and sand, and, to their surprised delight, a abandoned scroll. Respectfully edging around the blood stains, they grabbed the scroll and hightailed it out of there.

"And we'll never know what country they were from." Chouji had said sadly as they retreated.

"Maybe they were just wounded and someone came by to take them to a hospital or something!" Ino had said optimistically. Shikamaru couldn't decide whether she was trying to reassure herself or Chouji, but he knew that there had definitely been a killing in that clearing. There was too much blood for anything otherwise.

Chouji once again reached for the scroll. "I wanna see it!" Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Even though they were in motion, the two were still squabbling over the scroll like a pair of bratty siblings.

"Ha! I'll just put it in a place where I know neither enemy nor ally would want to look!" Ino declared with a cry, sticking it down her shirt.

"Ah!" Shikamaru immediately redirected his attention forward, a faint flush on his cheeks. "Warn people when you do that!"

"What if an enemy's a pervert?" Chouji insisted, still attempting to gain possession of the scroll. "Do you want to be felt up?"

"Are you a pervert?" Ino asked pointedly. Chouji just blinked at her innocently. "I didn't think so. I'm safe for now." And for the rest of that day, the two bickered.

* * *

Suddenly, things went so wrong. But everything started out good. As always, they faced the other team together, Lee and Neji taking to the front while she retreated to the back so she could nail the enemy with a few nifty weapon tricks.

Really, who would have thought such a small and far away village like the sound would actually produce such powerful ninjas?

One had these strange devices in his palms that easily allowed him to control the winds, Neji took a liking to him and promptly attacked him. The strange bandaged comrade of the wind guy was immediately attacked by Lee. The girl didn't seem too interesting, so she was ignored by both boys. With a huff, Tenten armed herself and attacked the girl, reminding herself later to kick in where it hurt for being so blatantly sexist.

She did well against the girl, Kin. There was a moment where she got confused over the sound she had registered as the flight of her weapon and the true silence of it, but once Tenten pulled the needle out of her thigh, she swore she couldn't make the same mistake again.

Neji couldn't get near Zaku, she noticed, only paying partial attention to the ninja she was supposed to be fighting. Zaku was a long distance fighter while Neji was an up close and personal fighter, which made Neji have a bit of a disadvantage. Tenten wasn't worrying. Neji was too good of a ninja to let little things like advantages decide the victor of a match.

Lee was doing alright, even though he hadn't been able to land a solid punch on Dosu. The weird mummified sound nin kept dodging and blocking with his arms, alerting Lee of the presence of something metal under those huge sleeves.

Tenten never harbored the doubt that they would lose the battle. _Never. _Her team mates were too strong, their team work was flawless, and no back alley shinobi from a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere was going to beat them.

It was that blind optimism that made her gasp in surprise in Dosu hiked back his sleeve and revealed a metal device on his arm. It was that blind optimism that made Lee continue to attack although he knew that device could only spell bad news. It was that blind optimism that caught Neji off guard when Zaku suddenly switched directions and pointed his palms at him.

It was that blind optimism that made Tenten scream the names of her friends when one collapsed to the ground and emptied out the contents ofhis stomach while the other was thrown into the bushes.

* * *

They were so close. After two days, he would have never dreamed that he'd be so close to the tower, the safe haven, without at least running into Kabuto. Just ten steps forward, and he could touch the door. A few more steps in, they could open up the scrolls and officially be done with the survival exam.

He started to retreat, backing hastily way from the door as if it spelled his doom. His team mates turned around, landing questioning gazes on him. He couldn't do it. Not while that girl who screamed only a few moments was still fighting.

Every emotion or ideal he had stuck by so closely when he was a child came back with avenge, chivalry and justice butting heads with common sense. He couldn't leave while she was still in danger!

Sasuke noticed his retreat. "No." the aspiring avenger saw the conflict in his eyes. "We were lucky. Don't screw up our lucky streak by doing something stupid."

"You should be thinking about karma, not luck." Naruto replied, wild eyes swiveling in the direction of the previous scream.

Sakura darted forward, grabbing his wrist in case he decided to run for it. He wasn't the only one who had been thinking about the girl. "Naruto, think about it! She's probably already defeated her opponents-" he twisted his wrist out of her grasp roughly, ignoring the hurt look in her eyes. He started to run in the direction of the scream.

"Naruto!" Sasuke snapped sharply. Naruto did not turn around but he paused. "Don't act like a hero!"

Very slowly, Naruto turned his head, one crimson eye narrowing on Sasuke. Though the eye was dark, they could see that Naruto was clearly stressed and nervous. "If I'm not the hero, then who will be?" He looked disgusted, more with himself than with his sensible team. "Definitely not _you_."

"Ninjas aren't supposed to be heroes." Sasuke said quietly. "Heroism is not meant for people who were created to be used as tools in the petty fights of humans."

"I know." Naruto said in a distressed voice. "I _know_ all that, hell, I know that better than you! But what about Wave Country? We were heroes then. Isn't it a nice feeling? Knowing that someone is safe, or is happy, just because you helped them?"

"We didn't become ninjas to be nice." The Uchiha countered, his arms crossing over his chest. "We didn't become ninjas to help. You know, Zabuza was right. We became ninjas to kill." Sakura, though she wisely kept out of the two's argument, shivered at the blunt yet true statement.

Naruto curtly nodded. "Yeah, but you know me." he said sharply, bitterly. "I like to bend the rules." He left, leaving them with no choice but to follow.

* * *

"The anti venom is working very well." Zabuza said grudgingly to the medic nin sitting beside Haku's bed. She was the only person he had seen in Haku's presence more than himself.

Shizune smiled tiredly at him. Evidence of her long nights and days worrying over Haku was clear on her face and the slump of her shoulders. "Your student has a strong will." she admitted, not wanting to take all of the credit. "I would have thought after facing a defeat by such a powerful enemy, his spirit would be broken, some how, but he's recovering quite nicely."

At the mention of Orochimaru, Zabuza growled and stubbornly stared at the window. The Hokage had taken one look at his new subordinate and directly ordered that he was not allowed to follow, attack, or even talk to Orochimaru if the situation came up unless under dire circumstances, which, in any case, did not include revenge.

Which had promptly reminded him why he hated to be under the control of other people. Sarutobi must have seen the mutinous look on his face, for the old man had shuffled forward and patted his shoulder(it was quite a stretch, he was short).

"But that doesn't mean that you will never be able to avenge him." the old man had said calmly. "Wait till Haku is well enough so he can go with you. He would never forgive me if I allowed you to leap in a dangerous situation without him by your side."

It was the mention of Haku that had stayed his hand and cooled his temper down enough so he could at least think rationally. Once he was in that mind frame, an annoying little voice in the back of his head pointed out rather gleefully that, if Zabuza faced Orochimaru, he would most likely be flattened by the sanin.

"Orochimaru's on borrowed time." he said in the silence that followed. And he meant it too.

"In more ways than one." Zabuza looked at the newcomer, blinking at the anger he could faintly hear in her voice. Anko leaned against the doorway. "Look, Zabuza, if you need anyone to help you.. you know.." She refused to meet his gaze. "I was that bastard's student, a long time ago. He acted normal enough, and we trusted him too. And then he asked if we'd help with his training. Respecting and in awe of him, we naturally said yes."

"What was he training for?" Shizune asked. Tsunade never told her about Orochimaru, only mentioning that he was an ass before forbidding her to talk about it.

Anko laughed bitterly. "We thought he was training to take the position of Yondaime. But then we learned that the cute blond kid that his team mate had been training was chosen. By then it was too late." She grabbed the collar of her shirt and bared her shoulder. A dormant curse seal marred the pale skin. "My team mates died because of this thing while I survived. And Orochimaru wrote it off as a accident during a mission. He never once.." she trailed off, looking tormented. She shook her head, rearranging her shirt back to normal. "He never once regretted killing the boys who had idolized him."

There were years and years of suppressed anger and guilt that Zabuza could see in her eyes in that split second. And then it was hidden behind a weak smile. "Hokage-sama gave me the same order, Zabuza." she said quietly. "I know you want to disobey it, but hear me out: one day, he will make a mistake. And when he does.. who better to defeat him than the people he has stepped on and scorned?"

* * *

"_Them?_ Why are we helping-"

"Shut up and do it!"

He couldn't see why they were helping the other team, but Naruto would not be swayed. Stupid heroic idiot, couldn't he see that they could take care of themselves?

Sasuke looked at Team Gai closely for the first time. They were not in the best of shapes, especially for the team that was supposed to be the strongest of all of the leaf entrants. Hn. Maybe the idiot was right.

Still, it was with a wary gaze that he stood next to Neji. The Hyuuga looked back at him, a little bit of blood smeared on the corner of his mouth, his pale eyes just daring for Sasuke to say something negative.

Tenten wasn't as suspicious or ungrateful to the unexpected help from the younger team. She smiled at Sakura as the girl healed the wound in her leg, then both kunoichis stood to face Kin. Lee didn't even notice.

"Hmph, more pesky leaf brats." Zaku snorted. "What a rag tag team of comrades."

"Don't be jealous of what you can't have." Naruto said smugly. "Besides, it's nothing personal, we just are helping the better looking team." Lee seemed to just notice the boy next to him.

"Naruto-kun." he said, catching said blond's attention. "Stay away from my enemy. You could get hurt."

"It's not the time or place for your pride to get in the way of your common sense, Lee." Naruto replied, missing Lee's true reason why he wanted him to stay away from Dosu.  
Lee shook his head, his eyes wide. "No, that's not it-"

"I'm sick of this." Zaku announced loudly. "I'll take all of them out in one hit. _Zankuukyokuha_!" The leaf genins scrambled to get out of the way of his attack. Tenten and Sakura managed to dodge far enough to the right to get out of the jutsu's range, but Lee, Naruto, Neji, and Sasuke were right in the middle.

"Get behind me, everyone!" Naruto yelled, his voice almost lost in the wind. The jutsu hit, scattering bushes and trees like flies. The high speed winds ripped through the forest, not stopping until the sound nin curled his palms closed.

"No.." Sakura whispered, looking over at the place she knew that her team mates had been. There was a fretfully empty spot, free of any shrubbery or life. She feared what little left of her friends she would find if she walked over there. "That's.. j-just not possible.." Tenten couldn't agree more.

Neji and Lee were too strong. Naruto was too stubborn and Sasuke was too much of an ass. A simple genin from nowhere couldn't defeat them, not by a long shot.

It was her blind optimism and her faith in her team and her peers that made her stand, pull a katana out of nowhere, and continue to fight her enemies.

* * *

Yeah.. had to stop somewhere. It just kept going on and on.. : ) I wrote much of this in sections and I'm pretty sure every thing's in chronological order, but just in case you were confused, it's only day three. 

Zankuukyokuha- 'Maximum Air Cutter' or 'Ultimate Air Slicing Blast', depends on the translator. It's a bit stronger than Zaku's Zankuuha(just 'Air Slicing Blast') and does quite a bit of damage. I'm thinking more about the anime version of the Chuunin Exam than the manga version, so I'm not quite sure if it's right but.. oh well.

FFnet doesn't like formatting nicely for me so if my chapter was.. screwy, that's why.

My beloved Glimpses Into The Future!  
_He couldn't believe, after all of the crap they went through during the Chuunin survival exam, they had to have preliminaries! Only seven teams made it there, why did they still feel the need to sift through them to sort out the 'bad' ninjas?  
His annoyance had more to do with the fact that he was very well aware that his team was easily the weakest team in the room than anything else. They walked to the room where the preliminaries were supposed to take place, climbed up a few steps and stood on either balcony on the sides of the room.  
Some machine was then supposed to take in all of their names, throw it in some mechanical hat, then choose two random names. Really, was the machine necessary? Shikamaru found himself envying Kabuto, and wishing he had taken the easy way out too.  
"The first match of the preliminaries-" The examiner paused to cough in his hand. "Is between Uzumaki Naruto and Akado Yoroi!" Shikamaru didn't even need to look over at Naruto to know that he was doing a victory dance.  
"Yes! First to fight!" he cried, jumping right off the balcony and into the ring.  
"More like first to fall." Yoroi murmured darkly to himself. "No one can stand up to my blood limit!" _

TBC


	39. The Start of the Preliminaries

Yes, I do like making a lot a random stuff up at the top of my head. It's fun, but usually ends up confusing you all to death. My logic is strange, I know but bear with me. And once again, there's probably some editing issues, since FFnet doesn't like me at all.

Okay, roll back time a little bit. Naruto and the other boys are about to become mincemeat, now in their point of view.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Thirty-nine: The Start of the Preliminaries

by Foxie

* * *

The howling winds of the razor sharp attack almost drowned out his voice. "Get behind me, everyone!" Naruto yelled, making quick hand seals. Sasuke, Neji, and Lee stared at his back. "Doton Doryuuheki!" His cry was lost to their ears, but they saw him spew mud out of his mouth, mud that formed a solid wall of earth between Zaku and them.

"That was great, Naruto-kun!" Lee shouted, punching a fist in the air. The other two were of similar opinion until the fox host alerted them of the immediate danger.

Naruto turned back, looking incredibly sheepish. He rubbed the back of his head, flinching as he met their questioning stares. "Um.." he blushed. "I didn't do that right." Neji's eyes widened, realizing the younger genin's error.

Cracks started to form in the wall as the winds pushed harshly against it. "Oh shit.." Sasuke said, cursing Naruto. "Run!" And run they did, just barely making it out of the range of Zaku's jutsu before the mud wall finally fell. They leapt behind some bushes, expecting Zaku to throw another attack. At the same time, Zaku closed his palms, ending his jutsu. He was not aware that they had escaped, or that Naruto had been able to block his attack for five seconds.

Crouching behind some bushes, they peered at the sound trio. Or at least, Naruto did. Sasuke smacked the blond in the back of the head, muttering insults underneath his breath. With practiced ease, they nearly silently bickered, a talent forged after one too many times of being doused with cold water by their sensei after a loud argument.

"What did he do wrong?" Lee asked Neji quietly. The barrier was fine, it was even great! For a moment, the old bitterness came back with a vengeance. _How much more stronger could I have been with the ability to use chakra? _Then the answer came to him, in a loud voice that sounded like Gai. _Weaker! From that disability came a new strength!_ That made sense. If Lee could use chakra, then he wouldn't have met Gai. If he hadn't met Gai, he would have never gotten as good as he was in taijutsu. If he wasn't good in taijutsu, he would have never been known as one of the strongest leaf genins. It was strange and disconcerting that such small and insignificant events could end up changing everything.

The Hyuuga had his eyes on the sound trio and the progress of his other team mate who was rapidly approaching the three. He started to stand. "He gathered chakra wrong." he said shortly. "The jutsu imploded." Lee wasn't quite sure what that meant.

Tenten dodged an air technique from Zaku easily, ducked under Dosu's swing, and kicked Kin in the stomach. Smirking, she twisted around the gasping girl and smashed the hilt of her katana on the back of her head. The sound nin went down. _They aren't strong at all!_ She thought, her heart pounding heavily in her ears. _Their bizarre fighting techniques, like that weird metal thing that made Lee sick and those things in that guy's palms.. we weren't expecting those._ Zaku angrily sent a air slicing attack her way without any regard to his own team mate. Tenten kicked the girl out of the way and dodged in the opposite direction. _So this is the power of those who hide in the sound.. _She smirked.

Sakura unsteadily stood. She felt so insignificant, so useless. Here she was, turning into a frightened little girl because she no longer had her team, her _protectors_ really, while Tenten kept fighting.

"Okay." Naruto clapped his hands suddenly, turning to the other three. "We need to get past the metal thingy on that mummy's arm." He grinned at Lee and Neji for a moment before turning serious. "Tenten is kicking major ass, but the second she gets hit by whatever that thing is sending out, she _will_ go down."

"I believe it sends out sound waves." Lee said with a frown. "I really couldn't hear anything but my ears started to bleed."

Sasuke sharply nodded, eyes trying to find his other team mate. He frowned when he realized that he couldn't see her. "You must have caught the vibration though. The frequency must be something we can't hear, but is potentially dangerous to our bodies." He looked over at the trio. Tenten easily dodged attacks thrown her way, but to his surprise, he recognized that the last two sound nin were attempting to put her in between them so they could attack without a chance of her escaping. "We need to hurry." he added quickly.

In a rare show of a temper, Neji hit the trunk of the tree with his fist, his teeth clenched in suppressed anger. "We have no time!" he snapped. "We simply have to dodge it." Too late, Tenten was already trapped between the two.

In front of her, Dosu hiked back his sleeve, baring the metal device. Behind her, Zaku prepared his attack. The genin in the bushes immediately jumped up and started to run over. "Zankuu-" Zaku started, the winds picking up around him.

"Katon Karyuu Endan!" Someone bellowed. A fiery dragon emerged from off to the side, roaring angrily as it turn fathomless eyes on Zaku. Startled, the sound nin jumped out of formation, unsuccessfully dodging the dragon. He hadn't expected for it to follow him.

Tenten was able to dodge backwards and out of the range of Dosu's attack. She panted heavily, happily registering the movements of her team mates behind the sound nin. Her eyes darted to the left just in time to see Zaku getting smashed into the tree by the dragon. He threw up chakra in his defense, not having enough time to blow the fire out with his jutsu. It was the only thing that saved him from being burned to death, the dragon throwing itself against the weak barrier of chakra before burning out. Burnt and sore, the sound nin stumbled before landing on his knees next to his female team mate's body. Naruto and Sasuke came out of nowhere and stood over them, but did nothing. Zaku had fallen unconscious in that semi erect position, and there was no point fighting an unconscious person.  
_  
Great job, Sakura! _Tenten thought approvingly.

That very kunoichi collapsed against a tree, weak kneed and wiped out. _How in the world can they do that and still be able to stand afterward? _She thought to herself, having a new respect for Naruto and Sasuke's inborn abilities. Her dragon hadn't been nearly as powerful as theirs. _Note to self: only use that in dire circumstances. _She slid down the length of the tree until she touched the ground. _And get some more training while I'm at it._

Dosu noticed the presence of ninjas behind him and immediately turned around to defend against the dual attacks of jyuuken and taijutsu. One arm went numb while the other vibrated harshly through the metal when the attacks hit. _One last try!_ He thought, swinging his arm towards Lee.

Lee was harshly shoved out of the way to land sprawled on the ground. He immediately rolled onto his back, confused eyes searching for whoever pushed him.

The faint shrieking whistle met Naruto's ears before the deadly waves reached his ear drums. Something exploded, making him cringe in pain before everything was blissfully numb. He nearly sighed in relief, recognizing the feel of warmth through his veins. _Thanks, Kyuubi._ Still slightly dizzy and very woozy, he tripped over his own feet and fell next to the taijutsu specialist.

Dosu wasn't prepared for the chakra charged foot of the Uchiha that came out of nowhere and smashed against his arm. But what he did notice, with nervous gulp, was not only did the attack hurt, but the metal cracked under the pressure of the attack. He jumped back, landing next to Kin and Zaku's bodies. He picked them up, the girl under his arm and the boy slung over his shoulder.

"We forfeit this fight, but we will meet again, leaf ninjas!" And then the trio was gone.

Neji and Sasuke tried to see where the three had gone but they had left too fast. "Anti climatic, huh?" Naruto commented lightly. He calmly massaged the sides of his head, seemingly ignoring Lee's fussing over him. He was aware of the absolute silence and the twin trails of blood coming out of his ears, and could think of a few good reasons why they were there. He patiently waited for his eardrums to reconstruct, twitching in annoyance when Kyuubi informed him that it was a delicate process that needed some time.

"We didn't need your help." Neji informed Sasuke after a while. The Uchiha sneered.

"When? Was it when your team mate screamed and alerted us, or when you two were fighting off those guys and couldn't injure them?" he asked smugly. Neji glared.

"Both." he said firmly.

Tenten and Sakura made their way over, the older of the two helping the other stand. "Our only disadvantage was that they surprised us with their techniques." Tenten insisted, taking Neji's side.

"A moment's surprise can cost a life." Sasuke said indifferently, dropping the subject. His eyes fell on his team mate. He smirked. "Practicing, have you?" Sakura blushed.

"Um.." Everyone looked off to the right and at the taijutsu specialist. Lee was still kneeling by Naruto. "There's something wrong with him." the taijutsu specialist said with worried eyes. His hand was on Naruto's shoulders. The blond was staring at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, throwing his entire face in shadow.

Frowning, Sasuke dropped to his knees in front of Naruto. The other boy looked up, blue eyes fully alert. Naruto blinked, confused at the sudden scrutiny. "What's wrong with him, besides his obvious mental problems." Naruto scowled.

"My mental problems are about as bad as yours." he insisted. His eyes had darted to Sasuke's lips. It was then when Sasuke realized what was wrong.

He reached forward, touching his team mate's bloody ears. "You can't hear anything." he stated. "Your eardrums must have burst."

Naruto twitched. "Thanks for pointing that out, Mr. Obvious."

Sasuke ignored that barb. "I didn't know you could read lips though." Naruto only grinned.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me." he said gleefully. And Sasuke couldn't help but agree.

* * *

"So.. what were you chasing after?" Temari questioned carefully. They had made it to the tower in the morning of the third day, somewhat delayed by Gaara's sudden romp in the woods. They had been told by the chuunin that the scrolls had summoned that they could rest in the tower in their designated rooms until the five day period was up. And they still didn't know why Gaara had just ditched them like that. 

There were two other teams in the tower, both leaf teams. One was made of a girl with white eyes, a boy with a dog on his head, and a reclusive guy with glasses. Temari recognized them, and they recognized her, but besides a few tense stares, there had been no major confrontations.

The other was what she liked to call the glasses trio. The leader, a chatty know-it-all wore common glasses while the other two wore sunglasses. Temari had seen the leader talking with Baki once, but she didn't recognize the other two.

The only source of entertainment in the tower was watching the leader, who she learned was called Kabuto, pacing back and forth in a nervous manner. But even that lost its appeal and she was back thinking about what Gaara had been doing in the space of time he had been separated from them in the forest.

After an hour's worth of talking and debating with Kankurou, Temari eventually screwed up the nerve to ask Gaara. He wasn't answering.

"Or.. who, maybe." she added almost to herself. Gaara's eyes shifted to her and she froze. Kankurou stiffened behind her, where he stood as her moral support.

"I was chasing after shadows." Gaara finally said, his eyes returning to the wall he had been previously staring at. "Now shut up before I kill you."

More than willing to comply, the two ran out of the room, glad to still have their lives in their possession. Not for the last time, Temari thought it was sad to be so fearful of a sibling.

* * *

They left as a group and entered the tower with each other. Luckily, neither team had lost any of their scrolls during the fight with the sound nins. With Naruto's prompting, they opened the scrolls and tossed them out on the ground. Two people were summoned, as Team Seven and Team Gai decided to do it at the same time.

"Hello!" Iruka said with a smile.

"Yo." Kakashi said distractedly, his nose buried into a book. Blinking, the chuunin and the jonin looked at each other, surprised to see the other. "Hm."

"Iruka-sensei! Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura greeted. The two men looked back at the genins assembled in front of them.

"Hello Sakura." they said in unison, still slightly dazed.

"Is there a reason why all of you are summoning at the same time?" Iruka had to ask. He wouldn't have expected an older genin team and a rookie team to group up. It wasn't against the rules but still.. every man for himself.

"Unorthodox." Kakashi said approvingly. "But potentially dangerous." He gestured a hand at the scrolls. "What if these scrolls had been spelled specifically to only summon Iruka? You all throwing your scrolls down would have a deadly effect on him."

"How so?" Sasuke asked. Kakashi shrugged.

"Well, one of you would get his torso while the other group could get his bottom half." he said casually. They grimaced while Iruka threw a glare over in Kakashi's direction. _Why did he have to use me as an example? _He thought, a vein throbbing in his temple.

Naruto raised his hand. Arching an eyebrow, Kakashi gestured for him to speak. "Any chance of you repeating what you said with your mask down?" Blinking, Kakashi tilted his head. "Ugh, didn't think so." Luckily, Tenten filled him in, speaking slowly and pronouncing carefully so he'd get every word. Once he had gotten all of the information, he grimaced.

"Kakashi-sensei!" he complained loudly, turning his eyes back towards the jonin. "Summoning doesn't work like that!" He flailed for a moment before calming down. "If ya got two summoners that are summoning one being, one of two things is gonna happen. The first thing is that one of the summoners will get what they ordered while the other will get something he didn't. The other possibility is that both summonings will end up becoming null and void, producing no summons at all." He grinned happily while everyone else stared at him.

"Um, confused?" Sakura blinked, staring at the back of Naruto's head.

"Totally." Tenten said calmly. "I don't summon live beings, I summon weapons. I don't think it works the same way."

The jonin took a step forward, looking carefully at Naruto. "And you are sure you're my subordinate? Uzumaki Naruto?" Kakashi questioned bewilderedly. He tapped the blond's forehead protector with the corner of his book. Naruto blinked, only seeing blue fabric move, and turned to Tenten.

"He's questioning your identity." she said simply.

"Bastard!" Naruto declared, waving his fist. "I am the one and only Uzumaki Naruto, future Rokudaime and winner of the Chuunin Exam!" Sasuke and Neji rolled their eyes, while Lee grinned.

_Such confidence!_ He thought to himself. _I too shall try to win the exam!_ He paused for a moment, briefly stumped. _How does one win a test? _  
_  
Typical Naruto._ Sakura thought fondly. _Always such a loud mouth, making unnecessary enemies with his careless words._

* * *

In the confines of their assigned room, Hinata fiddled with the hem of her sweater, biting her lip so hard that it was a surprise that there wasn't blood present. There was heat behind her eyes, warning her of the tears that wanted to appear. She stubbornly pushed it aside.

Why should she even care? It wasn't like she even knew that blond girl. Her opinion didn't have any weight, right? Besides, if _Naruto_ didn't think she was weak.. That line of thought didn't help much, she realized. She couldn't tell what the blond was thinking, nor would he willingly tell her.

"You're thinking about it again, aren't you." Kiba stated, one eye open and looking at her. He was sitting against the wall, one knee up while his other leg stretched out. Shino, from his own claimed corner, looked up from the drawing he had been idly doodling in the dust. She was the only one sitting on one of the three futons, besides Akamaru who was napping on Kiba's.

As Shino had predicted, they hadn't been able to go to sleep for the last few days, leaving them with nothing to do but play endless games of poker and I Spy, along with an occasional game of tic tac toe.

"..No." Hinata answered quietly, wincing as the little lie slipped out of her mouth.

Shino snorted. "Hmph. You're a horrible liar." he challenged directly. She met his gaze, then turned her eyes away.

"I know." she agreed passively, pulling her knees to her chest.

Kiba let out an irritated sigh. "Look, she doesn't know you. How would she know how strong you are? Besides, it's not like _they _were the first ones here, _we_ were!"

Just the day before, Hinata and Akamaru had been wandering the halls of the tower when she had turned the corner and ran right into another girl, one that she vaguely recognized. Hinata immediately apologized, even though the girl didn't seemed fazed.

"Out of my way, weakling." the sand nin had said coldly, brushing by a shocked Hinata. Somehow, hearing that hurtful opinion from a stranger cut deeper than hearing it from someone she knew. Akamaru, sensing her distress, ran off to find his master when she had collapsed where she stood.

When Kiba got there, Hinata had been staring blankly at the wall. At his gentle prodding, he had gotten the whole story in an equally blank tone. All he could do to help her was to sling an arm around her shoulder and guide her back to their room. Since then, Hinata had rarely spoken, hardly ate, and kept staring off into the distance where, in the confines of her mind, that girl glared at her so hatefully.

Hinata only mumbled an incoherent reply, once again off in her dream world. Shino and Kiba exchanged looks. Shino nodded his head in Hinata's direction, then arched his eyebrow. Kiba looked at Hinata with a frown, then shrugged, nodding once to Shino.

They both stood, walked over to her, each grabbing one of her arms, and started walking out of the room. Akamaru awoke at Hinata's half hearted protests and ran after their heels.

"You guys.." she said, trying to extricate herself. They kept leading her through the corridors of the tower, a goal in mind.

"You know, we spoke to Neji, your bastard of a cousin." Kiba said casually.

"He and his team made it here just this morning." Shino added.

"And, from him, we got some pretty interesting information." Kiba said with a firm nod. "About something that, right now, is the only thing that could help you."

"I d-don't need anything!" she tried to insist.

"If we couldn't help you, we'd feel horrible." Shino said truthfully, ignoring her protest. "You are a trusted comrade and friend, and we'd hate for you to be sad. So this is the only way we know how to help you." They were coming close to a door.

"And if he hurts you even more, I swear I'll kick his ass." Kiba declared, grabbing the knob and opening the door. The two genins pushed their kunoichi into the room, then promptly closed it behind her. To her surprise, she heard the tell tale screech of metal as the knob was twisted off, preventing any escape. She stiffened when she realized she wasn't the only one in the room.

"Um.. hello?"

* * *

To all of their surprise, Team Ten showed up that evening, all bereft of any heavy injuries but very hungry for the massive quantities of food stored in the tower. The sound trio had shown up on the forth morning, bringing the total to seven teams; the Rookie Nine, Team Gai, the sand trio, the sound trio, and Kabuto's band of merry glasses wearing men.

Only twenty teams had made it past the first test, and Anko had planned to cut that down into half, so she only handed out ten earth scrolls and ten heaven scrolls. The passing teams waited for three more to come, but by the time the five day period was over, there still were only seven teams.

Hinata was in a much better mood, her team mates observed. _I guess locking her in the room with Naruto did it._ Kiba thought with a shrug. He had no idea what the two genins had talked about in the three hour time period they had alone before Sasuke lost his temper and kicked the door down, but when they emerged, Hinata was smiling again and Naruto had lost that faintly haunted look in his eyes that he had been hiding with a poor attempt of a smile.

Kiba had noticed that Naruto smelled faintly of blood and rain, and it wasn't his blood, nor had it rained. The dog user had a pretty good idea what had happened in the forest to put such a guilt stricken look in Naruto's eyes.

All seven teams had lined up. To their surprise, after getting all the way through the survival exam, Kabuto raised his hand and announced that he would like to forfeit. Despite that turn of events, the rest of the genins had to go through a preliminary round before going on to the next test, a one-on-one battle between the few that would make it to the final exam.

Shikamaru, though forewarned, was one of the many people to grind their teeth in annoyance. He couldn't believe, after all of the crap they went through during the Chuunin survival exam, they had to have preliminaries! Only seven teams made it there, why did they still feel the need to sift through them to sort out the 'bad' ninjas?

His annoyance had more to do with the fact that he was very well aware that his team was easily the weakest team in the room than anything else. They walked to the room where the preliminaries were supposed to take place, climbed up a few steps and stood on either balcony on the sides of the room.

Shikamaru saw Naruto peer at the small collection of officials watching the preliminaries, including but not limited to the Hokage, several chuunins from the leaf, jonins from the leaf and other villages, Ibiki, and a very surly looking Anko. Naruto suddenly waved excitedly at them, yelling a greeting across the room. An old man with two red stripes on his face and a younger woman with dark blond hair and a diamond shaped mark on her forehead waved back. They both stood next to the Hokage protectively.

After briefly puzzling over their identities, Shikamaru turned back to the preliminaries, frowning slightly as he watched their names being shuffled.

Some machine was supposed to take in all of their names, throw it in some mechanical hat, then choose two random names. Really, was the machine necessary? A normal hat would have done the job and, as a bonus, wouldn't have had to use up electricity.

Shikamaru found himself envying Kabuto, and wishing he had taken the easy way out too. But he questioned Kabuto's motive for leaving. Somehow his 'This is getting too scary for me' just didn't cut it, especially since the ninja didn't look particularly willing to leave. _If Naruto is right, then what nefarious actions is that guy plotting?_

"The first match of the preliminaries-" The examiner paused to cough in his hand. "Is between Uzumaki Naruto and Akado Yoroi!" Shikamaru didn't even need to look over at Naruto to know that he was doing a victory dance.

"Yes! First to fight!" he cried, jumping right off the balcony and into the ring. "Everyone, watch in awe as I kick major ass!"

"Smart ass.." Tsunade muttered fondly. Somehow, Naruto heard her, and he childishly stuck his tongue out at the sanin.

"More like first to fall." Yoroi murmured darkly to himself. "No one can stand up to my blood limit!" He leisurely walked down the stairs, took his sweet time walking over to the ring, and stood across from Naruto. If the blond hadn't been so occupied with matching his face with a name, he would have been furious.

"Hm." Naruto tapped his chin in thought. "I know you from somewhere.." he snapped his fingers suddenly. "Oh right! You're the sucky guy! The one who goes-" he made a strange hand gesture, his fingers shaped in a 'C', and his hand darting down like an eagle swooping low to get his prey. "and then goes-" his hand started shaking, a very faint blue glow around it, "and then you go 'ahh!' and 'ooh!" because someone goes-" with only his pointer and his middle fingers extended, his two hands crossed over one another, one on top and the other one bottom, "and then-" the one on bottom switched to the top and hit the other one. Naruto made some sound effects of something hitting the ground hard. "And yeah." Yoroi only stared at him.  
**  
I think I speak for everyone in this room when I say 'What the fuck'?** Naruto pouted.  
_  
What, you didn't like my hand simulation? _He nodded to himself. _Next time, I'll bring the hand puppets._  
**  
That wasn't the point!**_  
_  
"Um." Hayate stepped forward. "Anyway, are you both ready to-" he coughed. "Begin?"

Yoroi nodded. "Yup!" Naruto said, grinning at the sickly jonin.

"Alright then. Begin!" Yoroi powered up his hand, a glow surrounding it like a blue flame. Naruto winced. The feel of the parasitic energy was already trying to pull at his chakra, even from that far away.  
_  
Damn that's pretty powerful._ He grudgingly admitted. _But it still ain't gonna work._ "Hey hey!" Naruto called out, waving his hands to get the leaf nin's attention. He pointed at the glowing hand. "Look, that isn't gonna work on me. Put it out and use a different strategy, or this fight is gonna end real quick."

"What does he mean by that?" Sakura hissed in Sasuke's ear. He shrugged.

"I think he's being arrogant." Sasuke muttered, bracing his hands against the railing.

"Actually, he's not." They looked over their shoulders, surprised to see their teacher leaning against the wall behind them. "He's being unusually forthcoming with his advantages in battle." He sighed, tucking his book back in his vest. "It's probably because he's itching for a fight and doesn't want for it to end too quickly."

"I don't understand, what is his advantage?" Sakura asked curiously.

Back down in the ring, Naruto stretched out his arms. Yoroi was hesitant to use his ability. "What do you mean 'it's not going to work'? This is an ultimate technique!" he said, proud of the Akado blood line. "Not only does it suck out chakra, but also stamina and strength! You're just bluffing!"

Naruto sighed, bringing his hands down to his sides. "Alright, I'll make a deal with you. I'll allow you to do your sucky thing, just to show you why it isn't gonna work. But you must promise me: When you start to feel the ineffectiveness of your jutsu, you must stop immediately. Okay?"

"He's an idiot!" Shikamaru could only agree with Ino's outburst. "That guy practically tells him how he's gonna win, and the fool is gonna let him do it!"

"Hmph." Gaara crossed his arms over his chest. Temari and Kankurou backed away from him, feeling his annoyance.

"Naruto-kun has a plan.. right?" Lee whispered to Tenten. "I mean.. he may act stupid, but you don't think.. he really.. _is, _right?"

"Naruto, despite the random ways he jumps into battles, is very cautious." Neji inserted. "He has an advantage." His eyes narrowed. "But I can't figure out what this advantage is."

"He'd better have a plan or I'm gonna kick his ass for being so careless." Kiba growled. Hinata took in Naruto's casual stance and the cautiously approaching leaf nin. She didn't know what had possessed him to stay so still, but she believed in him. _You can do it, Naruto-kun!_

Shino pushed his sliding sun glasses back up his nose. _Youki is still energy, Naruto, even though it is potentially dangerous to humans. He can still draw that out._

Naruto didn't make a move, even when Yoroi's hand rested on his head, but he did make a few comments, such as different areas where energy could be sucked out easier. "And remember." Naruto added with a scowl, "Pull away when you feel something is wrong." Internally, he rearranged the order of his chakra so the most human of the energies was at the top and the demonic energies was at the bottom, pushed as far as he dared to push them behind either one of his seals. Kyuubi only rolled his eyes.

Yoroi grinned savagely. He could feel the chakra from his opponent rushing through his veins. Soon, the fool would be drained of chakra, strength, and stamina, and would be easily defeated.

Naruto yawned, idly counting the tiles on the ground. "Are you done yet?" Yoroi was only skimming off the top of his energy. For a moment, he started to feel a little woozy, but then the world righted itself again. His brief period of dizziness repeated itself every two minutes.

Yoroi gritted his teeth, increasing his chakra absorbency. _What the hell is with this kid! _

"The only one being arrogant, Sasuke, is Naruto's opponent." Kakashi said quietly, watching as Yoroi pushed himself away from Naruto with a jolt and started to sway slightly. Naruto's eyes, vaguely glazed, sharpened up once more.

"Um.. examiner person!" Naruto watched the other genin with worried eyes as he waved his arm to catch the examiner's attention. "I think we need a medic nin." He winced, feeling sympathy for Yoroi. "Chakra overload." Hayate nodded, signaling for a medic nin.

"Akado Yoroi is unable to fight." he announced. "Uzumaki Naruto wins the battle." With a heavy sigh and a grumble, Naruto started to make his way to the balcony stairs, annoyed that Yoroi hadn't listened. He was halted by a medic nin who wanted to look him over. They argued, one stubbornly wanting to give treatment while the other just as stubbornly insisted there was nothing wrong with him. The medic nin firmly grabbed his upper arm and pulled him towards the infirmary, Naruto flailing the entire way.

"What the hell!" Kiba cried. "How did he do that?"

"It wasn't his choice." Kurenai said with a smile. "It's how he is."

"What do you mean?" Ino asked, edging over to the other group. Asuma hadn't given up any information. Sasuke and Sakura glanced over at the red eyed jonin. Team Gai, though pretending to ignore the conversation, listened closely.

"Well.." she paused, trying to think of a way to word it.

"It's like.." Asuma inserted, halting to a stop when he couldn't find a good explanation. In unison, all three jonins 'hm'ed, deep in their own thoughts.

"Naruto works differently than we do." Kakashi finally said. "Sakura, you're the brightest girl of your year. Tell us how chakra moves throughout the body."

"Um.." the kunoichi couldn't see how that had any relevance to their conversation. "Chakra moves along the inner coils of the body and the flow can be effected by the certain points, um, tenketsu, I think they're called, along these coils. The Hyuuga clan takes advantage of this, right?" she turned to Hinata, who nodded.

"Yes, that is true." Kakashi said with a nod. "The Akado clan takes advantage of the flow of chakra within a body as well. There is a certain amount that runs through our bodies all the time, and whenever that amount is increased or decreased unnaturally, one can get sick or tired very easily." He shrugged, aware that one needed to see it happening in order for it to make sense. "To keep the balance between too much chakra and too little chakra, everyone has chakra reserves, where chakra is stored until it is needed. That is why, after one uses an exhausting technique, they can usually sit down and rest for a few moments before they start to feel better, or until the balance is restored."

"If the chakra that runs through your body decreases to zero, you pass out and the chakra in your chakra reserves goes and tries to return the balance. If that chakra, and the chakra that is in your reserves is depleted, you die. Either way, we call that chakra depletion." Asuma added in. Shino frowned. All of this information was familiar, he was sure that they studied it in the Academy.

"When your chakra increases unnaturally, you can't just shove the extra chakra in your reserves because they're already full. The only way to can get this chakra to leave before it makes you into a walking time bomb is to use it." Kurenai slapped a very stern stare on her students. "That is why, when under the effects of a solider pill, you must use all of your energy until the effect fades." They had the grace to look guilty.

"But, back to chakra depletion-" Kakashi was interrupted by Hayate addressing everyone.

"Next round is between.. Kin of the Sound and Gaara of the Sand!" They all quietly watched the two walk down the stairs and into the ring. Kin looked nervous but Gaara was as blank and daunting as a white piece of paper to a writer or an artist.

"Chakra stamina and endurance has nearly nothing to do with the amount of chakra you have in your reserves or flowing through your body." Kakashi said quietly. "It has everything to do with how fast your reserves can replenish the chakra flowing through your body when you use it."

"And Naruto.." Gai inserted, surprising his team into showing that they were listening. "He has an unusually high amount of chakra, both in his body and in the reserves, but what makes him most formidable is the fact that it only takes a moment for him to drag chakra up to replenish what he has already used. Akado was fighting a losing battle. It was the worst possible match up."

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, that's right."

The battle between the sound kunoichi and the sand nin was short and brutal. Hayate was barely able to jump in before Gaara made the finishing blow. Kin was carried away in a stretcher stained red with her blood. The Rookie Nine flinched at the sight while Lee, Tenten, and Neji only looked on grimly.  
_  
He holds no affection for allies._ Zaku thought to himself with a frown. He really didn't care what happened to any of his team mates but allies were allies because they were needed by Orochimaru. Thinking about the sound leader, he looked at the small collection of high officials and ninjas standing near the Hokage. His frown deepened when he realized that Orochimaru wasn't there. _What happened to him? _

Naruto walked back in the room, a raving medic nin on his heels. He had a grin on his face, one that faded in light of the bloodied stretcher. He turned serious eyes on Gaara, who ignored him in favor of walking back up the stairs. Sighing, he did the same, stopping when he reached his team.

"Yo." he said, shrugging a shoulder at them in greeting. He blinked when he realized that most of the leaf nins on that balcony were staring at him. Naruto spun around in attempt to look at his back, ran his hands though his hair, and patted himself down. "What, no 'kick me' signs, gum in my hair, or attach-on stink bombs?" He sounded mildly disappointed, for reasons they could not fathom. "Just why the hell are you all looking at me then?"

Naruto's less than eloquent words had the desired effect on his peers. They shuffled and turned away, muttering things under their breath or scoffing to themselves. Hinata merely looked confused and edged over to Naruto. He smiled at her, ignoring the almost shrill voice of the medic nin arguing with Kakashi.

"Your student has refused medical help!" she said, obviously young, new to the job, and free of any hate against Naruto and Kyuubi because she didn't know about them and their situation. Kakashi only grinned, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Trust me. Naruto knows his own strength." he said calmly. "If he was in need of medical attention-" Kakashi frowned to himself, knowing that even if Naruto really needed it, he wouldn't have asked for help. Certainly, someone who was not used to being offered help would naturally be wary of asking for it, right? But she didn't need to know that. "He would go and receive it." _A little white lie never hurt anyone._

She relented, turning a stern gaze on Naruto. As if he could feel her gaze, he turned around, giving her the patented Uzumaki grin, so obviously fake that Kakashi winced. She didn't seem to notice. "Just let me check you over really quick." she said evenly. Naruto looked at her warily, then looked at Kakashi. Seeing no sign or reason to say no, he sighed heavily and walked forward.

She smiled triumphantly, holding out a glowing hand. "Now, just going to check your vitals, chakra flow.." Naruto yawned, meeting Hinata's eyes. Seeing that the medic nin's attention was averted, he started to mouth her words and mock her with silly expressions. Hinata giggled. Naruto was such a baby when it came to his own health.

The medic nin looked over him, then, deeming him fit to continue, left. Naruto stuck his tongue out at her retreating back, only to jump to the side with a yelp to dodge the kunai thrown at him for his offense. What was it with medic nins and their attitudes?

"Round three is between.. Uchiha Sasuke and Tenten!" Tenten winced. _Out of all the people I could have ended up going against, I didn't want to go up against Lee, Neji, Naruto, any of the sand freaks, or Sasuke._ She smiled sheepishly. _Guess beggars can't be choosers._

"Don't you have a last name, Tenten?" Naruto's innocent question gave her an outlet for her rising annoyance. "Ow!"

"Ah, that felt good." she murmured to herself, idly cracking her knuckles. She walked down the stairs. On the balcony, Naruto was being fussed over by Hinata, a large bump on his head where Tenten had nailed him for his curiosity.

"Yes, it's just so tempting to hit him when he starts acting stupid, isn't it?" Sasuke said quietly from behind her. She turned her head to nod at him, feeling the edge of her nervousness wear away.

Now silent, the Uchiha and the weapons specialist walked into the middle of the room and waited for Hayate to announce the beginning of their battle. The sickly jonin looked between the two serious genins. "Are you ready?" Tenten nodded, but Sasuke paused. Hesitantly, he stretched out his hand toward her, taking one step forward.

"To the best ninja." he said simply. With a sudden grin, Tenten took the offered hand and shook it.

"Yeah! And let's hope the other isn't going to need medical treatment." They smirked at each other, silently challenging.

"Alright!" Hayate said when he saw the two of them slide into fighting stances. Sasuke stood in a basic taijutsu stance, turned slightly to the side with one leg in front of the other. He kept most of his weight on his back leg, just in case in needed to do some quick dodging. Tenten stood slightly slumped over, her hands near her kunai pouches. She was leaning slightly forward, alerting Sasuke that when she attacked, she would attack fast and without warning, probably right after the examiner said to start. "Begin!"

Sasuke cursed his wonderful observational skills as several kunai immediately flew his way. He dodged all but one of them, the last of which that he couldn't was deflected by his arm guards, to his great surprise. He had forgotten that Naruto's present to him had metal in it.

With a frown, he activated his sharingan, startling Tenten when his eyes turned red. "Ah, you have one of those eye techniques too, huh?" she realized warily. Then smirked. "Well, then I guess it's the best time to find out the weaknesses of your eyes.."

She pulled out a scroll, then, with a cry, she unrolled it and tossed it into the air. Weapons appeared out of nowhere. Sasuke found himself dodging every type of bladed weapons he could think of, everything from typical kunai to sickles and scythes. His sharingan helped only slightly, letting him see where the weapons were going to go only a little faster than normal.

He winced when a sickle sliced the back of his thigh, but kept on moving, the sharp and raw pain of the wound reminding him bleakly that his sharingan wasn't as all seeing as the byakugan.

Finding a brief period of peace in the midst of flying weapons, Sasuke pivoted on his heel to face Tenten, making quick hand seals.

"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" A great ball of fire flew in her direction. She dodged quickly, letting her control over the weapons drop in her haste to move. The people on the opposite balcony of Sasuke's team(who he would have never aimed at) found themselves dodging as well as the ball of fire scorched the walls and the floor. It hit the wall, but didn't do much more than blacken the wallpaper.

Tenten stood, ignoring the damage, eyes searching for Sasuke's position. He was nowhere to be seen. _Where the heck did that guy go?_ She walked away from the wall, looking around for the Uchiha cautiously. _Not left, not right, not in front or behind either.. _

Humans rarely look up. Let's use that to our advantage. Oddly enough, it was Naruto's advice that had run through his head at the last moment. Like an overgrown bat, Sasuke silently dropped down from the ceiling, to which he had been attached to with a precise amount of chakra. It was only the sudden cry of her team mate that warned Tenten of his advance. He cursed Lee.

She threw up a defense, but his kick still landed, hitting the back of her skull. While he landed gracefully, she went flying forward, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. He turned around, half worried that he kicked a little too hard and killed her, the other half preparing for another attack.

* * *

The room was dark, lit up only by the two candles by his knees. Drawn all over the walls and the floor in blood were ancient seals of healing, meant to balance the life force and spiritual energy of a person and other such uses. Wiping the sweat off of his forehead, he realized with an annoyed grunt that he'd have to be the one to clean it off before any leaf ninja caught them.

His master sat in the largest of the circles, sitting up with his amputated limb in front of him. Blood pooled around him. Initially, Kabuto had been able to stop the bleeding by forcing a major blood clot to form, but he had to undo it to heal the limb. Personally, the medic nin didn't know why Orochimaru was so worried about his leg. The body wasn't his in the first place. He'd get a new one in a few months.

Instead of just waiting for a new body, he had Kabuto reconstructing a limb for him. _Three whole hours._ Kabuto's eyebrow twitched in irritation. _And he won't tell me just what in the world happened.  
_  
Orochimaru meditated quietly, seemingly ignorant of the blood pouring out of his leg. He felt the pain, certainly, but it was a mere echo of what a normal person could feel from such an injury. His soul was barely attached to the body, just enough so he could possess it and shove the other soul out, but not so much so that he was stuck in the body for good.

He felt cold and detached from everything around him, but then again, he had always been so. But the present feelings were on a whole different level.

Time did not matter. Mortals came and went. Even his clever pet Kabuto would die someday, either by his own hand when his right hand became worthless, or in a battle against his enemies. Orochimaru knew he was not immortal, but he was pretty close to it. The soul was immortal, but loose souls like his own were constantly harassed by the servants of the spirit world who were of the unanimous opinion that, since his body was long gone, he should be in spirit world instead of continuing his existence in the world of the living. These servants were promptly killed before they could exercise their force on him, and he continued on.

Souls like his own could also be sealed away or destroyed by a powerful force. But the soul was still _immortal_, technically, since it wasn't swayed by time. What he really needed was an immortal _body_, to shield his vulnerable soul from his enemies.

He had sought immortality so he could learn every jutsu in the world, and so he could prove to his old sensei that he had made a mistake when he had chosen that blond brat for Yondaime instead of him. And the first conquest he wanted to make with that immortality was the destruction and total annihilation of Konoha and all of its inhabitants.

Yet, now that he was closer to immortality than he had ever been before, his focus had shifted, putting survival in front of the desire to learn and destroy.

He hissed in surprise, watching as his limb regrew right before his eyes. _Tsunade would be so pissed off if she knew her research had been used to heal me. _He thought idly. The glow of chakra faded. He touched his calf and wiggled his toes, making sure everything worked.

"Good." he said, standing up smoothly. He put weight on his regenerated limb, noticing the lack of muscle tone. _Hm. That simply will not do. I'll have to fix that._ Orochimaru looked over at his right hand man, coldly observing the wiped out medic nin. "You will have to clean up and leave before anyone notices." With that order, he transformed into a ordinary looking jonin and walked out of the room.

Kabuto pushed himself to his feet, cursing underneath his breath.

* * *

Tenten swayed, then dropped to one knee. She felt dizzy and tired, but also unbelievably alive. Sasuke hadn't gone easier on her, hadn't pulled any punches, or treated her delicately because she was a girl. He was looking at her as an equal, and that was the only reason why she was still grinning.

"Haha.." she chuckled, getting back up. She stumbled, then straightened. "I like you, Sasuke! You sure know how to make a girl feel special."

Sasuke was confused. All he could see what that they had been trying to kick the crap out of each other in the last ten minutes, yet that made her happy? _A girl's logic is strange. _He was bleeding from multiple wounds and she was cut and bruised from his own attacks.

Tenten was having a hard time focusing on Sasuke. She feared that she had a concussion from that last attack, or some 'loose nuts and bolts' in her brain, as her father liked to call it. "Hm." She couldn't tell if there was one Sasuke, or one Sasuke and two bunshins. "I don't.. think I can continue." Her grin widened, first at Sasuke, then at Hayate. "I forfeit."

"What!" Lee bellowed, leaning over the railing. He sounded angry. Tenten blinked, having forgotten that they were being watched. "How can you back down, Tenten!"

"He's stronger than I am." she said honestly, looking up at his indignant face. "It is better to stop while I'm ahead before I end up needing to be hospitalized." Tenten shrugged. Neji nodded silently, agreeing with her logic. "I'm not a moron. I'm also not in the habit of pushing myself so hard that I always end up having one foot in the grave." Lee and Gai fumed.

"Wise choice." Hayate said, nodding to her. "This round goes to Uchiha Sasuke!"

They both walked back up the stairs. Tenten lightly hit Sasuke in the shoulder, purposely where the shirt gaped open and pale skin was smeared with blood. He winced. "Nice going, kiddo. Don't get your ass killed in the final exam or I'll tie you down and toss you into a mob of your rabid fan girls." Even Neji reacted negatively to that threat with a disgusted shudder.

"Ugh." Sasuke covered his face with one hand, then leaned against the railing as Tenten walked over to her team, one silent while the other two started to lecture about 'never giving up' and things of similar nature until Tenten started to threaten them about something involving their jumpsuits and a creative use of kunai. They went silent almost immediately.

The wound on his shoulder suddenly warmed. Sasuke took his hand away from his face, frowning lightly at Sakura. "You really shouldn't be doing that." he said blandly, not sure if he should be annoyed that she was using the energy she needed for her battle on him, or touched.

"I'll do what I want." she said stubbornly. "And what I want is for you not to be hurt." Kakashi smiled to himself, suddenly and almost painfully reminded of his own team mate.

The demon host smirked at Sasuke, elbowing him in the ribs, another place made sore by his inability to dodge certain items. "Besides, you need to be in tip top shape for your date with your rabid fan girls." Naruto sneered gleefully. "'Cause I'm gonna kick your stupid ass in the final exam!"

"You wish!" Sasuke countered fiercely. The two grinned at each other.

"The next battle is between.. Haruno Sakura and Inuzuka Kiba!" Hayate announced, coughing lightly. "Can you both come down here, please?"

"Told you." Sasuke leaned out of Sakura's range when she started to examine the cut on his cheek. She pouted. Naruto grabbed the back of her dress, and, in unison, the two genins pushed their team mate down the stairs.

"Don't let the mutt win, ya hear?" Naruto said encouragingly, squeezing her shoulder lightly before walking back up the stairs. Sakura felt a sudden onslaught of nervousness, realizing just _who_ she had to fight against. Did he really think she could beat Kiba? Smarts was what got her through the Academy, force was what got Kiba to pass. In a one-on-one battle, logic and strength conflicted with each other, only to get strength as the winner. Like a computer nerd and a body builder in an arm wrestling match.

**I am _so_ screwed.** Inner Sakura declared, her body flailing. She pulled a tombstone out of nowhere. **Maybe putting 'death by dog' is a little too much?**

"You don't have to win." Sasuke said firmly, glaring at Naruto's back. "Just make sure you fight to the best of your ability, alright?" Sakura, suddenly relieved with the knowledge that she wasn't expected to win, nodded with a calm she did not possess. Sasuke, with an unreadable look, gazed at her for a moment, then nodded and walked back up the stairs.

"Hurry up, slow poke!" Kiba yelled, having taken the easier route by jumping over the railing. With a scowl, she quickly walked over, facing Kiba, who, with a flash of fangs, grinned savagely at her.

"Are you ready?" Hayate asked of them. Sakura nodded determinedly. '_To the best of my ability' isn't going to be too impressive, Sasuke-kun._ She thought gloomily.

"You are _so _not ready." Kiba challenged. Sakura blinked in surprise. "You could never be ready to fight me. _Hello?_ Do you recognize me? Do you remember my scores, Miss Know-It-All? I got the second highest scores, after the pretty boy of course, in one-on-one battle. If I remember correctly, you had the second _lowest_, right above the dead last, Naruto, right?"

Naruto was the first to react. "Hey mutt boy!" he yelled, his loud voice echoing clearing in the ears of anyone who cared to listen. Jiraiya sighed and Tsunade rolled her eyes. Sarutobi only smiled. "Come say that to my face, and watch how I rip you a new one!"

"Oh brother." Kurenai sighed, covering her face with one hand. "I thought we broke him out of that habit." She looked over at Naruto, who angrily waved his fist at Kiba and had one leg slung over the railing. Hinata was holding onto his arm, no doubt worried that he was going to jump into the ring. "Calm yourself, Naruto. He has the habit of insulting his opponents right before a battle. I think it gets him into the mood to fight, but mostly what it ends up doing is pissing people off. You won't believe the insults he was hurling at _me _when we sparred for the first time." It was only her words that kept him from leaping over the railing and kicking Kiba's ass.

Sakura was confused and a little hurt. "You might as well well forfeit, forehead girl! You won't win!" he finished. Akamaru yipped as Kiba laughed uproariously. Her confusion and pain were fiercely shoved aside by raw anger.

**Just what the _fuck_ did he call me!** Inner Sakura bellowed, tossing the dreary tombstone to the side. She donned on a pair of boxing gloves and started bouncing from foot to foot. **I'm gonna get you, my pretty! And your little dog too!**

With a sudden yelp, Naruto was back on their side of the railing, backing up so far that his back was flush with the wall. Still, he kept trying to move back, convinced that, if he tried hard enough, he could meld with the wall. "Aw shit, he just had to make her pissed off!" He whimpered, having a mental image of Sakura, towering and imposing, enveloped in the fiery flames of her wrath, her eyes cold as she cracked her knuckles, chuckling evilly. He whimpered again, thinking of the aftermath of such a powerful temper. _Splat!_ His overactive imagination made Kyuubi snicker loudly.

"Aren't you overreacting?" Sasuke sighed, watching his team mate hide behind Hinata and peer fearfully over the Hyuuga's shoulder at the silent kunoichi in the ring.

Naruto's head whipped around. He glared at Sasuke. "Just what do you know?" he snapped. "You're always safe from her wrath! Take it from someone who knows. Messing with Sakura's temper is like messing with explosives: if you're fond of your life and you wanna keep it, you just don't do it!"

Sasuke opened his mouth to object, but Ino cut him off. "Actually, Sasuke-kun.. Naruto's right." she too had backed away from the railing. "I've known that girl for a long time."

"Give me one good example of her temper being so extreme to warrant your fear." Sasuke said stubbornly. Sure, he had seen her get mad, like everyone else. A little mad here and there, but nothing to be dramatic about. She usually got over it pretty quickly.

Ino had a good example, and many more as back ups if he continued to challenge her. "Five years old. Sakura was shy and timid about the size of her forehead and was constantly paranoid that someone was looking at it and making fun of her because it." she began ominously. "One boy commented on it, and in the next few moments, had a broken nose andwas blessed with unconsciousness." Sasuke tried to imagine Sakura as a five year old, and then tried to imagine her doing something like that. The images just didn't fit.

Shikamaru suddenly started backing away from the railing too, as did Chouji. "Shit, I _remember_ that!" he said, looking fearful. "That was me!" His hand passed over his face, trailing over the slight bump on his nose, the only reminder of that incident. He remembered his innocent question: _"Hey, why are you always hiding your forehead?_" _And then bam! One shot KO._ "That girl has one hell of a right hook when she's angry."  
_  
Probably why Shikamaru hates girls so much_. Asuma realized with a smirk. _A little boy gets decked by a little girl. Talk about traumatizing. _

Back in the ring, Sakura's eyes were blazing and her fists were clenched. Age had tempered her temper, making her different from the child who struck out at those who pointed out things she'd rather not think about. She said nothing, did nothing but stand there, silently taking in the insult, analyzing it, and logicly determining that Kiba didn't mean it. It took the edge off of her temper. She looked over at the examiner. "I'm ready." she said. Her head turned sharply, narrow eyes as sharp as green glass glaring at Kiba. "Are you?"

"Hmph. Of course I am!" he stretched, smirking at her. "I'm gonna take you out, _forehead girl_!"

Sakura clenched her teeth. "You couldn't take me out even if you brought chocolates and roses, _mutt boy_!" she yelled. Kiba was offended, yet slightly impressed.

"What, you'd rather go out with Naruto?" he jabbed. Sakura snorted.

"Rather than you? Hell yes! At least he takes a shower once a month!"

"He has to!" he countered. "Your rank stench clings to him and he can't wait to wash it off!"

"How did me and my bathing routines did stuck in the middle of this?" Naruto whined. He looked at the other leaf genins. "For the record, I take a shower once a day, dammit!"

"I can't believe that Kiba found someone with as much of a temper as he has." Shino muttered. "It's almost.. annoying."

"Did your mother drop you on your head too many times when you were a baby, or are you that stupid naturally?" Sakura called out, sticking out her tongue at him.

"Did your's? Or is that forehead just a product of genetic mutation?" Kiba countered, stomping his foot on the ground and shaking his fist at her.

"At least a forehead can be concealed. Your stupidity can be seen from a mile away!"

"Sasuke freak!"

"Mutt lover!"

"When I said she should battle to the best of her ability, I'm sure I didn't say to engage him in a battle of the wits." Sasuke said, a little bewildered.

"Well, I suppose her wits are her best ability." Shikamaru said logicly.

"You tell him like it is, Sakura!" Ino cheered.

"I don't think encouraging her will help, Ino." Shikamaru muttered with a heavy sigh.

Kankurou leaned over the railing. "Can you two stop bitching and just start fighting?" he yelled. "You're starting to piss me off!"

Grumbling, the two looked at the examiner. "We're done." they said moodily.

"Good." he said blandly. There was a hint of a smile on Hayate's face. "Then you might as well begin."

* * *

Alright! Seven teams passed, making twenty one genins eligible for the prelims. Kabuto left so only twenty are going to fight, which means ten preliminary battles. Naruto verses Akado, Gaara verses Kin, and Sasuke verses Tenten make three of those ten battles already fought, and Sakura verses Kiba makes four, in the next chapter. Just recapping, in case any of you were confused.

Jyuuken(juken, jukken, juukken, I've seen it written so many ways but I'm sticking with this one)- 'gentle fist'. The attack style unique to the Hyuuga clan, used by them to attack the tenketsu('chakra holes' or 'chakra points', whatever..) with the aid of their byakugan.

Glimpse of the Future!  
_This was even worse than Shikamaru's shadow bind, she realized, painstakingly moving her body against the hold. All she was able to do was turn her head slightly to look back at the smirking sand nin. How she wanted to smack that smug look off his painted face..  
If only she hadn't had that sudden vision when she touched him! She could have won, if she had been able to possess him, but no. Ino felt like the whole world was against her. **Did I drown kittens in a past life or something? Why are so many bad things happening to me? **  
She watched her hand, not under her control, slowly move down her leg and reach into her kunai pouch. One of her kunai was pulled out by the hand she considered hers and lifted up to her neck.  
Sharply, her wrist twisted until the point was nearly touching her jugular vein. **I don't want to die this way!** She reached inside herself, pulling and dragging at the strands of chakra until... _

Mwuhaha. TBC. See ya in two weeks.


	40. The Nara and The Aburame

Sorry it took so long, I had three term papers to turn in and ya know, I'm a procrastinator. So I, naturally, did them the day before they were due. : ) And _then_ I got sick, and not just the weakly coughing and accursed sniffles kind of sick. I'll spare you the details.

You'll all find out what happen between Naruto and Hinata in that room and also who Naruto fought in the forest in order to get the scroll. I left those out on purpose! Foreshadowing, planning for the future.. you'll see. I haven't forgotten about it.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends 

Chapter Forty: The Nara and The Aburame

by Foxie

* * *

"You might as well begin." The dance began. At least, Sakura would have liked to think of it as a dance. Dances were a lot less violent than fights. _People don't get killed in dances, dammit._The partners were supposed to be somewhat gentle to each other, and then there was music too. 

Now, the last thing Sakura wanted was to dance with Kiba, but she'd take it over fighting with him. Despite her preferences, she still didn't have a choice. But she so wanted some music. A theme song maybe. Something that had a fast beat to it, one that she could really get into, could get her heart racing and her adrenaline up.

A fist swerved by her face. At the last moment, she was able to pull herself out of its range. She hated fighting. Detested it with all of her being. Why? A very simple reason. She was no good at it.

"Pay attention, forehead girl!" Kiba shouted, aiming a kick at her ribs. Almost roboticly, she blocked. Instincts, reflexes.. These were things she didn't like to rely on. Yet one had to in order to stay alive during a fight. Which was definitely not a dance. Just why the hell had she agreed to enter in the Chuunin Exam again?

Sakura jumped back a few paces, her hands coming up to make familiar hand seals. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" Where there had been one Sakura, there now was four. Each kunoichi pulled out a kunai and circled Kiba.

_I really want a theme song._ Sakura thought, her mind stuck on the idea that she'd fight better if she had one. _Dammit, why don't I have one?_

The difference in skill between the two genins was especially visible when one compared their thoughts. Sakura, who was supposed to be the logical one, was too busy ranting about music in her mind, while Kiba was trying to deduce which girls were the illusions and which girl was the real one.

There was only one of them that had the best chance at becoming a chuunin, and Sakura, when Kiba knocked her back several feet with a swift kick, knew with all of her heart who that genin was. She _knew_ it wasn't her.

"Come on, Sakura-chan!" But Naruto was still cheering for her, waving his arms frantically as he yelled across the room. "You can beat dog breath!" Distracted, Sakura turned to look at him. He was faintly flushed from yelling(how had she missed his cries? Probably too deep into her internal debate over which would be a better theme song for her, a pop song or a classic piece), his blue eyes flashing.

Still distracted, her own eyes trailed over to the genin next to him, idly bracing his hands against the railing. _Sasuke-kun._ She thought suddenly, so soberly that she unconsciously straightened. He was expressionless, almost bored in appearance. But, after being his team mate so long, Sakura knew him better than she knew herself. She knew what that blank stare in her direction meant.

'Why are you screwing around? Concentrate!' it shouted at her. 'You'll never last as a shinobi if you keep acting like a fool! Start learning how to protect yourself, instead of having one of us do it for you.' Sasuke wouldn't have wasted so many words, had he been able to vocalize what his gaze was telling her(a simple 'Stop being annoying, you idiot.' would have suited him just fine), but Sakura had a habit of translating things differently than other people.  
_  
Alright!_ She turned back to Kiba, who had also been distracted by Naruto. They were shouting obscenities at each other. _I can't keep letting my team down. They might not expect me to win, but I'll sure as hell make an impression on Kiba! One way or another._. Inner Sakura pulled out a mallet and hit the chibi Kiba in her head, squashing the dog user into a pancake. **Hell yeah!**

"Hey, pay attention, mutt boy!" There was something so satisfying about yelling at Kiba for the same thing he had yelled at her for a little earlier. But it wasn't nearly as satisfying as the knee she somehow managed to shove in his stomach, forcing him to keel over in surprise before he rolled out of the way, his full attention on her.  
_  
Concentration._ Kiba favored his left leg for some reason. She took that in, analyzed it, then stored it for future reference.  
_  
Conservation._ He darted to the left, aiming a punch at her. She dodged, pushing herself away with the smallest bit of chakra she could pull up when the punch suddenly swerved up.  
_  
Calculation. _The pain in her jaw was unbearable. She clenched her teeth shut to quiet the reflexive cry, twisting her body so she landed on her feet instead of her head, scattering small pieces of paper as she turned. Kiba looked down when he smelled a faint scent of burnt paper. The ground exploded underneath his feet.  
_  
The three C's of fighting._ She thought with a grin, pulling out akunai and running around Kiba until she had enough distance between him and herself. _Thank you for being such a great teacher, Iruka-sensei!_  
_  
Mini explosive notes?_ He questioned, yelping when one exploded on his foot. They weren't any more dangerous than a small fire cracker. They were typically used as noise makers to alert a ninja when a trap had been activated, or to scare away large animals. _Why would she..? _

Kiba suddenly growled, jumping back, snorting heavily in an attempt to get the smell of burnt rubber out of his nose. _Sneaky wench! She did that on purpose!  
_  
Sakura had a very good memory, despite Kiba's earlier beliefs. What she remembered most clearly from the Academy was the power of an Inuzuka's nose. _I can't sneak up on him if he can smell me from a mile away._ She reasoned, feeling slightly pleased that her ploy worked. _Now, let's see if I can pull off the next stage..._

"Akamaru!" At Kiba's call, the small white dog(who had been napping contently in the corner) jerked away and yipped happily, running towards his master. Kiba scowled at Sakura, an ugly look that Sakura returned in triple. "I can't.. UGH! You are so annoying! I can't believe Akamaru has to join in a match against a wimpy girl!"

Sakura rewinded and backtracked. **Dammit!** Inner Sakura yelped. **If he uses that dog..** A rather vivid memory of Akamaru and Kiba becoming two twisting and dangerous whirlwinds appeared in her mind. _I can't use the same strategy..._

Akamaru skidded to a stop by Kiba's leg, facing her with a surprisingly fearsome snarl from such a little dog. Kiba performed several hand seals in rapid concession. "Juujuin Bunshin no Jutsu!" Two very beast like Kibas stood in front of her, both growling viciously. Sakura pulled out a kunai, holding it out in front of her defensively. _I have to think of a new strategy, but what?_

"Okay, Akamaru.." Kiba muttered out of the corner of his mouth, in a tone so low that only a dog could pick it up. "You have to be my nose. Let's get this done quickly before she uses that abnormally large forehead of hers to come up with a good plan." The other Kiba nodded, a sudden snarl exposing the long arch of a fang. Akamaru didn't like anyone who messed with his master and best friend.

Sakura's sharp eyes once again caught the slight limp that Kiba had and knew which one was the real dog user.

The same thought went through both the dog user and the wanna be medic nin's heads. _Let's finish this quickly._

"Gatsuuga!" Two whirlwinds of fangs and claws quickly swerved towards her. She managed to dodge the first one just barely, but the second one clipped her side, making her dress damp with blood. Sakura winced, her hand glowing with healing chakra over the gaping wound.

Tsunade was startled. _I didn't think that there were any genin besides that glasses fellow who left that was interested in medical jutsu._ She thought, having not noticed when Sakura was attempting to heal Sasuke. To her unwelcomed acknowledgment, she suddenly felt a need to take on another student, but she loathed to take on anything that would make her have a link with Konoha. Even though Naruto had forced her to open her eyes when regarding her past, she still liked nothing better than a chance to free herself of the village, so deep in its memories of happier and sadder time, for good. _Probably doesn't have very good chakra control anyway.. _  
_  
Scent, scent!_ Sakura thought, taking off her dress. Luckily, the tank top and shorts she wore underneath didn't have blood on it. _Use his best instinct against him!_ She could tell which one was the real Kiba and which one was Akamaru. Kiba was weak in his right leg and it kept him from going at his normal pace. He was always the whirlwind that attacked her second.

When the cyclones came back again, she was ready. She jumped over the first one, and when the second swerved to catch her on her fall, she threw her dress in his face, taking advantage of the face that Kiba couldn't see very well while he was spinning so fast. Easily, the red material was shredded to pieces, but not only had she been able to blind him long enough to twist out of the way, Kiba now had her scent on him. Pushing chakra into her feet, she landed easily and performed several hand seals.

When the cyclones disappeared, there were three Kibas looking at each other oddly.

"Ehh!" Ino cried. "Where the hell did Sakura go?"

Naruto stared down at them, then started to laugh. _Ha! I tricked Kiba into thinking I was Akamaru, now she's trying to trick Akamaru into thinking she's Kiba! Great job, Sakura-chan!_

"Akamaru!" Kiba said, taking a step forward. He smirked, gesturing at the other Kiba. He pushedthe other boy roughly. The other boy didn't notice his hand slipping in hisjacket."Look at the pathetic attempts of forehead girl! Obviously she doesn't know how strong of a bond we have!"

The other Kiba snarled and stomped his foot. "What! You fool, Akamaru can tell which one is the real me by scent alone!" They both turned to the last Kiba, who steadily was taking several steps back, whimpering slightly.

"Come on Akamaru!" the first Kiba yelled.

"You know which one of us is your partner!" the other said. The third Kiba whimpered pathetically, looking between the two.

Suddenly, the first Kiba smirked wickedly. "Which one of us has the scent of female blood on us?" he asked slyly. The third Kiba's head whipped up, his nose quivering slightly. With a growl and a flash of claws, he was immediately attacking the second Kiba, who yelped and defended himself.

"Dammit, Akamaru!" he yelled, flipping the third Kiba over onto his back in an attempt to restrain him. "We really need to work on this tag team thing."

Snickering in their expense, Sakura(the first Kiba) turned back to normal. The other two, pausing for a moment in their struggles, looked back at her. She lifted what she had filched from them. "Recognize these?" she asked, innocently waving Kiba's bag of solider pills out in front of her. "I happen to have a very good memory, Kiba. I remember clearly that you won most of your battles with the use of a solider pill. Without out these little guys, you'll only be an average ninja." she smirked. "Kinda makes you wish you hadn't commented on my forehead and made me mad, huh?"

Kiba growled, getting off Akamaru, who growled just as angrily. "You couldn't beat an average ninja, even if you tried." he snapped. He frowned, looking at Akamaru. "Hey, how did you know which one was me and which one was Akamaru?"

She winked. "Apologize and admit I'm the better ninja, and I'll tell you." she said coyly.

Kiba grimaced. "No way in hell!" he yelled. Akamaru stood at his shoulder as they prepared to fight again. "Gatsuuga!"

As long as she kept on dodging, she knew she would be fine. But Sakura knew she couldn't dodge forever, and, now that she had their solider pills, they also couldn't attack forever, but she knew he had a higher endurance than her. _I have to end this quickly._ She thought, not fancying the idea of just taking one of the pills herself. It was his, after all. It would be rude to consume one. After all, they were so _expensive_..

After nearly getting her arm torn off by Akamaru, she jumped back several times, observing the consistent twist of wind and chakra around the front of the cyclone. Sakura had another idea. _If I could just manipulate my chakra into that shape, and make it move in that position at that speed.._ she thought to herself. _I'd only have a few seconds.. And then, when the two connect, abruptly twist it the other way.. make them loose momentum, if not stop completely.. _Sakura dodged the second one, still trying to come up with a good idea. _But there's two of them..  
_  
Sakura gotanother idea when she saw the second cyclone nearly ram into the first. _Alright!_ She thought, running to the other side of the room. _I'll wait for the perfect moment.._ The kunoichi pivoted and slid to a stop, her hands out in front of her as she concentrated. A faint blue glow surrounded her fingertips. _Come on, concentrate!_

The cyclones came closer, Akamaru first rearing up to strike her down while Kiba angled to get her diagonally. They were in the perfect position to hit her not once, but twice, Akamaru hitting her straight on while Kiba caught as she fell from the attack. A simple strategy that would be the last move of the match, if it hit.  
_  
Concentrate. _Sakura thought, the chakra at her fingertips solidifying into a shape. _Concentrate!_ Akamaru was only a few feet away. Her eyes flashed open when she had the shape perfectly. _Now!_

She thrust out her hands, making the two similar shapes, her chakra and the front of the cyclone, connect and slip into each other like two puzzle pieces, then swiftly forced her chakra to move against the direction of the cyclone. With a sudden yelp, Akamaru found himself rather abruptly stopped in his tracks.

Sakura jumped out of the way, wincing when the second cyclone hit Akamaru full on instead of hitting her. Akamaru yelped again, being thrown across the room. He hit the ground with a whimper, then the jutsu fell, leaving only an injured dog in its wake.

"YES!" Lee cheered happily with Naruto. "Way to go!"

"Dammit. She _does_ have good control.." Tsunade cursed lightly to herself. The others looked at her in surprise, wondering why she was annoyed. _I guess I should teach her then.. or at least shove the duty off on Shizune.._

Kiba cursed softly to himself, more worried with the fate of his dog than the outcome of this match. _Damn, I'm such an idiot._ He thought angrily. _She set us up for that one!_

Sakura nearly stumbled over her own feet. _That used up too much chakra._ She realized apprehensively. _The only powerful jutsu I know can beat him now is that fire dragon one.. but I don't have enough chakra for it!_ A sudden devious smirk lit upon her face. _Yeah, but he doesn't know that!  
_  
She smirked at him, making familiar hand seals, but not applying chakra in the same way. She only had enough chakra for an imperfect genjutsu and one final blow. "Here's a little gift from my team mates!" she shouted. "Katon Karyuu Endan!" A dragon of fire issued from her mouth, roaring angrily as it rushed towards Kiba. Yelping, the boy ran, the dragon on his heels.  
_  
I have to stop that thing!_ He thought, pulling out a kunai and an explosive tag. Pivoting sharply, he threw the tagged kunai at the dragon, only to have it go right through without getting or making any damage. _Genjutsu? _

Now far more confident of her skill in molding chakra, she concentrated what little she had left in the knuckles of her clenched fist. She leapt through the genjutsu, little more than a weak hologram, and connected her fist to Kiba's face.

The dog user went flying, impacting heavily with the wall. He slid down to a sitting position, barely conscious. Suddenly, before she could cheer in victory, a sudden push from behind her heel reminded her that Kiba had thrown an explosive tagged kunai. She too went flying, impacting with the same wall.

With a groan, she pushed herself away from the wall, lying on her back on the debris covered ground, her vision failing because of the concussion she received. Kiba knelt next to her, blood dripping out of his mouth as he grinned easily at her.

Sakura was about to snap that he should finish it when he spoke. "Hey Sakura." Something in her rejoiced when he finally called her by her name. "Wanna spar again later?"

She stared at him in confusion. Then it dawned on her, a smile accompanying it. "Yeah." she said. "I can't wait."

Kiba grinned again, then collapsed next to her, his endurance to pain already exhausted and used up. Hayate walked over to the two, only to find that Sakura had followed him into unconsciousness. He hid a smile before turning to everyone else.

"It's a tie!" he announced. He nodded to some medic nins in the corner, who hurried to him to pick up the limp forms of the kunoichi, the dog user, and his dog.

"Wow!" Naruto shouted, turning around to shoot his teacher a blinding grin. "Sakura-chan kicked ass!"

Lee pumped his fist in the air. "Sakura-san! You are like the lotus blossom, so fair in beauty and so determined!" he declared, his eyes morphed into hearts.

"Kiba-kun did good too." Hinata spoke softly to her other team mate. Shino nodded.

"He could have won too, if only he hadn't gotten her so angry." he said blandly. "Because of his insults, she didn't just _have_ to hurt him, she _wanted_ to."

Ino was quiet, eyes half focused on the medic nin picking Sakura up. _She fought so hard._ She thought, her hands curling in the material of her purple skirt. _I wonder.. if we had_ _fought against one another.. would I have lost?_ Shikamaru grabbed her elbow, jolting her out of her thoughts. With a frown, he nodded to the machine that weakly blinked her name and another's.

"Your battle is next." he said. Ino only nodded, walking to and down the stairs, not really understanding who she was fighting until she came face to face with him. She froze for a second when she saw his calm painted face, but then smoothly made her way to the middle of the room.

Hayate looked between the two, a light frown marring his face. A fight between a little leaf kunoichi and a big sand nin, it didn't take a genius to find out who had the advantage. "Are you ready?" he asked them.  
_  
No!_ Ino cried out in her mind, but nodded calmly. The other nin did as well, smirking slightly, as if he knew that she wasn't.

"Okay. Begin!"

* * *

"Dammit Ino, forfeit!" Shikamaru hissed to himself, growing increasingly anxious as the battle between the puppeteer and the Yamanaka continued.

At first, it looked like Ino was going to win. She used her prized mind control jutsu on Kankurou and was about to announce the sand nin's forfeit when the strange object on the sand nin's back burst open, revealing the real Kankurou, who, with glowing strands connected to the fake Kankurou, directed Ino to attack her own body. She barely managed to get out of the puppet and roll her body out of the way before the attack struck.

Ino dodged the puppet's attacks quickly, trying to figure out a way around the lethal weapon as she moved left and right. She had noticed something wrong when she had possessed 'Kankurou', but had written it off as a after effect of her sickness earlier.

She didn't think she could possess objects, but it probably was because of the chakra running through the puppet that allowed Kankurou to control it was what made it possible for her to possess it. But since he had full control of the puppet, she could only helplessly do what he motioned for her to do.

She gritted her teeth together harshly, flipping back away from the puppet. _Team Seven has Sasuke-kun and Naruto, and even Sakura did pretty damn good. Team Eight has Hinata, who, duh, is a Hyuuga, Kiba, who did well too, and that weirdo Shino. But what does our team have? A lazy bum, food boy, and me._ She frowned. T_he other two teams are good, we're barely average. Shikamaru can't fight to save his life and Chouji is too easily exhausted. If there's anyone who's gonna prove our team is just as good as forehead girl and mutt boy's teams, it's gonna have to be me!_

"Ino.." Shikamaru muttered angrily. Really, it wasn't her fault. She didn't know that Kankurou was one of the ninjas that Naruto had warned him about. He glanced to the side, watching Naruto look down at the two with an unusually passive gaze. Feeling Shikamaru's attention on him, he blinked, turning his head to look at the other genin.

"Trust me: If Ino was a guy, I'd be a lot more worried." he said mildly when he figured out what Shikamaru's accusing gaze meant. "His treatment of other guys makes what he does to girls look like a slap on the wrist." He shivered just thinking about it, remembering the horrified screams of Kankurou's enemies, trapped in one puppet only to by stabbed ten times by another.

It had been a common sight when he and the older sand nin had worked together to free the southern borders of Fire Country of the sound forces. However, the sand nin had always captured the females, either sending them back to Konoha or Suna for questioning, or bringing them to prisoner of war camps. Temari had always complained about this strange chivalry he held towards females, then had promptly demanded that Kankurou stayed the hell out of her way when she cut through the sound nins, male and female alike.

Ino had a plan. It wasn't well thought through, but if she could just get close enough to Kankurou to possess him(using an imperfect form that didn't require hand seals, just a touch. She wouldn't have enough time if she tried to do it normally), the fight would be over._ I'm not a damn strategist and I'm sure as hell am not a geek like Sakura.. I guess this will be my hit or miss, my do or die challenge!_

She pulled out kunai and wire, hands moving quickly to tie the wire through the loops in the handles of the kunai. Ino ducked under the puppet's swing, close enough to the wall to jump and use it as a spring board to get herself over the puppet. Sluggishly, it labored to turn around, but kunai and wire had already been thrown at it. The wire wrapped around the puppet, getting into slender and delicate joints as well as compromising its balance when the skinny legs were wrapped together.

Clicking in distress, the puppet fell to the swing, twitching like an overturned turtle. Ino moved quickly, severing the lines of chakra between the puppet user and the puppet with a kunai. Her free hand glowed with chakra. _This is it! My last chance!_ She thought, moving before the sand nin could react, barely touching his outstretched hand when suddenly, something very wrong happened.

Ino remembered with clarity the long and severe lectures her father had given her about using imperfect forms of their blood limit, but never in any of those talks that she half listened to mentioned anything back the tunnel of darkness that over took her for the briefest of moments before she saw a clear picture.

She was no longer in the room, but out in the middle of the desert, a gust of wind lighting blowing small grains of sand into the air. The sun beat down unforgivably on her, the dry air enough to make her lips ache.

"..but the real question is, Gaara, to whom is your allegiance is stronger?" Ino turned around, seeing a familiar looking sand jonin, half of his face covered by a white cloth, addressing the sand trio. Temari had her fan held in the crook of her elbow, for once not looking so severe, but almost motherly when she looked at her youngest brother. Kankurou stood off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest as he too watched his brother, concern in his eyes.

Gaara, on the other hand, was staring at his feet, hands idly massaging his temples. "Whom do you desire to help the most, our slowly recovering village, or that boy?" Gaara lifted his head, shooting a sharp eyed glare at the jonin. Baki laughed almost bitterly.

"Who am I kidding?" he said, his sharp smirk fading to a small frown. "Would you be faithful to the village who has taken advantage of you, who has named you as an outcast even while you spill blood, sweat, and tears for them? Or would you be faithful to the first person to know who you are, the first person to show you the first shred of kindness in your entire life, one who managed to beat you, and in the same breath, offered you his friendship?" Baki turned his back on the sand trio. "Just go. Take your siblings with you. I'll hold off telling the higher ups of your absence for as long as possible." For a second, Ino could have sworn that Gaara smiled weakly and started to say 'thank you', but she was violently ripped from that world back to her own when the air was knocked out of her lungs.

She backed up several paces, wild eyes searching for the missing Kankurou, only to see that, a little too late, he was already behind her. He attached strands of chakra to her spine, ignoring the cry of pain that came out of the kunoichi when nerves suddenly came alive with the foreign chakra.

He smirked. "How do you like my human puppet, examiner?" he asked the sickly jonin mockingly. Hayate didn't say anything. To Ino, Kankurou flaunted his ability to use her own limbs against her. "See, little kunoichi? Your arms are now my arms. Your fingers-" Ino gasped when he proved that his skill was good enough to even control the twitch of her pinky. "-are not yours, they are my own. I think you know what happens now, right?" Ino flinched. _He's gonna kill me!_ She thought desperately. She closed her eyes, preparing for the final blow. Instead, the sand nin shocked her with his next words: "Forfeit."

"Wha.. What?" she managed to get out after several coughs. Then, all of the sudden, she felt anger hit her. Dammit, wasn't she supposed to be the one showing that Team Ten wasn't just a team with a bunch of losers? The next words left her mouth before she could think about them. "Over my dead body, asshole! My team's counting on me, I can't let them down!"

"That can be arranged." Kankurou said blandly. She wiggled, wishing that she could turn and had enough control of her body to kick the smug bastard in the balls. _This is even worse than Shikamaru's shadow bind_, she realized, painstakingly moving her body against the hold. All she was able to do was turn her head slightly to look back at the smirking sand nin. How she wanted to smack that smug look off his painted face..

If only she hadn't had that sudden vision when she touched him! She could have won, if she had been able to possess him, but no. Ino felt like the whole world was against her. _Did I drown kittens in a past life or something? Why are so many bad things happening to me? _

She watched her hand, not under her control, slowly move down her leg and reach into her kunai pouch. One of her kunai was pulled out by the hand she considered hers and lifted up to her neck.

Sharply, her wrist twisted until the point was nearly touching her jugular vein. _I don't want to die this way!_ She reached inside herself, pulling and dragging at the strands of chakra until she managed to gather enough to shock the sand nin. He chuckled at her attempts, merely lifted the kunai until it barely scratched the skin of her neck.

"Forfeit." he repeated blandly. The pressure of the kunai on her neck suddenly increased. She feared that if she swallowed too hard, she's end up injuring herself. Almost gleefully, she wondered if the arterial spray would be strong enough to reach the opposite wall.

But she still snapped out an answer. "No."

With a sigh, Kankurou loosened his hold on her. Relieved to have the kunai away from her neck, she didn't notice his fist until it impacted with the back of her skull, rendering her unconscious. As she fell towards the ground and into her mind, she cursed her inability to show everyone why Team Ten wasn't a group of losers. "Examiner!" Kankurou called. "She's out."

"I see the idiot still has that girl thing going on." Temari grumbled. "Anyone else but a girl, and they would have been a smear on the wall." Gaara mumbled something under his breath.

* * *

A Nara was usually passive and lazy, but unusually intelligent. They were slow to anger and tended to travel in groups, but often refused any position of leadership or high authority, simply because it was 'too troublesome'. A Nara was the laziest, yet the most loyal shinobi any Hokage could ask for. A city could be falling around their heads and there could be not a shred of hope left, yet the Nara would stay by your side, idly drumming his or her fingers against their knees and asking you if you could please move out of their sun, thank you very much. Some of the Nara weren't even that polite.

But there was one thing that Naruto, and many others before him, observed about a Nara. One guideline everyone, enemy or ally, must follow.

Do _not_ piss off a Nara.

Naruto watched Shikamaru silently, seeing the signs that everyone else missed. The slight tightening of the shoulders, the grim set of the lips.. and the burning fire of anger in his eyes. And then it was gone, swept away with a heavy sigh as he heaved himself over the railing and, with his hands stuck in his pockets nonchalantly, walked over to the still form of his team mate.

Before he jumped over the railing, he had snapped out at Chouji to stay put. Noticing the same signs that Naruto did, he complied, even though he was just as worried about his team mate as his friend was.

Naruto didn't know whether to be awed at Shikamaru's control, or terrified, for the aftermath of the loss of his control would no doubt be nasty. A Nara was notoriously passive-aggressive. One would act like nothing was wrong, that everything was alright in the world, then, when their enemy least expected it, wham! Revenge is a dish best served cold.

He too heaved himself over the railing, not sure if he was there to help Shikamaru with Ino(no medic nins were available to get her, they all were trying to deal with Kiba, Sakura, and trying to reconstruct the bloody messy that was Kin), or if he was there to make sure that Shikamaru didn't attack Kankurou.

Shikamaru knelt next to Ino, gently taking her wrist in his hand to make sure she still had a pulse. With a sigh of relief, he felt it, as strong and as bold as ever, just like Ino herself.**  
**Naruto stood tall, unconsciously adding his shadow to Shikamaru's just in case a fight would break out, an instinct ingrained in him from the old days of fighting the sound nins side by side with the shadow user. Shikamaru's gaze shifted from the relaxed features of Ino to the impassive features of the ninja who beat her.

"You could have just knocked her out earlier. You didn't have to make fun of her by making her a puppet." he said, his voice even and calm. "You are on a more advanced level of skills than her. There must have been so many chances.." he trailed off, his shadow trembling at the edges, his fingers tensing reflexively on his team mate's wrist.

Ino had a thing about being controlled. She had always whined when Shikamaru caught her in his shadow bind, not liking to have anything to do with something she didn't have full control of. It came from years and years of being naturally devious and good at making other people do what she wanted, either with sly words or by blood limit. Kankurou must have seen that desire of control in her, and, by taking control of her, flaunted how weak her control really was. And he _laughed_.

"There was more than ample opportunity." Naruto picked up from where the other nin left off. He took a step closer to Kankurou, scowling darkly. "Look, I just want to know one thing." Naruto was silent for a moment, his eyes closed and his head tilted to the side. When the suddenly red eyes opened, Kankurou almost took a step back in reflex. "Why the hell were you toying with her!"

"Hmph." Kankurou calmed his heart. Seeing those demonic eyes always made him feel jumpy, whether those eyes were gold or red. "I wasn't toying with her. I was teaching her a lesson!" Frustrated, he looked aside, thinking of his sister. "In the sand, a girl like that wouldn't have even survived past the harsh schooling. She should be thanking me for teaching her a lesson now that she won't have to learn later!"

"And what lesson is that?" Naruto snapped, displaying a flash of fangs as he snarled.

"There is no magical fairy tale romance." Kankurou snapped back just as angrily. "A kunoichi isn't gonna be helped every time she cries out for help." Up in the balconies, Tenten winced. "She isn't going to be able to rely on the strength and fortune of others. No one can!" Kankurou snorted, disgusted with them. "You stupid tree huggers with your silly ideals of chivalry and peace, treating every one else like family! No one who lives as peaceful as your damn village could even begin to understand the true pains of being shinobi!"

Naruto stared at him darkly, before dissolving into bitter laughter. "Is that so? Then, I am very proud to be a tree hugger!" He slammed his fist into his other hand, cracking his knuckles loudly as he glared. "I didn't like the sand's way of thinking then, and I certainly don't like it now, but know this, asshole! If we face each other in the final exam, consider your ass creamed!"

"To each's own, fox boy." the puppet user spat bitterly, walking back up to the balcony with stiff shoulders. Naruto was about to yell something at the sand nin's retreating back when Shikamaru halted his actions.

"I'm going to take her to the infirmary." he said, eyes widening a fraction when he saw Naruto's eyes had taken on a red hue. He had already picked up the blond kunoichi. Something about the way that Ino's head rested against Shikamaru's collarbone and how carefully the Nara boy handled her made Naruto smile, chasing the red away from his eyes.

"The next round is between.. Zaku of the Sound and Nara Shikamaru!" Hayate announced.

"_What?_" Shikamaru grumbled, forgetting his previous pondering if the red in Naruto's eyes had been a reflection of the light. "How troublesome."

Snickering, Naruto took a step forward, stretching his arms out to take Ino. "I'll take her. Just make sure you aren't killed, ya know?" After hesitating for a moment, Shikamaru passed Ino over. Naruto immediately frowned when he had the girl in his arms. "Damn.." he muttered to himself as he walked away. "What does this girl sustain herself on, air and grass?"

Shikamaru turned his focus to the sound nin, who had already made his way down. The older genin smirked at him, flexing his palms. He remembered that he was yet another person that Naruto had warned him about, but all he could think about was Ino.

Did Naruto know that Ino had an irrational fear of the white walls of a hospital? Of needles? Of nurses? Of _clipboards_? Did he know that Ino could be distracted from all of those things if he just got her talking about flowers?  
_  
No, he doesn't._ Shikamaru realized anxiously, looking at Naruto's retreating back as he reached the door and disappeared from view. _He doesn't know anything about her. Not like I do._ He could just see Ino shrinking into the pillows, so small in the huge hospital bed, fearful eyes shifting from side to side as Naruto obliviously yapped a mile a minute.

"Ready?" He had to go after Naruto. He couldn't waste any time. "Begin!"

Zaku didn't care that Shikamaru was distracted. "Zankuuha!" the sound nin shouted, extending his arms and flattening out his palms. Razor sharp winds raced towards Shikamaru. Almost lazily, the Nara dodged, barely getting out of the way of the attack. Nevertheless, his shoulder was clipped by a blade of wind.

Grimacing, he lifted a hand to cover it, unsettled by the blood he could feel coming out of the wound. It reminded him that Ino hated the sight of blood as well. Would the nurse draw blood from her to check if there was anything wrong? Shikamaru didn't know anything about medical things, but all he could think of was needle plus blood plus Ino equaled disaster. He wasn't quite sure if he was more worried about Ino hurting someone, or Ino getting hurt. The thought of her scared made him grit his teeth in anger.

"Heh, pay attention, brat!" Zaku shouted with a smirk, once again flexing his palms. "Zank-" Shikamaru was faster.

"I don't have time for this." he said coldly, extending his own hand. Ino wasn't the only one who knew an imperfect form of her blood limit. The shadow under Zaku's feet trembled, stretched, and morphed into a form of a hand. It curled around Zaku's body like a snake until it reached his throat. Then the shadow tightened, leaving no room for the sound nin to even breath.

Gasping, Zaku tried to free himself, steadily turning red from lack of oxygen. Shikamaru didn't budge, cold eyes watching as the sound nin flailed. And then, Zaku's face a faint purple, he finally stopped moving. Shikamaru dropped the sound nin, walked forward a few paces, then slammed a glowing fist into Zaku's chest. With a gasp, the nin began to breath again, but was still unconscious.

The Nara stared down at the nin, a frown tensing his face. He had often practiced the same move against his father, and had hated every time he could feel the life being drained away. If Shikamaru walked away, any of those times, without giving the customary blow to the chest with a precise amount of chakra..

He shook his head to himself. "He'll be out for a while." he told the examiner. The jonin, surprised that he had killed and saved the sound nin in the span of a few seconds, nodded. _He's just like his father. _Hayate thought with a faint smile. Since Zaku wasn't seriously wounded, Dosu was ordered to take his team mate back up into the balconies.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, Shikamaru walked away, not to the balcony, but towards the infirmary where Ino was, hopefully sleeping peacefully.

* * *

The medic nins rolled their eyes at the laughter they could hear from the other room, choosing to focus instead on healing Kin. It wasproving to be a difficult process.

A pillow flew out of the room. "Dammit, you stupid mutt! Get my pillow back!" Sakura yelled through her giggles.

Kiba pouted, heaving himself off of the bed he had been sitting on. "But it's Naruto's fault!" he grumbled, but retrieved it. Said blond, sitting on the foot of the other blond's bed, smirked.

"That's a good puppy." he cooed. Ino and Sakura started to laugh at the look on Kiba's face. As if his mock anger was fueled by their laughter, he lunged at the fox boy, who, with a snicker, knocked the dog user's legs out from under him and started to wrestle with him.

The door swung open, hitting them both. "Ow!" they cried in unison, barely heard over the kunoichis' laughter. Shikamaru just gazed down at them impassively.

"You are fools." he stated, stepping over them.

"Shikamaru!" Ino gasped. "You're bleeding!" Grimacing, Shikamaru remembered his injury. He started to walk back out of the room.

"Sorry, forgot you hate blood..." he mumbled.

"Naruto, Kiba! Stop him!" she ordered sharply. Suddenly, there was the Great Wall of Fox and Mutt in front of him.

Naruto frowned at him. "That wasn't why she pointed it out, fool!" he said, pushing Shikamaru back to Ino and Sakura. Shikamaru tried to resist.

"But-"

Ino sat up in her bed. "Sakura can heal, you know!" she snapped, feeling sad that he thought she wasn't worried about his health. "She's good too!"

Sakura beamed, not expecting such a great praise from her rival. "Yup!" she nodded. "But you're gonna need to take your shirt off.. unless you want bits of cloth fused in with your skin." Shikamaru started to resist, but stopped at the sudden vivid imagery.

"Whatever." he pulled off his jacket and his shirt, tossing them on the opposite bed. Because he was starting to get worried about the numbness in his shoulder, he ignored Ino's snide comment about his body.

"Damn Shika!" she said. "I didn't know you were so scrawny. And pale."

"Well, I doubt that anyone with actual _muscle_ would stand for your nagging and bossy personality." Kiba snickered. Ino nearly snarled at him, pretty impressive for a human who wasn't infused with some type of animal instinct.

"Aw, lay off of him." Naruto said, taking Shikamaru's side. "Besides, Sasuke's paler." Ino immediately was distracted.

"My Sasuke-kun?" Ino's eyes sparkled. "You're saying you've seen Sasuke with his shirt off?"

Naruto blinked. Why was that so important? They were on the same team, after all. He had even seen Sakura in several states of undress. Of course, he either pretended that he didn't see it, or screamed that his eyes were tainted, just to get a rise out of her. "Uh.. yeah." Then he smirked. "So has _Sakura_." He put emphasis on the kunoichi's name.

"All done!" Sakura said proudly. Shikamaru ran a hand over unblemished flesh.

"Wow." he said, slightly awed. "She was right. You are good." Sakura grinned, as if saying 'yeah, I know'. She blinked as Shikamaru turned away to put his shirt back on, distracted by Ino giving her the evil eye.

"What?" she asked, confused. Naruto, she noted apprehensively, was looking a little too gleeful.

"Well, I have met my quota of the day." he said with a chuckle, dusting off his hands. "If you ever need chaos, just call me, Naruto the Magnificent!"

Kiba rolled his eyes. "Yeah, if we ever need an idiot." he mumbled under his breath.

Naruto's temper flared. He waved his fist at Kiba. "I heard that, mutt lover!" he yelled. Then surprised the rest of them by composing himself quickly. "I'm gonna go watch the rest of the matches, anyone wanna come with me?"

He got grim 'no's all around the room. "But who else can we expect to come in here?" Ino asked, only half joking.

"Um.. Chouji, the last sound guy, the green genin, Hinata, Hinata's cousin, Shino, that genin with the glasses, and that sand girl. I think." Shikamaru said, trying to think of all of the genin who had been watching from the balconies and hadn't fought already.

"So.. out of all of us rookies, only you and Sasuke-kun have made it to the final rounds so far?" Ino asked Naruto, sounding disappointed. The other blond shrugged. Shikamaru looked up, realizing that Ino believed that he had lost. He didn't bother to correct her.

"Well, I'm gonna go cheer Hinata-chan, Chouji, and Shino on." Naruto left, waving and shouting good bye after him.

Shikamaru smiled, realizing he never had to worry about Naruto distracting Ino. The blond didn't _distract_. He _was_ a distraction, a whirlwind of chaos, pranks, and, oddly enough, control. He wondered what a Konoha would be like without Naruto. Just the thought of it made the smile slip off of his face. A Konoha without Naruto was like.. the sky without clouds, like fan girls without Sasuke, like shadows without the light. He wasn't a Yamanaka, but suddenly he had a very bad feeling about that the dreary Konoha without its number one prankster. _Why do I have the feeling that we might not have Naruto for very long?_ Was it the blond's casual talks of war, or the Akatsuki's mysterious desire for him?

"What's wrong, Shikamaru?" Kiba asked, kicking the shadow user lightly in the shin to gain his attention.

"Nothing." he lied. "Nothing at all."

* * *

Neji, Naruto realized, had fought and easily beaten the last of Kabuto's team mates during the time he had spent in the infirmary. By the time he got to the balcony, Chouji and Lee were already fighting.

The Akimichi was angry because Lee had made an off handed comment about his size. Knowing Lee, Naruto knew it wasn't as mean as something someone else would say, but probably an offer to help Chouji get his weight down.

Chouji, using his prized Meat Tank jutsu, rolled swiftly towards Lee, who calmly faced down the force of nature, one hand out in front of him while the other curled behind his back.

Instead of dodging like another sane person would do, Lee waited until the last moment to move. He went towards the ball, grabbed it firmly, and then, to everyone's but most especially Chouji's surprise, picked the Akimichi up and threw him at the wall.

The walls shook and barely held, dust flying everywhere from the impact. When the dust settled, Chouji was seen crouching on the ground. Silently, Lee watched as Chouji struggled to stand, but failed. He hit the ground and didn't move, save for his heavy breathing.

Hayate announced the winner while Lee made his way over to Chouji. The younger genin was barely conscious, and mostly disappointed that he couldn't go on to the final rounds with his best friend.

"You tried your best!" Lee said encouragingly, giving Chouji his customary grin and thumbs up. "Although you did not win, you should walk proudly, knowing that you put everything you had into our fight!" Lee sparkled.

Chouji sighed, searching in his pockets for any munchies, the only surefire way he knew how to regain his energy. He really didn't care either way. Being a genin was pretty much like being a chuunin, just without the flak jacket, right? "How am I supposed to walk proudly when I am so tired that I can't even stand?" he whined. Lee blinked twice, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

"Oh, right." he said, finally getting it, and hauled one of Chouji's arms over his shoulders. With his help, the younger genin was able to get to his feet. "Then we shall hobble proudly!"

Naruto snickered, watching them hobble off to the infirmary, finally making it back to his team. "So that's Lee, Neji, me, and Sasuke-bastard for us leaf genins going on to the finals, then there's Kankurou and Gaara for sand nins, right?"

"And Shikamaru." Sasuke added, turning to look at Naruto. The other genin blinked in surprise, but then grinned, muttering 'I should have known' under his breath. "So.. you were in the infirmary, right?" Sasuke attempted to look indifferent, a ploy that failed on Naruto and a smirking Kakashi, who both knew the Uchiha too well.

"Yup." Naruto said nonchalantly. "Kiba was loud and as bitchy as usual, Ino was whiny, Shikamaru was boring." He smirked at the frustrated look on Sasuke's face, deliberately skipping over the one person he wanted to hear about. "Shika had this nasty gash on his shoulder, Ino was frothing at the mouth at the mental image of you without a shirt..." Shino snorted in laughter, then covered it up with a cough. Hinata hid her grin behind her forehead protector. They both knew what Naruto was doing. Sasuke glared at them accusingly.

"Is that so.." Kakashi said, joining in on the fun. "What brought that up?"

Naruto shrugged. "I'm not quite sure. I was too busy fighting with Kiba. Did you know that-"

"And what about Sakura?" Sasuke finally snapped. "If you can give so many details about other people, at least tell me you saw _our_ team mate."

Naruto smirked. "Well, you see.. Shika had this cut, you know? And Sakura has this ambition to be a medic nin. And then they were, like, 'wow we have so much in common!' And then they ran off to the countryside and got married and had billions of lazy and bossy babies. The end."

Sasuke growled out Naruto's name in such a way that the blond had previously thought to be privy only to Iruka and Sakura. The others only laughed.

"Aw, cheer up, Uchiha." Asuma said with an amused chuckle. "The chance that Sakura would hook up with my lazy ass student is about the same as the chance that Shika and Ino would get together." Naruto bit his lip to hid his grin. _Oh, the bloody irony!_ He thought, remembering Nara Shikamaru and Nara Ino of the future.

"Yeah, so you still have your girlfriend." Kurenai cooed, enjoying the look of mixed anger and embarrassment that passed over the Uchiha's face.

"She's not my girlfriend!" he snapped, giving them the impression of an angry cat, teeth bared threateningly. "She's a team mate." Sasuke flinched when Gai suddenly appeared at his elbow, dark eyes full of tears.

"Ah, young love!" he said, looking at the genin with adoring eyes. "You may have inherited the sour face of my eternal rival, but you still have the light of youth within you!" He straightened, coughing into his hand. "Of course, you don't have a chance against my Lee. I mean, look at you compared to him! You don't have the looks to catch your fair lady!" Sasuke started to back up, stopping when the railing hit his back. He had been accused of a lot of things, but he had never been accused of not having good looks! Good looks came naturally to an Uchiha!

Gai looked him up and down, nodding to himself. "I suppose, to give you a sporting chance.. I could give you a makeover.." Kakashi's one visible eye widened when he thought of Sasuke, wearing all green, with a bowl cut hairdo, huge eyebrows looming over his dark eyes. He immediately jumped between Gai and his student, moving faster than they had ever seen him while not in a combat situation.

"I could get you for child abuse, you know." Kakashi said casually, though if Gai tried to get by him, he would not be able to get past. Kakashi wasn't going to sacrifice his student, the_ last Uchiha _especially, to such a.. _fashion statement_. To put it delicately. "Why must you traumatize my students so?" He pointed at Naruto, who was rolling around on the ground, hysterical laughter making him incoherent. Worried, Hinata knelt next to him, confused hands fluttering over the genin's shaking body. "Look at him. He's broken."

"Excuse me!" Hayate called. They all looked over guiltily at the sickly jonin, who looked very annoyed with them. "If you're _quite_ done.. May we continue?" he pointed at the board where it blinked Shino and Dosu's names.

The bug user and the last sound nin sedately walked down the balcony stairs, studiously ignoring one another. Dosu, though he looked calm, was nervous. _The traitors are all out, and Kin and Zaku failed to finish their opponents._ He thought, fearful of Orochimaru's wrath. _The only ones who have mostly accomplished their orders are those stupid sand nins, and they don't even know that their Kazekage is really Orochimaru-sama!_ He turned a determined gaze to the ground. _I must win. I cannot allow Orochimaru-sama's orders to be unfulfilled!  
_  
Shino walked to the other side of the ring, then faced the sound nin, a frown hidden behind his high collar. _He is emitting anxiety and blood lust._ He thought, bugs rushing quickly under his skin in response to his sudden rise in adrenaline. _I doubt he feels that way merely because he's fighting me._ His frown deepened.

Hayate backed up with a cough. "Begin." he said.

For a moment, both genins watched each other carefully, trying to figure out how the other fought. Dosu finally attacked, alerting Shino that his weapon was on his arm. The bug user jumped out of the range of the attack, noting that the other genin fought with sound. _How fitting._ He thought with a wry smile.

Dosu kept on pivoting and hurling waves at Shino, who consistently dodged. The spectators in the balconies and the examiner found that they needed to move as well to keep from getting hit. Luckily enough, the officials were far enough away that they were out of Dosu's range.  
_  
We've barely even started and he's already throwing wild attacks._ Shino mused, idly dodging another attack._ He's almost as bad as Kiba in a temper._ He frowned. _But it's not anger that makes this nin fight this way. It's fear. But of what? _Quickly, he made a clone of bugs, then snuck up on Dosu, hiding himself under the guise of genjutsu.  
_  
Yes!_ Dosu thought, finally catching the elusive bug user in the middle of a dodge. But his victory was short lived when the genin exploded into bugs. He gasped, suddenly feeling the edge of a kunai at his throat, even through the bandages.

"Forfeit." Shino commanded without feeling. Dosu gritted his teeth together. According to Orochimaru, nothing was more intolerable than forfeiting. He didn't want to die, and the only way to escape death was to win his match. He seriously doubted that the leaf genin had it in him to kill someone.

So, with this thought in mind, he whipped around, ignoring the scrape of the kunai against his neck, and smashed the back of his metal arm across the bug user's face. Sunglasses broke and fell off, and the younger of genins stumbled back, a little bit of blood coming out of his mouth.

Dosu charged up his arm, preparing to swing when Shino looked up. The sound nin suddenly wished he had forfeited, for the sight he met would haunt him until his very last hour.

The Aburame didn't have eyes.

The last thing Dosu saw as he was swallowed up by piles of bugs was those empty eyes, fathomless and dark, like the very pits of hell.

Shino called off his bugs just before they started sucking the life energy out of the sound nin, not aware that he was doing Dosu a worse favor than just outright killing him. He picked up and mournfully gazed at his destroyed sunglasses. He closed his eyes to spare the examiner the sight.

Hayate, thankful that Shino thought of his weak stomach, called for the now awake Zaku to take Dosu to the infirmary. "Just one more match." he said to himself.

Shino, his eyes closed, walked up the stairs of the balcony, pausing by his teacher and his team mate. He could feel Hinata grab his sleeve.

"Oh, Shino-kun!" she whispered. "Your glasses!" He shrugged.

"Worse things have happened." he said blandly. The Aburame clan were notorious for the glasses that every ninja that inherited the blood limit wore. They didn't wear the glasses for vanity, but to spare their comrades the sight of their eyes, understanding, even as the weirdest clan in Konoha, somethings were better left unseen. The bug users didn't have a use for human eyes, not when they had millions of bugs to see for them.

"Shino!" Naruto could feel Shino's eyes, _his bugs_, every last one of them, focus on him. The genin smiled merrily. Shino's empty eyes opened a fraction. "I don't think you're a icky bug guy at all! I think you're a kick ass ninja!" Shino drew back in surprise, realizing what Naruto was doing.

By learning, and peacefully accepting that Naruto was the host of a demon without hating him, Shino had given Naruto a rare gift: the acknowledgment that no other villager, save a few, had given him. Acknowledgment that, yes, he was a demon host, but he wasn't a demon. He was a regular, though somewhat odd, ninja.

Naruto was giving Shino that same acknowledgment. Shino opened his eyes all the way, allowing Naruto to look into them so he could see if the other genin was just saying empty words. He ignored everyone else, focusing entirely on the blond.

Naruto smiled, not at all bothered by the empty eyes. The only eyes, he reasoned to himself, that still held shock value were Jiraiya's when he was ogling a woman's assets. Shino finally smiled.

"Thank you, Naruto." he said, somewhat humbled. It had taken his team a while to get used to his eyes, but Naruto accepted them so quickly that it made Shino wonder how horrible the demon was in Naruto for the blond to be so unaffected by his eyes. _I guess he's probably seen worse.._ Shino reasoned. Had Kyuubi had the power to read minds, the vain fox would have been very offended.

"The last match of the preliminaries!" Hayate announced loudly, dragging their attention back to him. "It is between Hyuuga Hinata and Temari of the Sand!" Shino and Naruto immediately looked at Hinata.

The girl looked stricken, her mouth opened slightly as she glanced to the side at Temari. _I.. have to fight against her?_ She thought, nearly backing up into Sasuke. _In the words of my cousin.. how cruel is fate?

* * *

_

I strained my pinky writing this. : )

Your all time favorite glimpses into the future..  
_Naruto sat on one of the futons, much like she had just moments before in her own room. His vest, ripped and in poor condition, had been thrown across the room with his other ninja accessories, leaving him in relatively clean clothes, a short sleeved black shirt and his customary dark green shorts. He looked a little lost and in need of comfort himself, but struggled to mask the look on his face with a smile.  
"How are you, Hinata-chan?" he asked, massaging the skin beneath his ears. "The last couple of days have been hell for me, personally. My eardrums burst." He said it so lightly, trying to cover up the true horror of his survival test with the minor events. "They've healed up, but they still hurt like a bitch." He blinked, tilting his head to the side. "Why did Kiba twist off the door handle?"  
Finally, she found the strength to speak. "H-how did you know it was Kiba-kun?" Hinata whispered. Naruto's nose wrinkled.  
"He smells like wet dog." he said in disgust. "Besides, Shino isn't that dumb." He barely had any warning before Hinata threw herself at him, barely had enough time to draw back, and could only stare helplessly as Hinata clung to his shirt, shaking with her emotions. He wrapped an arm around her waist and situated her more comfortably in his lap.  
"What's wrong?" he asked gently._

Mwuhaha. I'm still sick, but I'll work to get the next chapter out earlier than it was this time. Just because you all are lovely and spiffy people. : )


	41. The Pride of the Hyuuga

No, I am not a very hardcore Naruto and Hinata fan, or any other pairing, really. Show me a pairing that's written well, and I'll obsess over it for a while before trying to attempt it myself(trying is the key word). It's that lack of consistency that makes me very open minded when it comes to choosing stories based on pairings. I could very happily read a NaruHina fic, then go over to a(brace yourself) SasuNaru fic, and still be engaged and eager to read on.  
Damn, I haven't used a flashback in ages..

* * *

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Forty-one: The Pride of the Hyuuga

by Foxie

* * *

Hinata, stiff shouldered, made her way down the stairs like her peers before her, the only thing calming her down was the slight squeeze that Naruto had given her hand before she left.  
She was very much aware of the older kunoichi's steps behind her and had to remind herself to watch her feet so she didn't trip down the stairs, instead of staring out the back of her head at the impassive sand nin.

They faced each other. Temari, just as Naruto had told her, did not seem to recognize Hinata. On that train of thought, Hinata thought back on the talk that she and Naruto had in Team Seven's room  
_  
--Flashback--_

Hinata, hearing the screech of metal as the knob was twisted off, turned around and attempted to open the door. Unfortunately, the door ignored her attempts. She stiffened when she realized that she wasn't the only one in the room.

"Um.. hello?" Recognizing the voice, she turned around quickly, a smile appearing on her face.

Naruto sat on one of the futons, much like she had just moments before in her own room. His vest, ripped and in poor condition, had been thrown across the room with his other ninja accessories, leaving him in relatively clean clothes, a short sleeved black shirt and his customary dark green shorts. He looked a little lost and in need of comfort himself, but struggled to mask the look on his face with a smile.

"How are you, Hinata-chan?" he asked, massaging the skin beneath his ears. "The last couple of days have been hell for me, personally. My eardrums burst." He said it so lightly, trying to cover up the true horror of his survival test with the minor events. "They've healed up, but they still hurt like a bitch." He blinked, tilting his head to the side. "Why did Kiba twist off the door handle?"

Finally, she found the strength to speak. "H-how did you know it was Kiba-kun?" Hinata whispered. Naruto's nose wrinkled.

"He smells like wet dog." he said in disgust. "Besides, Shino isn't that dumb." He barely had any warning before Hinata threw herself at him, barely had enough time to draw back, and could only stare helplessly as Hinata clung to his shirt, shaking with her emotions. He wrapped an arm around her waist and situated her more comfortably in his lap.

"What's wrong?" he asked gently.

"..It's stupid." she said, her voice muffled in his shirt. It really was, she realized. Why should she care about what someone else said? Wasn't she an adult? Only babies would be so effected by a simple comment.

"Sure doesn't seem stupid." Naruto said mildly, running a hand through her short hair. She mumbled an incomprehensible disagreement in his shirt. He smiled, although he wasn't sure why he did. "Look, I'll tell you my definition of stupid. Stupid is girls fawning over Sasuke-bastard." He grinned widely when he felt her giggle. "Stupid is having to wait three damn minutes for ramen to cook. Stupid is having to wait in line for some decent coffee. Stupid is risking your life in exchange for an idiot's..." His voice had an unnatural edge to it, almost as if he was criticizing her about something, but then it eased. "Well, I suppose that's debatable."

Hinata sniffled. "Stupid is.. having to comb your hair in the morning, since it's just going to get messy laster on." she joined in, making Naruto smile. "Stupid is having to take off my shoes before walking inside a house." Naruto snickered.

"Hell, you don't have to take your shoes off in my apartment!" he said graciously.

She smiled, but continued. "Stupid is separating the Main and Branch family. Stupid is having to participate in a match to see who succeeds Father when I already handed the title over to Hanabi." She paused, mulling that over.

"Yup!" Naruto said cheerfully. "So, know that you know what stupid is, do you think whatever is on your mind is still stupid?"

Hinata thought for a moment before wrinkling her nose. "Yes."

Naruto grinned. She was so cute. "But you still wanna talk about it?" he prodded teasingly.

She gave him an apologetic look. "..Yes." Naruto only smirked, gesturing for her to continue. "Well.. you see.. I h-had an.. encounter with.. the sand girl."

"Temari?" Naruto inserted helpfully. Hinata nodded, surprised that Naruto had the attention span to remember the girl's name, since she could only remember it being announced once.

"Yes. We.. exchanged words." **Well, not really. **She thought privately. **I just stood there stupidly.** "I-it.. made me question myself." And that's all Naruto had to know.

"Hm.." Naruto rested his chin on her shoulder. "Well.. whatever shit Temari said about you, don't take it personally. I doubt she knows your face, let alone your name or your strength." He sighed, his eyes closing halfway. He looked reluctant to continue, but, with a heavy sigh, he did. "Have you ever heard of demon hosts?"

Hinata had, in fact. She had heard the elders of the clan whispering something about the bane of the village, which was supposed to be a host of a demon that attacked the village many years ago. At first, she had thought it was a silly fairy tale that the adults passed around for fun(she had been very young at the time), but then, as she grew older, she realized that she could hear a lot of other adults talk about it too. There was an advantage of being looked over, she found, and was able to glean much information from listening in on adults talking, the good and the bad.

Though she had yet to hear the identity of the so called bane of the village, she had a faint idea who it was. Who was shunned by the villagers? Who was out casted and hated, when the worst thing he had ever done was put graffiti on a monument? Who did everyone glare at when he walked in the room? Hinata glanced at Naruto. She was pretty sure she knew who Konoha's demon host was, but was afraid she'd hurt his feelings or his sense of security if she asked.

"Yes." she answered instead. "They're people who have demons sealed in them at a relatively young age, and can die if they end up being separated from their demon."

Naruto blinked in surprise. He didn't think she'd know so much. "Well.. yeah." he said, a little bewildered. Then he quickly continued, realizing that he didn't need to explain much. "The sand trio are all actually siblings. Temari's youngest brother, Gaara, you know, the red haired one, is a demon host." Hinata matched the name with the face, letting out a surprised 'oh' in response. "Yeah. Gaara's not like m- other demon hosts." he stuttered, barely catching himself. "He's a bit more.. oh, how you say.. violent and more demonic. He embraced his youki and his demon and doesn't.. really have the same kind of morals that we do." **Not yet. **Kyuubi inserted with a grin. **We're just going to have to beat those mortal morals of yours into his thick skull until they merge. **"And well.. as Gaara's sibling, Temari's not only forced to try and cover up anything that Gaara does wrong, but also lives with the fear of being killed herself. That would, naturally, make her a very sour person."

That made sense to Hinata. She stood, reluctant to leave Naruto's arms, but too wound up to sit down. She paced instead. Naruto, blinking rapidly, followed her with his eyes. She seemed to be deep in thought about something, and every once in a while would twitch as if she was annoyed with her inability to word what she wanted to say.

"B-But.." she started, rounding on him. Her hands clenched into fists. He was almost expecting her to say that it was still unfair of Temari to pick on her, but was promptly surprised at the direction the conversation turned. "But what about Gaara-san! Temari-san might not be happy, but think of Gaara-san! What made him change? He must have been so hurt.." she trailed off, her eyes clouded in sadness as she looked off to the side, deep in thought. Naruto could only stare at her in surprise. Everyone always thought of the people around the demon host as the only ones who were victimized. "I mean.. he couldn't have been born bad... I don't think he really is bad.. just misguided." No one ever thought about the pain of the demon hosts, having to bear such a big burden that others had fostered on to them, without even asking their opinion. "We can help him, right?" Hinata turned to him, eyes wide in her sincerity. "We can save him, right?" she asked him, always of the firm belief that Naruto could do anything he set his mind to, even converting Gaara from his self destructive fate. Naruto could only gaze at her, his expression unreadable. She sank to her knees in front of him, concerned eyes gazing at him. "Is there something wrong?"

Swallowing harshly, Naruto shook his head. "No." he said quietly, wincing at the lie. He quickly donned a grin, finding it easier to hold when he continued on. "But we can save him! I know we can!" He felt more confident about the inevitable fight with Gaara when Hinata smiled and nodded. "We just need to.." he trailed off. **Just what the hell did I do last time that made him change?** All Naruto could remember was trying to protect Sasuke and Sakura. He didn't remember what he might have said, or what he might have did to make the sand nin want to change. "Do something. Anything."

He frowned, sinking deeper into his thoughts. **What could I have done to help the other guy? Did I r-really need to..** He stared down at his hands, gritting his teeth together. **Could I have done something else? **

Hinata leaned forward, touching his shoulder gently to regain his attention. "What's wrong?" she asked quietly, seeing the pain that Naruto quickly tried to mask.

"Nothing at all!" he said with a fake grin. "What makes you think-"

"Don't lie to me, Naruto-kun." Hinata said, meeting his eyes. He wilted under the honest and hurt look in her silver eyes.

"I hate lying to you, Hinata-chan." he said truthfully. So he strove to tell her the truth, the only truth he could tell her in his sea of lies. No matter how much the truth hurt.   
_  
--End Flashback--_

What she heard after that was shocking and eye opening for Hinata. Naruto's voice rang bitterly in her mind, reminding her that there were much bigger things in the world that just her and her hurt feelings.

The Hyuuga glanced at Gaara, watching how impassively the red head took in everything, how coldly he regarded everyone, even his own siblings. Almost as if he, from his high place of power, was looking down upon those weaker than him and feeling nothing but distaste. It was a gaze she once recalled Sasuke wearing, near the end of their Academy days. Absently, she looked over at the last Uchiha.

He was looking at her directly and, with a faint nod, encouraged her without saying a word. Sasuke had changed over the last few months, slowly and laboriously becoming more open with his peers. Naturally, his first reaction when pitted against someone like Neji or Kiba was to goad them into a fight, to spar against Lee, to ignore Ino in hopes that she in turn would ignore him, and to talk to or ignore completely when he was with Shikamaru, Hinata, Shino, Chouji, and Tenten.

But, nonetheless, Sasuke wasn't really much of a bastard anymore, if Hinata had to word it bluntly. She glanced at Gaara again, seeing him frown silently before closing his eyes in concentration. With her eyes, Hinata could see chakra bursting out around his gourd and his stomach before it was tightly contained again.  
_  
I don't think Gaara-san is in harmony with his demon_, she thought, recalling Naruto's words. _Is he.. trying to control the demon? _She shook her head to herself, deciding it was none of her business. What she was more concerned about was trying to help Gaara the same way Team Seven helped out Sasuke.

"Hey, why don't you pay attention, short stuff." Temari said, noticing Hinata's lack of concentration. Blushing in embarrassment, the Hyuuga quickly muttered her apologies.

Hayate looked between the two females. He noted their height difference, their size difference, and their age difference. The two kunoichis were so different from one another, differences that went beyond just one being a leaf nin and the other of the sand.  
Temari was taller and bigger than Hinata, as well as being a few years older. The fan she carried looked lethal. She didn't smile, she smirked. She was confident, held herself up high as she stared down the smaller girl. There was also pride in the way she held herself, pride not just for her own abilities, but for her country and her village. She wanted to show them all the power of those who hide in the sand. Failure was not an option.

Hinata held herself differently, a sort of slouch in her shoulders that showed how much she was used to being able to escape attention if she just made herself small enough. Besides the regular ninja accessories, she carried no weapons, but Hayate knew the real power was in her hands. Hinata didn't wear a smile, but she didn't look timid. She was uncertain of herself, that he could tell, but there was a determined gleam in her silvery eyes. She too was proud, but not of her country, or of her village or skills, though she loved dearly the first two and wanted to improve the last. There was pride of the Hyuuga in her, though she wasn't the strongest. And the pride she felt in the ring, knowing she had made it there with her own two hands, and, though they were imperfect, they were hers. Hinata also knew that, whether victory or failure would meet her in the match, she would stand up, brush herself off, and start over again.

Hayate smiled to himself, hiding it behind his hand when he coughed again. It was really surprising how much someone could pick out from another by just looking. "Ready?" he asked, as protocol demanded. They nodded silently, staring the other down. "Alright. Begin!"

Just likeHinata's sister, Temari didn't allow her the time to activate her byakugan. Instead of applying the seals with a speed that surpassed Hinata's, Temari simply waved her partially opened fan at her. What came hurling at Hinata wasn't a refreshing breeze, but a razor sharp blade of wind that had the smaller girl scrambling out of the way.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto cried out, "Be careful!" It went against everything in his nature to just stand there and watch, but Sasuke had a firm hold on the back of his vest.

"If you jump in, she'll be disqualified, fool!" he hissed, finding it surprisingly hard to hold the blond back. "She's a big girl, she can handle herself! You can't fight her battles for her!" Naruto stiffened and glared at his friend, the edges of his eyes starting to stain red. Sasuke almost took a step back but kept his feet firm. No fool would make him retreat.

However, he nearly stumbled back anyway when Naruto's shoulders slumped and a childish pout formed on his lips. "Why not?" he whined. "I wanna be strong enough to protect everyone, you know? Why can't I protect Hinata-chan too?"

"Because she doesn't want you to." They looked over at Shino. He was focused on Hinata. "Look at her. Do you see someone who wants a knight in shining armor?" Kurenai smiled, nodding in agreement. Skeptical, Naruto looked back at Hinata.

She had dodged the attack easily, and activated her byakugan. Sliding down in a defensive position, she watched Temari with careful and focused eyes. With an annoyed twist of her mouth, Temari hurled wind at her again. Hinata ducked, hands moving lightening fast to her kunai pouch. Once she had the weapons in her hand, she hurled them at the blond girl. They appeared to have missed, though that couldn't fool Hinata, having the ability to see the chakra that activated the wind around Temari to keep her from getting hit.

"She's been working so hard." Shino murmured quietly. "She wants to be a medic nin, you know that. I'm not quite sure what gave her the idea, but she has been sticking to that dream like glue. She fights to improve her skills, to prove herself, and to disprove all of the harsh words about her that she has heard over her life." Naruto frowned. He remembered that Hinata, in his future, had become a medic nin not by choice, but by necessity. It was only after the dissolution of the division between the Head and Branch family by an older Hiashi, and after most of the Hyuuga were killed in battle to protect the northern and southern borders of Fire Country, that she had started to train with Sakura. Yet, Naruto had never seen her happier. Fighting had made her grim, but healing made her happy. "_It is much easier to destroy than to create or fix."_ She had told him once serenely while he watched her heal a gap in Kiba's chest.

**That always made me wonder..** Kyuubi mused out loud. **Was she happy to heal you, even at the expense of her own life? **  
_  
Shut up, Kyuubi._ Naruto snapped angrily. _That isn't fucking funny._  
**  
I didn't think it was.** Kyuubi replied seriously. Naruto suddenly had a flash of Nariko, Kyuubi's old pack mate, and felt a rush of sadness from it. He wasn't sure if Kyuubi was the one who brought the thought up, or he himself felt the sadness from it, knowing that the dead kitsune was as kind and as gentle as Hinata. In either case, Naruto kicked himself, reminded that Kyuubi also had lost a person precious to him and, instead of stubbornly moving forward in life as he knew she would have wished(as Naruto did), went nuts and started an all out war against ninjas, then the entire human race.

Hinata, oblivious to the conversation and private thoughts of any who stood on the balconies, darted forward, her hands pulsing with energy. Warned previously of the ability of the Hyuuga clan, Temari dodged the glowing hands, knowing it would only mean her doom if she was to be hit. The sand nin flipped, balanced upside down precariously on her empty hand, then sent a foot into Hinata's stomach.

Gasping in pain, the smaller girl stumbled away, her hands clenching her stomach and giving Temari just enough time to right herself and open up her fan a little more. She waved it in Hinata's general direction with more force this time, hurling the smaller girl back with the power of the winds.

Hinata was slammed against the wall with a soft cry, and landed on her knees. She coughed heavily, stubbornly pushing herself back to her feet. _I must get past that wind!_ She thought, mind quickly going over her options. Weapons weren't working and she wasn't sure if using a jutsu would be that much of a help either. _That fan.._ she thought, silver eyes narrowing on it, _I must get that out of her hands._

The Hyuugas use a special fighting style that can cripple a ninja in a fight. Temari thought to herself, eyes narrowed on the small girl in front of her. _I saw that much from that other Hyuuga's battle with that stretchy leaf nin. I cannot risk being touched by her hands. _She slid into a defensive position, cautious eyes watching for the girl's next move.

Hinata grabbed a tagged kunai out of her pouch and hurled it at the ground between them. It exploded, hurling bits of rock and concrete everywhere. Blinking rapidly to get the dust out of her eyes, Temari jumped back, her eyes watering as she attempted to rub the dust out them with her free hand. _She's trying to blind me!_ Using her ears, she could hear a rapid concession of exploding poofs as smoke bombs were tossed all around her, shrouding the entire ring in smoke and dust.

With a smirk, Temari opened her fan all the way and was about to blow all of the smoke away when Hinata suddenly appeared at her shoulder and stabbed a glowing kunai through the thick paper of the fan. With a curse, Temari swung her useless weapon in her direction. Hinata twisted out of the way, and turned back to shove two glowing fingers directly into the other girl's bicep.

For a movement, Temari's bicep froze in numbness, leaving her unable to carry her weapon. It dropped heavily on her unprotected foot. She cursed darkly, giving into the reflexive urge to hop on her good foot while holding the other. Hinata took this time to steal away the fan, having no way of knowing whether or not Temari had extra paper on her for fixing of her fan.

Hayate jumped out of the ring and landed in one of the balconies. It was not very good for their village's reputation for the examiner to get killed because one of the opponents thought he was the other.  
_  
Good!_ Neji thought, more engaged with the battle than he could have hoped. His byakugan was activated, allowing him to easily see through the smoke. _Use your best ability to your advantage! That's the only way you can win this match!_

Temari, through her red and watering eyes, peered vainly into the smoke around her. She pulled out a kunai, hating to have to resort to such ancient and old school ninja weapons when her fan was a thousand times better. _Where is that brat?_ She wondered before promptly pivoting on her heel when she saw a shadowy form. "Ha! Got you now!" she cried triumphantly, swinging her kunai at the shadowy figure. It went through easily, revealing the presence of a bunshin.

Once again, Hinata came out of nowhere, pushing glowing fingers with deceptive softness into points of Temari's body that glowed the brightest. The Hyuuga didn't have the power to see the entire inner coil system yet, but she could make out the tenketsu since the glow of those chakra points were as almost as bright as metal glinting in the sun.

Temari was not in a good mood. Her knowledge of jutsu was weak in comparison to her brothers, simply because she had no need for attacks outside of her fan. She knew she was whining when she thought to herself 'It's not fair!' but even Gaara had that weakness himself. Because of the protection and the mobility of the cursed sand, he didn't have to do much more than stand and watch as his opponent died, but it also weakened him. If a ninja was ever fast enough to get by his shield of sand, Gaara wouldn't be able to fight in hand to hand combat since the red head knew little to none of any sort of taijutsu.

Grabbing the smaller girl's retreating hand, Temari hurled the smaller girl over her shoulder easily and without remorse when the girl cried out. She did not have that same weakness.

Hinata's head slammed against the ground. It was only instincts that had her twisting her wrist out of the blond's grip and rolling away before she could do anything else. By this time, the smoke had already faded away and Hinata had not the resources to keep it up. Dizzy and trying to focus on the blurry visions in front of her, she could only crouch in that half kneeling position, feeling for blood in her hair.

She knew she'd recover faster if she just turned off her byakugan, but she didn't want to take that risk. Watching as the form of Temari looked left and right, no doubt looking for where Hinata hid the massive fan, Hinata's focus kept on going in and through the sand nin. Suddenly, when her focus zoomed in on the skeletal structure, then the massive workings of muscle and veins, she had an idea.  
_  
If one gets dizzy when one looses a pint of blood, then.. maybe if I.. _She frowned, a little concerned with her own plan. If she didn't use precise control, she could end up severing something and killing the other girl. She knew it wasn't the time to experiment, but she wasn't about to lose, not when Naruto, Shino, and Neji were watching. She refused to disappoint those who knew about her special training.

There was a displeased twist to Temari's lips. "Where's my fan, brat?" she asked in a clipped voice. The sharp tone unforgivably scraped on Hinata's throbbing head. She gritted her teeth in annoyance at the way she was addressed by the other genin. _I am **not** a brat._

The Hyuuga stood, a slight shrug of the shoulders revealing the pride of the least prideful Hyuuga. "I dunno." Hinata said innocently, adopting a look she had seen Naruto pull off time and time again. Her eyes were wide in her mock sincerity as she shrugged again. "Maybe you dropped it?"

Naruto watched with wide eyes. "Tell me, Shino.." he muttered out of the corner of his mouth to his silent companion. "Are my ears still screwed up, or did I hear Hinata just trying to bull shit Temari?"

Sasuke looked over, surprised to see that Shino was trying desperately to hide a smile. "Well,a shinobi must be experts in the art of.. how you say.. 'bull shitting'. It just surprises and amuses me that, since Hinata herself is not someone who'd lie regularly and must copy the antics of someone else to make it seem more believable, she'd actually copy _you_." he said calmly, the corner of his mouth twitching up. "She's not trying to lie. Her temper has been sparked. She's _mocking_ that girl."

Naruto looked over the small girl carefully, disbelief coloring his voice. He didn't know if it had anything to do with Hinata actually having a temper, or that she'd actually mock him. "How the hell do you get that?" he asked, truly not seeing it.

Sasuke answered. "It's that look. The way she stands. And the way she's mimicking you so perfectly that you can tell that she really is lying." he shoved Naruto's shoulder with a smirk. "You're a _horrible_ liar."

Naruto stared at him in shock before immediately going into denial. Not only was there the fact that Kyuubi was bemoaning the fact that he hadn't fully taught Naruto the 'art of bull shitting', but also the fact that he had been lying to them for a long time. He smirked, deciding that it simply was not the case. If he really was such a horrible liar, then they be able to tell that he lied about nearly-

"And you lie all the time." Kakashi added in helpfully. "If I didn't want to know when you were lying, I'd teach you the best way to lie myself." _Dammit_. Naruto cursed to himself. Lying wasn't really such a big deal in ninja society. It was getting caught that was the trouble!

"Ha!" Sasuke smirked, sending a half glare back at his teacher. "This is from the guy who lies so ridiculously with his excuses that Naruto and Sakura call you on it every time!"

Kakashi beamed at him. "It's all about strategy, Sasuke! Underneath the underneath." He looked back down to his book, whistling lighting under his breath, making everyone else wonder if what he said had any meaning at all. Naruto blinked, then cursed again when it suddenly made sense. _Tricky bastard.._

While Naruto had his sudden epiphany about his teacher's questionable habits, Hinata faced down Temari with a determined stare. The other girl was more focused on getting her fan back than fighting with the leaf nin. She squared her shoulder and tried very hard not to get mad.

Was she so small, so insignificant in that girl's eyes that she was ignored in favor of a broken _fan_? The smart remark lingering on her tongue was out before she could think about the consequences. "No need to look at yourself in the reflection of the metal. I can tell you right now that the view isn't pretty." She winced slightly, deciding to take a course in proper insults from Kiba or Naruto. Or Neji. Heck, even Shino knew how to piss off a ninja better than she did.

Temari wasn't mad, but strangely amused. _That's it._ She thought to herself. _I've lost it. Fighting the urge to smile when someone's insulted me.. damn, someone toss me in an asylum now_. She put a hand on her hip and looked at Hinata with an incredulous expression. "Are you talking to _me_, chibi?"  
_  
Now, what would Naruto say? _"Damn straight." It came out slower than she could have hoped and she had to resist the urge to wince when the curse came out of her mouth. "You're in the middle of a battle with a _Hyuuga _and you care more about materialistic things than the battle in front of you?" she sighed heavily, mockingly shaking her head. "You give a bad name to us kunoichis." _This is actually.. kind of fun. _Despite the fact that it went against everything she was, she still did it, knowing that it would make the other kunoichi off guard, either in anger or disbelief. And, to a ninja, every advantage counted, even one won in such a petty way.

Startled, Tenten started to laugh. "Oh man, that's a knee slapper!" she said, nudging a shocked Neji in the ribs. "Look, Neji-kun! Sweet little Hinata-chan bites!"

"This is hardly amusing." he said imperviously, drawing himself together and pretending that he hadn't been shocked to see his cousin use such low tactics. "Stop laughing." His team mate ignored him in favor of cheering Hinata on heartily, a call that was just as enthusiastically echoed by a chuckling Naruto.

Temari took out a kunai, annoyed to see that the one she had before had also gone missing. _Either I have butter fingers or that girl has exceptionally nimble ones._ Without saying a word, either in her defense or to shut up those two laughing fools in the balconies, giggling helplessly over some inside joke, but ran up to the still girl and thrusted the kunai into her chest.

The kunai scraped harshly against metal, explaining why the girl hadn't move. With a poof of smoke, the still genin suddenly became Temari's beloved fan._ A replacement..!_ The ground was loose underneath her feet as alert eyes tried to pick out where the smaller girl had hid, revealing that she was standing near the area where Hinata first threw her tagged kunai. She nearly slipped on the loose bits of concrete as she pivoted._ Not left, not right.._ Suddenly remembering the fight between a different leaf genin and a certain Uchiha, she looked up, almost expecting for Hinata to be hanging off the rafters like an over grown bird. As it turned out, the sand nin looked up at a critical time, one that lead to the end of the match and what could have been avoided if she had forgot about Tenten and Sasuke's fight._  
_  
Hinata burst from the ground from behind Temari, glowing fingers gently pressing into the taller girl's neck. Too slow, Temari attempted to turn around and attack her, but found herself falling into the smaller girl's arms when unconsciousness hit her.

Feeling no attempts at resisting from the girl, Hinata took her fingers away, white eyes carefully looking the girl up and down to make sure she hadn't done any lasting damage. By blocking the flow of blood to the girl's brain for a few seconds, she had been able to knock the girl out. It was a risky move. What if she had severed a vein instead of just blocking it? Then she'd be holding a very dead Temari, not just a very sleepy one.

Biting her lip, Hinata looked over the girl again to make sure that there was no damage, oblivious that the examiner announced her victory until people started cheering. She started, wide and surprised eyes watching as Naruto, a feeble and newly arrived Kiba practically hanging off his shoulder, and a smiling Shino jumped over the railing to meet her.

"Don't go so fast, you worthless bastard!" Kiba growled out when Naruto immediately started towards Hinata. With a snort, Naruto ducked out from under Kiba's arm. The dog user lost his balance and, if it wasn't for Shino pushing him the other way and away from him, would have fallen flat on his face. "Yeah, you better walk away, you damn sadist!" Naruto turned just long enough to flash Kiba a rude gesture and a less than savory invitation.

Tenten, the newly arrived duo, Lee and Sakura, Sasuke and Neji calmly came after them. Team Ten stayed in the infirmary, either because Shikamaru didn't want Ino to get out of bed yet, or because Chouji was discovering the wonders of hospital food which, though vile tasting, came in great quantities.

With a grin, Naruto ran up to her and hugged her close, almost lifting her off of her feet. Temari, as she fell out of Hinata's lap, was quickly picked up a dark blur and carried back up the balcony. The others caught up to Naruto quickly. "Yay!" he said to her, eyes twinkling brightly. "You do realize that you're the only girl to get past the prelims, right?"

"Great job Hinata-chan!" Kiba said, not to be outdone. "You totally kicked ass!" Shino just nodded, but elbowed Kiba, muttering something about how the other hadn't been to the match until the very last second and how he should keep his big mouth shut. Blushing in embarrassment and annoyance, he offered Shino the very rejected invitation that had been given to him by Naruto.

Hinata was tugged away from Naruto to be pulled into a hug from the affectionate Tenten. She was patted on the back from Lee and Sasuke, both saying their own versions of congratulations while Naruto tugged her lightly back. Hinata never felt more ready to pass out from her embarrassment. Never had so much attention been paid to her before. But it was the good kind of embarrassment, she decided proudly when she overheard Kiba threatening to 'sic' Hinata on Shino.

The Hyuuga felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see the stoic face of her cousin. "She _is_ a Hyuuga." Neji mentioned loftily. He shot a blank glance in Naruto's direction. "And don't embarrass me by doing something as immature as a victory dance." Naruto, who was about to break out and do that very thing, pouted immaturely and pretended to sniff in sorrow.

"He takes the fun out of everything." he told Hinata almost seriously, pitching his voice just loud enough so Neji could hear his every word. "He's so dull.. He needs a girlfriend!"

Neji ignored with with all of the air of a prince, but to his discomfort, he realized that Lee thought Naruto was being serious. "Yes, that's exactly what Gai-sensei and I were saying!" he said, bouncing from one foot to the other. "There's no better way to spend youth than with another!" With teary eyes, he gave Hinata and Naruto a thumbs up, his silent approval. Then his eyes sharpened. "As a matter of fact.." he started to turn to Sakura but found him faced with an impassive Uchiha who had moved between them.

"No." he said with something that resembled a grimace. "You can't have her." Sakura scowled at the back of Sasuke's head. _What am I, a damsel being fought over by two warriors in a cheesy romance? Sasuke, you're such a jealous bastard, I swear.. _She hadn't entertained thoughts of them being together for quite a while and thought she was over her childish crush, but the strange way he worded his next statement, while making her annoyed again, also made her heart quicken and Inner Sakura to sigh dreamily. "While she's on Team Seven, she's mine."

Narutostarted laughing so hard that he was nearly howling with glee. _Damn, that couldn't have gone any better even if **I** had a hand in it!_ He thought, watching as Sasuke's face flushed slightly when he realized what he just said. Before he could tease Sasuke about his runaway mouth, someone cleared their throat loudly, a not so subtle gesture for them to be quiet.

"Yes, we all are happy that Hinata is okay." Sarutobi was amused as he smiled down at the blushing girl. "But may we continue on?" The other ninjas jumped down to the ring with the enthusiastic leaf nins.

Kankurou was upset. He wasn't upset at the fact that Temari(who he had darted around excited leaf nins to grab before she was trampled to death) lost, but at the fact that, _because_ Temari lost, Gaara might kill her. His mind moved quickly, trying to figure out a good excuse or some reason why Temari lost(besides underestimating a Hyuuga). _If I ran.._ he thought, shifting Temari's weight in his arms. _Would he be able to catch up to me?_ His blood ran cold at the thought, knowing that Gaara would be faster and stronger, and also without the need to sleep, he would be caught up to so quickly that he'd barely hear the call of the attack before he died. Trying to calm himself down enough to be somewhat diplomatic, he turned to his younger brother, mouth opening to defend his sister's life, only to see that Gaara had his eyes on the leaf nins.

"They're so.. united." Gaara murmured to himself, watching as Kiba and Naruto grinned at one another after the former made a comment that had the Uchiha seething in anger. Kankurou blinked. Sakura slung her arm over Naruto and Hinata's shoulders after smacking the kitsune host in the back of the head and said something to Tenten that had them all laughing. Naruto and Hinata blushed. "Why, when he's a.."

"Um.." Kankurou wasn't sure where Gaara's line of thinking, or even if it was going anywhere. Gaara suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and leveled a glare at him. The puppet user straightened and swallowed harshly.

"It is better this way. She can be back up." he said coldly, walking towards the group so he could hear what the Hokage was going to say. He lingered to the left of Naruto, amused that everyone but the blond gave him ten feet wide bubble space. Kankurou breathed a sigh of relief, glad that his sister still had her life.

Sarutobi looked over them all warmly. "Congratulations on your fights! Whether you won or lost, you part today leaving with something you did not have before, knowledge of and friendship with ninjas outside your village." Gaara snorted. Defending the Hokage, Naruto elbowed the sand nin in such a natural and uncaring movement that, instead of killing the blond for touching his perfect person, Gaara stared at him in shock. _He must.. not know that it is I who stands next to him._ He decided, covering up his surprise with a glare, about to threaten to kill the other demon host when the blond spoke.

"I know you're just rearing to go and kill someone, but show some self control, you uptight asshole." Naruto muttered, not looking at Gaara directly. _He did know!_ That made Gaara even angrier, besides the jab at his iron clad control. Sand started to pour out of his gourd.

Naruto, still without looking directly at Gaara, shot out his hand and poked Gaara in the shoulder. To anyone but Gaara, it seemed to be nothing more than a harmless tap. But the truth was that, in that specific area and with the right amount of chakra, Naruto's poke was almost as deadly as a Hyuuga's.

The sand coming up behind Gaara suddenly twisted as if in agony and fell to the floor. Gaara flinched, shuddering at the feel of Shukaku twisting away from the touch. _How the hell did he know where my seal is?_ He thought to himself in pain. Shukaku had not an answer, nor a sarcastic comment, merely whining in pain. Naruto finally looked at the other demon, his eyes stained red.

"There's a time and a place for that sorta thing." he said in a low growl. "The time isn't now, nor is the place when my Hokage is trying to talk to us or while we're standing in the midst of other people. If you do wanna fight me, oh and I _know_ you do, we'll fight a month from now in the final exam, and I will show you why we foxes are superior to you raccoons." He twisted his fingers in the seal, ignoring the way that Gaara flinched as he increased the amount of chakra he had in his fingers. "Oh, and if you feel the urge to kill anyone in this period of time, I'll seal your ass along with that ugly ass raccoon to the toilet of the Fire Lord." He tilted his head to the side, his smirk nothing but sadistic and wicked. "And, judging by the look on your face, you're very aware of the lord's.. how you say.. _irregular bowel movements_." He glared once more before removing the painful sensation from a suddenly passive Gaara. "Behave."

And then the future Rokudaime left, having missed the last of Sarutobi's speech because of his main concern of making sure Gaara didn't do anything stupid, but completely privy to the gleeful and proud laughter of the fox within him. Gaara stared at his back, a hand gently massaging his shoulder as his two siblings stared at him, wondering just who the hell that little blond was and how nuts he was to have enough balls to push around the sand's strongest shinobi.

* * *

No matter how someone looked at it, or tried to dress it up pretty, the truth of the matter was that Konohamaru was really annoyed at Naruto. No, it hadn't been the glamor of the Uchiha genius rookie, or the brute strength of the dog user rookie that had caught his eye, but the loud and clanless dead last.

And, no matter how Konohamaru tried to approach the blond, he'd just nod distractedly and pat him on the head, saying something along the lines of 'Not now, Konohamaru.'

It was frustrating as hell! Konohamaru sat down heavily in the part of the training area that he had claimed for his own, tossed his back pack roughly on the ground, and opening it quickly as he sat down.

"'Oh, Konohamaru-sama!'" he murmured to himself in a high pitched voice, making the makeshift doll in his hand shake a little. It had scraps of black and green as clothes, a scrap of metal glued to its forehead with a leaf scratched on it, and short yellow yarn for hair. "'I'm so lame.. I wanna be just like you!'"

"Are we playing with dolls again, Konohamaru-chan?" Konohamaru started, almost throwing the doll away from him in his haste to hide it when he recognized the voice.

Carefully loosing his grip on the cheerfully smiling doll, he shot a glare at the two standing behind him. "How many times do I hafta tell you?" he snapped out crankily. "We're not playing, we're strategising!" he sighed at their behavior and pushed himself to his feet. "Report!"

During his regime against Naruto, Konohamaru had realized that in every fight he got into, every argument he posed against Iruka, there were always two others standing behind him, Udon and Moegi. He mostly ignored them, even though they nearly always were the ones pulling him out of trouble. The use he saw for them was for them to spy on Team Seven, or more importantly, his arch nemesis Uzumaki Naruto.

The two straightened and saluted him, quickly lining up. "Weakness number one: Ramen!" Udon called out, sniffling slightly. Konohamaru nodded seriously, glad to see that they had taken the mission that he sent them on seriously.

"Weakness number two: Frogs!" Moegi called out in a singsong voice.

"Weakness number three: Haruno- Ack!" Udon started to say before he was pulled into a head lock.

"I'm telling you, it's not that pink girl! It's the blue one!" she insisted angrily, obviously a topic that they had discussed before.

Coughing weakly and turning blue, Udon defended his claim. "But t-they're on the same- Ack!"

"It's the blue one!" Moegi shouted, tightening her grip on the other boy.

"Err.." A little nervous of his tom boy subordinate, Konohamaru backed up a little before posing his question. "What are you talking about?"

Moegi, with a heavy sigh and a mumbled 'men' under her breath, dropped Udon, who fell on the ground and gasped for breath. "Naruto-kun has a-" she wiggled her pinky and grinned. Then promptly, she planted her foot in the middle of Udon's back, her temper flaring almost visibly. "And it is not the pink one!" Somehow, Udon could have sworn Moegi had muttered something under her breath like how much better the blue doll came out than the pink one.

Squeaking, Konohamaru backed up some more. "I believe you!" he cried, bringing his arms up to protect his head. Oblivious to his fear, Moegi beamed at him, and pulled some thing out of her bag.

"Look!" she said with a shy smile, extending the wrapped bundle to him. Suspiciously, Konohamaru took it from her, unwrapping it to reveal a doll much like the one he had made of Naruto. It had white buttons for eyes, blue yarn for hair, and pieces of tan material to make up the clothing. "You can play with this doll too!"

It took Konohamaru a few seconds to realize that she said. "We're not playing!" he said for the hundredth time. "And they're not dolls, they're.. t-they're action figures!" Yet, he didn't give the doll back, merely rested it by the other one. Looking serious, Moegi nodded, screwing her face up in concentration as she tried to make sure she didn't forget her leader's true purpose for playing with his dolls.. er.. actions figures,again.

"Er.. Can you get off of me please? I'm allergic to grass." Udon muttered thickly.

"Wimp!" Moegi declared, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm not allergic to anything!"

"Get off of him, we must strategise!" Konohamaru said with flourish, sitting down promptly on the ground. The other two nodded, one with his nose in the grass, and made preparations to sit across from their leader.

"Hey.." Moegi mumbled out of the corner of her mouth to Udon. "What does strategise mean?" Udon coughed, lying his jacket on the ground before he sat on it.

"I think it means we're gonna be playing with his dolls." he muttered back after he made sure he was sitting in the exact middle of his jacket.

"Oh, okay."

And so, the troublesome trio strategised(or played) much throughout the day, coming up with schemes and plans to foil Konohamaru's evil arch nemesis Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, well into his first day of the month period in which he needed to train for the Chuunin Final Exam, had no idea what sort of troubles would find him in those few weeks.

* * *

TBC

This chapter almost didn't come out at all. All three computers in our possessions died tragic deaths, or so I thought. Give your thanks for receiving this chapter not to me, but to my friend who said 'screw this', went to Best Buy, and bought the highly expensive program that revived all of our computers. Yay.  
And I don't know if Gaara's seal is on his shoulder, or if he even has a seal at all. But I thought making the seal on the stomach was not very creative so..-grins- Artistic license has struck again!

Glimpse into the future- Well into his first day of freedom(or hell, if one did not like training), Naruto gets one of the biggest (pleasant)shocks of his life. Ino comes back into the limelight, Tsunade corners Sakura, and Sasuke gets started with his training.

_Naruto's blood ran cold at the sight of that girl. He paid no mind to her words, looking instead where she had run out of. Large and imposing, the hospital loomed over them. Hoping against hope, he pulled himself away from her and ran through the doors, ignoring how his friends and that girl shouted after him and followed him quickly.  
He ducked around nurses, hopped over patients, and ignored the few who shouted that the hospital was not a play ground. Somehow, perhaps the baser instincts of the Kyuubi rearing its head, he could smell the boy's unique scent, even through the thicker scents of the hospital. He followed that scent as directly as he'd follow a red flashing sign pointing in the direction of the boy.  
He opened the door, feeling a bit of an ominous twist of his stomach when he realized the number of the room was six hundred and sixty-six. Naruto, without care for the surprised Tsunade and Shizune standing at the boy's feet, pushed in the room, desperate eyes seeking out the condition of the pale faced boy.  
His progress was somewhat halted by an Anbu standing by the door way, but without hesitation, Naruto reached up and grabbed the hand that stopped him, twisting the wrist to the point of pain before the Anbu let go.  
Uncaring of the Anbu's hidden but shocked expression, he walked up to the bed, looking down at the seemingly weak looking boy. His dark locks hung limply around his face, a few sticking to his chest as he frowned in his sleep. His knees weakened and refused to hold him upright. He didn't care who saw him tumble to the ground, his only support being his firm grip on the railings of the hospital bed. That familiar face was pale and sickly, but the beeping of the heart monitor reassured him that the boy was still alive.  
**But for how long?** He questioned himself furiously, turning sharp blue eyes with the barest hint of a slit pupil on first the two medic nins, then the angry Anbu. Something close to a snarl exposed a fang, but his instinctual challenge to them was cut off when someone jumped him from the side, wrapping strong arms around his body._


	42. Red Clouds and Bloody Dreams

My logic, when confronted as to whether the writing on Gaara's forehead is his seal, is that Gaara, when he was born, had Shukaku inside of him, and then after his uncle(an't remember his name) betrayed him, he got the mark, which is completely canon(in the anime, I'm sure, but I don't remember the manga). So, still going with my logic, it cannot be the seal of Shukaku because it was there afterwards.

* * *

For the Love of my Friends 

Chapter Forty-two: Red Clouds and Bloody Dreams

by Foxie

* * *

"Come on, please? Teach me the Shunshin technique!" Jiraiya sighed heavily, trying to tune out the slightly whiny tone that his newest student had adopted. His binoculars weren't quite working. A suspicious sticky substance, most likely mud or clay, had found itself clamped and dried onto his lens sometime between his early peep into the hot springs and coming to train Naruto. 

Whatever it was, he scraped it off and aimed them in the general direction of the nearest river. Instead of the giggly women he could hear from his present position, all he saw was two very big blue eyes.

Jolted at the sight, he jumped back, trying to looking disapproving even as his student, who had moved in the way of his view, laughed at him. "Aren't you supposed to be training?" Jiraiya grumbled, calming his heart.

Naruto crossed his arms behind his head and pouted at him. "How am I supposed to train if you don't teach me anything new?" It was a very valid question, the frog hermit realized. But it wasn't his fault that every time he taught the boy something, it turned out that he could already knew it, and could do it very well.

Jiraiya didn't know who could have taught him a summoning jutsu, rasengan, or the countless other tricks and jutsus that he allowed very few to be privy to. The Hokage didn't take any new students, and there was no other student that Jiraiya had taught that came to even the beginning stages of the rasengan, only his prized student, a certain blond who bore much resemblance to Naruto. And he was dead.

"You know, you're just a difficult as he was." he told Naruto with a nostalgic smile.

"Eh?" Naruto blinked at him, used to periods of time where the frog hermit would go silent and think, but not at all a mind reader who could figure out what he was thinking.

"The Yondaime, naturally." Jiraiya said with a bit of surprise. "Hasn't anyone told you that?"

_You have. _He thought to himself. _So has Sarutobi and Tsunade. But no one else._ "Let's just say that no one wants to associate the evil demon child of their village with their greatest hero." he said flatly.

Jiraiya frowned, not at all pleased with the way Naruto referred to himself. "You aren't a demon." he said firmly.

"But I'm not very human either." Naruto countered with a shrug. "All that youki in me from infancy to now, you don't think it just sat there, do you?" He smiled, a strange smile that made Jiraiya wonder what had happened to him over the years. "Of course not. Kyuubi wouldn't want a weak host, after all. Such a great and powerful demon, his ego is too great for him to get even his host kicked the shit out of, after the pride crushing blow that the fourth Hokage dealt him when he got his fat ass crammed in a whiny human infant."

**Hey.** Kyuubi sniffed, a bit offended. **I'm not fat, I'm big boned**. Naruto had to smile at his tone of voice. The fox was really too vain for his own good.

"Kyuubi wasn't a great demon." Jiraiya said quietly.

"I didn't mean it the way you do." Naruto said just as quietly. "And don't presume you know him either. He may not be nice, but he isn't evil."

"Pardon?" the hermit rose to his full height. He spoke carefully, as if addressing a small child who was naïve to the truths of the world. "Kyuubi killed hundreds of thousands of people through the centuries."

"I know that. But everyone has their own motives." he tilted his head to the side, almost sizing Jiraiya up. "What was your motive the first time you killed someone? Can you even remember?" He shook his head. "Necessity, most likely. You were handed an order that you were expected to follow. You followed it. You're a ninja, that's what you do."

"And what Kyuubi did was necessity?" the old man asked incredulously.

Naruto shook his head. "That's the only thing that I didn't like about him, you know. His motive was revenge. Revenge is something that should be above demons, but he allowed for it to eat away at him until he was naught but a husk of what he used to be. You understand why I cannot hate him? He may be a demon, but he still is very human." He almost expected an explosive response from both the demon and the human, but was pleasantly surprised when both were silent.

Kyuubi didn't say a word, merely turning around Naruto's observation in his mind before reluctantly agreeing. **I don't think that the need for revenge or the sting of the loss of a loved one is purely a human trait.** He thought privately to himself. **But then why didn't the pack leader care that Nariko died?** He growled, remembering the older fox demon's calm blank face as he said that she deserved it for fleeing. **Because he was a fucking cold bastard, that's why!**

Naruto could feel Kyuubi's discontent, but was distracted by Jiraiya's sudden burst of laughter. "Eh?" he mumbled, blinking at the amused hermit.

_Damn, if I didn't know any better, I could have sworn that Yondaime was with me again._ He smiled to himself. _Compassion for even the demon that attacked our village. You were the only one to see the pain in that demon's eyes, weren't you, my old student? That's why you didn't resort to any type of killing jutsus. You wanted him to have a second chance through Naruto, even at the cost of your own life. _He chuckled again, helplessly amused at his dead student's illogical logic.

"Um.. old man?" Naruto said hesitantly. "Did you get hit in the head again? I could always go get Shizune-neechan.."

"What was it you wanted to learn? The body flicker technique?" the hermit interrupted, attempting to act gruff. "I dunno, aren't you a little scrawny for that?"

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, greatly offended. "I'll grow up to be so damn tall that you'll look up to me!"

"Oh, my apologies." Jiraiya said with a smirk. "Try to look out for us shorties when you're big and tall. Wouldn't want to crush us now.."

"I dunno, you're making it sound very tempting." Naruto snapped, closing his eyes against the blaring sun for a moment. "You know, you're a teacher, you should encouraging me instead of insulting me-" He opened his eyes, seeing the hermit walking away. "Hey!"

"Keep up the pace if you wanna learn that jutsu!" the hermit called lazily over his shoulder.

"He's actually.. gonna teach me it?" Naruto whispered to himself, trying to wrap his head around that new development. Then he realized that Jiraiya recognized that he was strong enough for the advanced jutsu. "Hells yes!" he whooped, running after Jiraiya. No one noticed a pair of angry gold eyes watching them leave.

* * *

Alright, so maybe Sakura's idea of training was a bit of a fluke. But it wasn't her fault, as she would swear. There was just only so much that one could learn from books and scrolls. Practice helped, but she really wasn't learning anything new.

_Hm, maybe I should volunteer at the hospital to get some hands on experience, though they'd never let me do anything really helpful without a license._ She had already researched the test to get the license and it looked very hard. The participants had to be able to 'recharge a dying spark of life' or whatever it was called. They all were to be given a fish that had suffocated on air only a few moments prior and had to revive it.

Of course, Sakura knew that revival jutsus were absolutely out of the question, since, like most kinjutsus, it was a pure equivalent exchange, a life for a life, and there was no point having a license if you were dead. So the idea of this 'spark of life' was very interesting to her.

The only problem was that none of the medic nins in training or nurses she had spoken to had any idea what the spark of life was. She supposed, with a frown, as she knew that they were extremely difficult to find, that she needed a actual medic nin to teach her the theory.

She blinked, abruptly pulled out of her musings on how to snag a medic nin when she suddenly felt cool, as if she had walked under some shade. But she hadn't moved from sitting outside of Ino's flower shop, having been told to stay put while the blond went to go put on her shoes so they could visit her aunt. It had been an unusually hot day, so she was grateful for the shade but.. she was also very paranoid.

She finally looked up from intensely inspecting the ground, almost shying away from the look on the woman in front of her. The older woman, beautiful and blond with piercing brown eyes, looked unnaturally stern, but almost had a smirk on her face.

"Um.. hi?" Sakura squeaked. "Are you here for.. flowers?"

"Hmph. If you mean Haruno Sakura, then yes." she crossed her arms over her ample chest. "You're her." It wasn't a question.

"Er.. yes." Sakura stood up and bowed, remembering her manners. "My name is Haruno Sakura. May I ask yours, and how you know mine, ma'am?"

The half smirk on the woman's face widened. "You'll figure out my name later, Haruno." the woman turned and started to walk away. After a few steps, she turned slightly, directing a look that made Sakura feel stupid. "Aren't you going to follow?"

"I.. uh... my friend-" she tried to explain, making expressive hand gestures towards the flower shop.

"Will forgive you." the strongest of the legendary three said impatiently. "Follow." The order was sharp and had Sakura moving after the woman quickly. Confused, Sakura gave one last look over to the shop before she decided to question the strange woman some more.

A few minutes later, Ino came out of the shop, declaring, "I'm ready!" She blinked, surprised when there was no biting remarks from her rival/friend. The blond looked around, frowning when she saw no pink heads of hair anywhere. "She left!" Ino pouted. "How rude."

All pettiness aside, Ino knew Sakura would only leave after promising to stay if she had something that came up suddenly. The only reason why Ino still cursed Sakura is that Ino didn't want to go to Maemi's house alone. She realized, of course, that the only other option would be to invite Shikamaru-

She violently shook her head. After his negative reaction to her bout of dizziness that had nearly had her tumbling into a ditch, she didn't want him hovering over her like a overprotective parent. _Especially_ since she had a vision.

Short and to the point, it wasn't as vivid as the one she had with Kankurou, but it still had her feeling weak. It had flashed over her sight and her senses when Chouji had started to tug her home, being just as overly protective as his best friend.

Shikamaru, not much older than he was presently but with the strange addition of a flak jacket, had been jumping from tree to tree in quick pursuit of Kiba and Akamaru in front of him. They were no doubt using their uncanny sense of smell to track something. Behind him were the two Hyuugas, Hinata and Neji, their byakugans flashing a dangerous white in the darkening day. Shino and Chouji were to their left, Sakura and Sasuke were to their right. Bringing up the rear of the party of ninjas was Tenten, Lee, and, to her great surprise, herself.  
There was only one line of dialogue she caught going through the silent and grim party of ninjas. Kiba, with a fearsome snarl, had reared back violently and stopped. Everyone else had been forced to stop as well, lest they run into the very angry Inuzuka. "I smell his blood!" The simple line had made the party freeze up and fear flash thorough their eyes. And then she had fallen out of the vision, only to find Shikamaru and Chouji looking over her worriedly. Ino, feeling defensive, had lied to them and said she had low blood sugar and just needed to get home and eat something.

Chouji accepted that, but, from the expression that she saw on her friend's face, Shikamaru did not. It made her cringe more in guilt to lie to Shikamaru than Chouji, simply because she had shared so much with the lazy ninja.

_By myself, with an over protective male, or not at all._ She weighed the decision in her mind. She didn't want to see Maemi alone because the older woman was so eerie, but Shikamaru would be angry(or at least annoyed, since he didn't seem to have the will power to be angry) that she lied to him if she told him the reason behind her visit. But it would be even worse to not go to her aunt to see just the heck was going on with her. What if her visions were detrimental to her health? After all, it had made her lose the match with that odd puppet user. If she had faced someone else, it was likely that she would have lost a lot more than a battle.

"Okay. By myself it is." she decided firmly. "Be strong, Yamanaka! Eerie or not, Aunty will have the answers!"

* * *

The smooth flow of an outward thrust of his fist, the brief pause that proceeded a roundhouse kick that ended with his sharp pivot. His eyes were closed, but he was aware of every piece of furniture in his room that he might bump into, every wall and the single door.

He smirked, deciding that, even though sparring by oneself was boring, his form was almost perfect. If there had been an actual opponent, he'd be on his hands and knees. Or so he imagined. A taller boy struck down for his previous transgressions, staring up at him with surprised dark eyes as his younger brother swiftly brought his doom-

Sasuke lost his concentration, too shaken by the mental image. No matter how much he wanted to hate his brother, just even imagining the older boy on his knees made Sasuke feel sick. Itachi had always been the strongest one, even on his darkest day. He had always been the one looking down on Sasuke, even when he was tending to his injuries. He was always the one that people held up high on a pedestal, even after he had dealt such a brutal blow on the Uchiha clan.

He could still hear the Academy teachers say how great of a ninja Itachi was to the leaf, then sadly shake their heads, as if Itachi had been the victim. It had taken everything in Sasuke not to run up and throttle the teacher, and he had been only nine years old.

It helped somewhat that Naruto, tiny even then, had jumped up, proclaiming that Itachi was an ass and one day, when he naturally became Hokage, he'd take him down in one blow. Sasuke remembered feeling relieved that someone saw Itachi the same way that he did, even if he barely knew the loud blond child. However, when Sasuke debated on extending a hand of friendship to him, he remembered Itachi's cold words, predicting that the only way that he could be beaten was to sever the ties of friendship with a close friend with a intent to kill.

Sasuke closed his eyes, remembering the cold shiver that had gone through him. Ever since, he tried to keep the blond at an arms distance away, not wanting for the first true ally he had against Itachi to die by his own hands.

Of course, Naruto butted his head into his life anyway. Sighing, Sasuke slid from his defensive stance, staring blankly at the wall. How did Naruto factor into his intense training for the Chuunin Exam, and, ultimately, Itachi? It was all because the damn idiot had yet to come over and paint over his obnoxious comic. As if Naruto could ever summon up enough power to beat an Uchiha.

Ego fluffed up enough for the day, Sasuke stretched and walked out of his room, sighing at the satisfying crack of his spine. The prelims had wrapped up rather quickly after Hinata's fight. The Hokage spoke a few words and allowed for them to go home.

Nothing really noteworthy happened after that. Ino was firmly escorted home by her two grim team mates, who both ignored her thinly veiled threats on their lives.

"_Come on, Ino_." Chouji had said quietly. "_If you fall like that again, you might get hurt_."

"_I'm not a child!_" Ino had cried, stomping her foot. "_I just was a little dizzy_."

"_Imagine if you got a 'little dizzy' on your way home_." Shikamaru had countered, tugging her arm. "_You'll fall in a dark alley and we wouldn't be able to find you for days. Think of all that grime and dirt and rats getting in your precious hair_." That was the only thing that snapped the blond's mouth shut.

Kiba and Akamaru got distracted by the smell of meat and ran off towards it, Shino wandered off as he often did, without saying anything to the unofficial group he had been traveling with, and Tenten and Lee disappeared into nowhere. Sakura trailed after Ino and her team, and Hinata passed out halfway home, making Naruto spazz like a mother hen before he finally picked her up and headed for the Hyuuga estate, Neji hot on his heels.

He hadn't seen any of them since. His time had mostly been monopolized by Kakashi and by his own training schedule. Sasuke shook his head as he poured himself something to drink, thinking about Kakashi's training.

The rain beat against the roofs of Konoha, making a gentle music that calmed Sasuke even as he struggled to be annoyed. He looked outside, eyes faded from the red of the sharingan to his normal dark eyes as he viewed the heavy clouds and the falling rain.

The jonin was just getting around to teaching him about the sharingan and would only see him one day a week, insisting to the increasingly annoyed Sasuke that he'd need those other days to recover. Sasuke, hardly ever the one to undermine authority, firmly ignored Kakashi's suggestion to rest.

He wasn't just training for some silly exam. He was training for the day he finally took his place as the strongest of Team Seven, he was training for his friends, but still, he was mostly training for Itachi, the vile- He opened the door to his bathroom, suddenly wide taking in the form in front of him.

"Y-you!" he sputtered, helpless to do anything but stand still under those red eyes. Almost kindly, those eyes regarded him, flashing out from the shadows like the eyes of a cat.

"You can't let your guard down, even in your own home, you foolish little boy." he said quietly. Sasuke, suddenly remembering himself, jumped back a few paces, hands groping futilely for his kunai that was not there.

A flash of a dark cloak was all that Sasuke saw before a hand slammed into his stomach. Coughing violently as his breath was stolen from him, he nearly fell over. All it took was a touch to his neck before the Uchiha prodigy was out.

"Truly, you seem to not possess any capabilities to take care of yourself." the man said quietly to himself, almost amused. "Should I have taken you with me the night I destroyed our clan?" He tossed the limp boy over his shoulders with a sigh. "This is the last freebie I'll give you, foolish little brother. Next time, defend those eyes of yours by yourself." A dark look passed over his face. "If you cannot at least do that, then I _will_ kill you."

Ten minutes later, a window was silently forced open and a sound nin crawled in, using his multiple arms to right himself quickly. He shook himself out, cursing Konoha and it's random rainy weather. Kidomaru looked around for the tell tale spiky black hair, but saw no one and sensed not a soul. He frowned, seeing all of Sasuke's personal ninja possessions lying neatly on a table.

Sasuke was missing, and not by the hands of any fellow sound nin. They would have left a sign for him. "Shit.." he mumbled to himself. "Orochimaru-sama is gonna be pissed.."

* * *

"So.. they found the last one on the steps of the Hokage tower?" Jiraiya leaned forward, pitching his voice low so it couldn't be heard over the clamor of lunch time traffic. People thankfully talked loud enough and his newest student was too focused on his bowl of ramen to pick out his words.

The ramen chef nodded seriously. "Yeah, just last night. There was a big fuss over it during the dinner rush hour. He wasn't just sleeping, the poor kid was _unconscious_. But the only injury on him was just a nasty bruise."

"Have they ruled out exhaustion?" the old man prodded further.

"Yes, the jonins that come here have said that it was a forced sleep. His stamina and his chakra hadn't been depleted or anything." The man wiped his hands off on his apron. "In fact, they say that he should be up in the matter of a few hours."

"So, I'm guessing that no one knows who could have done it." the frog hermit muttered with a heavy sigh.

"Oh, there's guesses. A lot of fingers point to the newcomers here for the Chuunin Exam. Some think that he's just doing it as a stunt, while many others think that it's a sign from one of the chuunin wannabes, the red head one from the sand. A sort of message like 'Here, I've beaten down the best of your rookies and the sole heir to one of your strongest clans. What are you going to do about it?'"

"Isn't that a little.. far fetched?" Jiraiya said disbelievingly. The man shrugged, passing an order to someone else before walking back over to the older man. "What do you think of the newcomers?"

The chef smiled. "The same thing everyone else in my social position think: money, money, money." he said jokingly. Jiraiya laughed.

"True true." he said grinning. "It must be your lucky year." Jiraiya looked down when he felt a tug on his shirt.

"Hey, old man! I'm done." Naruto said. He smiled cheekily. "You are paying right?"

Distractedly, the frog hermit agreed. "Sure, how much-" he blinked, staring at the towering pile of ramen bowls. "You've got to be _kidding_ me." Naturally, Naruto chose to disappear at that moment.

The chef laughed at the look on Jiraiya face. "True, it is a good year for me." he admitted. "But my number one customer will always be Naruto." He extended his hand. "Pay up." Jiraiya groaned, reaching for his wallet.

"Damn brat."

* * *

Snickering at his easy victory, Naruto slid through the crowds, silently recognizing many of the people who came for the Chuunin Exam. _Damn, this stupid test really does have a big turnout._ He thought, wondering why he never noticed it before. _And hell! The Final Exam isn't even here yet!_

He unconsciously let his eyes wander over the people as he let the crowd dictate where he was going. It didn't matter since Jiraiya could easily find him. His ears picked up the murmurs of the people around him.

".. damn brat of a dog nearly bit my finger off!" A group of young kids, surrounding a boy with the distinct Inuzuka traits and a rather mean looking dog, talked loudly, hanging out in front of a candy store.

"..why is he still so.. m-mean? He rejected m-me." A girl who Naruto vaguely recognized from the Academy sobbed to her two friends, who attempted to console her. He almost smirked when he saw the wrapped present in her hand was labeled to Sasuke. He knew it was mean, but he found it utterly amusing how far and to what lengths some people would go to be noticed by their crush. He could understand trying to be _better_ so his crush, who, in the past, had been Sakura, would notice him, since he had been like that through much of his teenage years, but what he found amusing, and almost sad, was how low some people were willing to go.

"Bananas, half price! You'll find no other village with better quality!" A merchant called out, displaying his bananas with pride. A ninja tried to sneak a banana from behind him, but the man suddenly pivoted and whacked him on the hand. "No touchie! Those are for _paying_ customers!"

A young girl and her father stood outside of a crowd, where a woman was loudly arguing with another. The girl, only about five years old, tugged on her father's sleeve. "Daddy, that lady looks mad, like Mommy when she found out what you were doing with Aunty in the back of the-" The father, blushing slightly, covered his daughter's mouth.

"Er.. not now, honey.." Naruto had to laugh. But it died when he heard the next bit of conversation.

".. that poor, poor Uchiha boy." He paused, looking at the group of old ladies from which the comment had come from. The oldest one shook her head sadly. "After the horror of his young life, why must he continue to endure such hardships now?"

Naruto frowned, feeling out of the loop. _What kinda hardships does Sasuke have now?_ He thought. _He has everything handed to him on a silver platter._ Too deep in his musings, he bumped into someone in front of him.

"Ah. Sorry about that-" he started to apologize, but was rudely cut off.

"Watch where you're fucking going, you stupid asshole!" the girl snapped, shoving him out of her way. "God, such good for nothing males.." Naruto stumbled out of the way, helpless to do anything but stare at the retreating back of Tayuya, one of the Sound Four he had brief contact with during his younger years.

Naruto's blood ran cold at the sight of that girl. He paid no mind to her words, looking instead where she had run out of. Large and imposing, the hospital loomed over them. _Oh no.. _he thought, cursing his own oblivious nature. He was so interested by the new groups of people that he failed to remember that the sound was a large part of that group. _Not now. Not Sasuke._ Though many would argue whether or not Naruto knew proper math, he knew anything plus the sound could only equal bad news. A powerful sound nin coming out of nowhere, people harping on about Sasuke and his recent troubles.. he knew it could mean only one thing. Sasuke must have been attacked.

Shikamaru ran towards Naruto, roughly shoving Tayuya out of the way, Chouji at his heels. "What's wrong?" he asked, worried about how pale Naruto had gotten. He and Chouji had been sitting outside of one of Chouji's favorite restaurants when he saw Naruto wandering by. Convincing his friend to go with him, he followed the blond all the to the front of the hospital, only to see the boy halted by a bad mouthing girl.

"Hey, you prick!" Tayuya yelled at him. "Watch where you're going!"

"Insufferable woman!" he mumbled, a little too cranky to brush it off."Why don't you watch your mouth!" Shikamaru snapped, turning to glare at the older girl. Nervous, Chouji shifted his weight from foot to foot, standing at Shikamaru's side.

Hoping against hope, Naruto pulled himself away from staring at her and ran through the doors, ignoring what his friends and that girl shouted at each other, no doubt causing a scene.

He ducked around nurses, hopped over patients, and ignored the few who shouted that the hospital was not a play ground. Somehow, perhaps the baser instincts of the Kyuubi rearing its head, he could smell Sasuke's unique scent, even through the thicker scents of medicine, blood, and death. He followed that scent as directly as he'd follow a red flashing sign pointing in the direction of his friend.

He opened the door, feeling a bit of an ominous twist of his stomach when he realized the number of the room was six hundred and sixty-six. Naruto, without care for the surprised Tsunade and Shizune standing at the boy's feet, pushed in the room, desperate eyes seeking out the condition of the pale faced boy.

His progress was somewhat halted by an Anbu standing by the door way, but without hesitation, Naruto reached up and grabbed the hand that stopped him, twisting the wrist to the point of pain before the Anbu let go.

Uncaring of the Anbu's hidden but shocked expression, he walked up to the bed, looking down at the seemingly weak looking boy. His dark locks hung limply around his face, a few sticking to his chest as he frowned in his sleep. _So calm.. so peaceful.._

Naruto's knees weakened and refused to hold him upright. He didn't care who saw him tumble to the ground, his only support being his firm grip on the railings of the hospital bed. That familiar face was pale and sickly, but the beeping of the heart monitor reassured him that the boy was still alive and safe.  
_  
But for how long?_ He questioned himself furiously, turning sharp blue eyes with the barest hint of a slit pupil on first the two medic nins, then the angry Anbu. _How long until Orochimaru comes to take him away from us again?_ Something close to a snarl exposed a fang, but his instinctual challenge to them was cut off when someone jumped him from the side, wrapping strong arms around his body.

"Naruto, calm down!" Sakura whispered, not letting go of him. She tried to ignore the waves of warm chakra that were starting to spike up inside of her blond team mate. _If his blood limit acts up, even Sasuke-kun could be hurt!_ She thought, trying to calm the growling boy down.

"But Sakura.." Naruto mumbled quietly. "Someone attacked _Sasuke_."

"I know." she said. "But he's fine, I promise. Tsunade-sama herself said so." Naruto looked at her with an unreadable look, then looked over her at Tsunade.

Even at such a low position on the ground, those hard, almost accusing eyes, made Tsunade's conscience twist in agony. _But why?_ She thought. _What could I have done to stop the boy from being attacked? It's not like my presence here changes anything.._

"He'll be fine, brat." she said calmly. "Just a few cuts and bruises, nothing serious. He might have a cold though. Someone left him on the steps of the Hokage tower last night while it was raining."

Naruto turned back to the bed, suddenly wanting to check Sasuke's neck to make sure, but unable with Sakura still trying to hold him back from.. He blinked. _What was I going to do?_ He was shaken to find that he couldn't quite remember, but was sure it would have been gory.

"Hm.. you two are already here." Kakashi walked in, late as always. "Somehow, I'm not surprised."

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura greeted, turning to her teacher. "Sasuke-kun was attacked!"

"That I am already aware of, Sakura." he said in a voice so calm that Naruto gritted his teeth in annoyance.

Why didn't anyone understand? Sasuke being attacked was more than just your everyday situation, especially when Orochimaru was in town. He stood, looking over his unconscious team mate critically before grabbing him by his shirt and tugging him on his side. Naruto moved aside the cloth of his shirt to bare the back of Sasuke's shoulder, looking for the distinctive curse seal flashing darkly on Sasuke's pale skin. He breathed a sigh of relief when there was nothing to be found. Only Shizune noticed his movements. Everyone else was talking.

"So no one knows who he was fighting with." Kakashi concluded with a sigh. "I told him to rest on his off days, not to start picking fights." He looked over at Naruto, who finally turned towards him. "Were you two fighting again?" he asked in a disapproving tone.

Naruto nearly growled. "We may be enemies on our worst days, but I would never leave Sasuke outside unconscious while it is _raining_, Kakashi-sensei. Not ever." he snapped angrily. He looked back at Sasuke. "And he wasn't doing any fighting, I bet. He was _attacked_."

"Do you have any proof of that?" Shizune asked quietly. Naruto didn't answer, but his shoulders hunched over. He did not.

"In any case, Sasuke should be able to tell us what happened when he wakes up." Tsunade said, clapping her hands. "Until then, get out. It's not visiting hours." she directed a look at Sakura. "You. Hokage tower at six. Don't be late."

With a hidden smile, Shizune ushered the conscious of the mutinous Team Seven out of the room. She came back in quickly after.

Tsunade looked at her assistant. "What's with that goofy look on your face?" she asked suspiciously. "What are you up to?"

"Hee hee." Shizune smiled again, hiding it with her hands. It didn't help. The amusement in her eyes was as clear as day. Tsunade scowled. "Nothing much." the younger woman said innocently.

"Dammit, what the hell is it?" the gambler demanded.

"Well.." Shizune dragged it out, a faint smirk on her face. "Take a good look around you." Tsunade arched an eyebrow, humoring her assistant by looking around the hospital room. "Recount what you have been doing today. And then, you'll finally understand why I am so amused."

"I'm in a hospital, and I've been training Sakura. What's so amusing about- oh." Tsunade scowled, realizing why Shizune was so delighted. "Damn."

"Hee hee.." Shizune giggled. "After all those years of swearing off any sort of medic duties, you suddenly start doing them again, simply because you're in Konoha. Is that why you refused to come back until Hokage-sama ordered you to?"

"Hmph." Tsunade tossed her hair, walking out of the room calmly. Shizune followed, resisting the urge to skip. "It doesn't mean anything."

"Of course." Shizune said.

"I'm not going to give up my deal with the old man. After this damn exam, I'm going to leave this town and never come back." Tsunade said firmly. "Not ever."

"Of course." Shizune said again.

"Just because I'm doing some.. _community service hours_, it doesn't mean that I have changed my mind about leaving. Because I will. Once this month is up. Gone forever." the older woman said, offhandedly grabbing a clipboard off of a comatose patient's bed, tsking at whatever amateur doctor had been treating him.

"Naturally." Shizune said, holding back a laugh.

Tsunade looked over at her, scowling darkly. "And I mean it too!"

"Who wouldn't believe you?" Shizune said, waving her hands in defense, but she still sounded too amused for Tsunade to believe her.

The older woman sighed, leaving the topic to be later argued over, and looked back at the clipboard. "Dammit."

* * *

"Naruto, I can't believe you almost attacked a sanin!" Sakura hissed, once Kakashi had left them in a cloud of smoke. They were in the entrance room of the hospital. Sakura had dragged the sullen boy off to the side, where no one could overhear their conversation. 

Naruto shuffled his feet, a little ashamed that he allowed his instincts to take control of him so easily, but wanting to save face in front of his team mate. "Wouldn't have been the first time." he said gruffly. Sakura's face gentled, seeing the downward slope of his shoulders and the way he refused to look at her.

"I know you're angry that Sasuke was attacked." she said quietly, resting a hand on his shoulder. He looked up, meeting her eyes. He was oddly relieved that she held the same notion as he, that Sasuke was the victim, not the aggressor. "I was too, when I heard. And I was also sort of.."

"Sort of.." Naruto echoed when she trailed off. Sakura swallowed, her eyes clouded over. She didn't say anything for a moment, then she seemed to come to a decision.

"I was very scared, Naruto." she said firmly. "Sasuke.. You and Sasuke-kun are the two strongest genins I know. If Sasuke could be taken down, then you can.. then where does that leave me?" she laughed suddenly. "Yeah, that kinda makes me seem a little selfish, right? But that's really all I think about. You two always are protecting, where ever we go. If the roles ever reversed, I don't think I could ever protect you guys the same way you protect me."

Naruto looked at her, smiling very slowly. Sakura, no matter how petty she was sometimes, always ended up being the only one to think of their safety. He often ran head on into trouble without thinking and Sasuke was just as bad, always thinking so highly of himself that he sometimes underestimated the strength of his opponent. "You'll get better." he said sincerely. "Someday, you'll be able to kick our asses, Sakura-chan. And, when I'm the Hokage, you'll be my right hand man!" he blinked, hurriedly correcting himself with a laugh. "Uh.. girl."

"And Sasuke?" she asked with a smile. It was nice to indulge in fantasies, she supposed, especially when she was feeling so down.

"My left hand man." Naruto stated, as if it could be no other way. "And Kakashi-sensei will lurk ominously in the background-"

"Perverted book in hand." Sakura added with a laugh. Naruto snickered at the mental image.

"And everyone else will be my loyal comrades! Thrown here and there, ya know. Shikamaru will be our Head Tactician, we'll have good relations with most villages but the sound, and we'll totally kick anyone's ass who tries to hurt our village or our country! You'll see, it's gonna be great." he said confidently.

"Why not the sound?" Sakura asked, wondering when Naruto had gotten such a grudge for the newly formed village. She would have thought, if he would have a grudge against any village, it would have been the sand, simply because Hinata almost was beaten by one of the sand nins.

"The sound.. bites." Naruto said with a half smile. "And they all are mean and evil so.. as a good guy, I'm against that."

Sakura snickered. "I don't know about that. I've seen you too many times have a hand in some pretty nefarious plots for you to be a totally good guy."

"Fine, be picky with the details." Naruto pretended to be offended. "If I can't be good, then I simply will have to be neutral. Keep that in mind when I'm Hokage and you have to clean up after my 'nefarious plots'!"

Sakura laughed, guiding him to the doors. "In your dreams, blondie!" she said. "Hire a maid!"

"Oh, am I included in all this future of yours?" a disembodied voice came out of nowhere. The two genins paused, looking around the room to seek the origin of the voice.

Naruto glared at a plant resting innocently in their corner. "It depends. Do you want to be my maid?"

The bush shook slightly. "Ah, Naruto-kun.. You offend me." It exploded into a cloud of smoke, revealing the voice to be Haku's. "Good afternoon, friends."

"Haku-kun!" Sakura said, pleasantly surprised. "We haven't seen you in a long time. How are you?"

"Fine, thank you." he said, smiling at the younger girl.

Naruto blinked at him, looking the chuunin up and down. "Haku, why are you wearing a hospital gown?" he asked bluntly.

Haku blushed, self consciously holding the back closed. "It's not like I had my pick of the wardrobe, Naruto-kun." he said with a sheepish smile. He hid behind Sakura when a doctor walked by. "Thank goodness you two came by. I haven't been able to slip out of the door yet without anyone noticing me." He peered over her shoulder. "Help me before that overbearing woman finds out I'm gone."

"Why should we-" Naruto's question was cut off when Shizune suddenly stormed into the room.

"Haku!" she shouted, startling many of the people in the room. "This is the tenth time you've tried to escape this week! Where the hell are you!" The two startled genins could clearly hear the boy behind them whimper. "Dammit, you stubborn boy, I know you're in here somewhere!" Shizune saw the two genins in the corner, and walked over to them. "Sakura, Naruto." she greeted in a much calmer voice. "Have you seen a boy about your age around here somewhere?" Naruto looked behind Sakura discretely, not surprised to see that Haku had disappeared.

"Uh.. no ma'am!" Sakura lied. "We were just leaving. We didn't see anyone. Not a soul. As we were just about to walk out the door-" she stopped stuttering when her team mate elbowed her.

Naruto rolled his eyes. As much as his team said he sucked at lying, Sakura was a thousand times worse. "Nope." He knew the two most rules of lying well, he just wasn't all that good at using them when lying about something important to him. The first was to keep the lie simple. "Why, is Sasuke running around half naked somewhere?" The second was to feign ignorance by asking about it.

Shizune shook her head. "No, just another one of my patients." she said, looking distractedly over her shoulder. She could have sworn that she felt a flash of chakra from that direction. "He has a bit of a problem staying in bed, where he should be _resting_." She walked off, following the flash of chakra.

They called their partings to her retreating back, waiting patiently for Haku to drop down from the ceiling, where he had been hanging from the ceiling like a terrified cat. He landed gracefully and without a sound.

"I can't believe she missed over you." Sakura murmured to Haku. The older boy shrugged.

"I'm used to having to be able to trick strong ninjas like Zabuza-san. In fact, he made sure I could." the boy massaged his aching leg. "A little medic nin isn't that much of trouble to trick, compared to him." he winced at the sound of shattering glass. Shizune no doubt, having found one of his many ice mirrors placed strategically around the hospital, being the source of the noise. "But she's definitely scary!" he turned to Sakura, having noticed that Naruto had no sympathy to his plight. "Please, I beg of you. Help me before she finds me and ties me to the bed." He pressed his hands together in a seal, using the henge jutsu to become a cat. "Mrow?" he pleaded, one last time.

Awing over the cuteness of the black cat's expression, Sakura picked him up and walked out of the hospital, Naruto following passively with a faint smirk.

"You know, this would be considered a 'nefarious plot' too.." he said to his friend with a cackle.

"Oh, shut up, Naruto."

* * *

"Okay." she said to the door firmly. The evening had already sent shadows all throughout the village. It wasn't too late, but the door that she was having such a friendly conversation with wasn't completely visible. "I'm here, and I need some answers." she winced. "No, that's not right. Maybe.." she steeled herself once more. "Hi! Long time no see! I came over here 'cause I kinda need some 411, you know? Ugh, even worse.." The door wasn't very sympathetic. In fact, it almost seemed to be mocking her. 

Ino sighed, rubbing her temples. She wondered if her aunt would be offended if she just bashed the door to death. "Maybe I should have taken Shikamaru up on that whole nappy thing." she muttered. Again, she tried to figure out what she was going to say to her aunt. "Hi Aunty! I'm-" the door swung open suddenly, making Ino squeak and jump back. "Eh... hello?"

Luckily, it was only Maemi's housekeeper. "Hi!" Nyoko said, looking around Ino. "Aw, you didn't bring your pouting friend. Too bad." Before Ino could try and figure out what that meant, the older girl was already ushering her in. "Mae's been waiting for you."

Ino gulped. That meant that the Seer already knew why she had been delaying on the porch. Solemnly, she followed after the chatty girl to Maemi's sitting room. The older girl pushed her inside, closing the door as she walked out. Ino stood still, nervously rubbing her arm.

_Do I.. really even want to know?_ She thought to herself. _It could be something really bad. And I'd just rather not know if there's something wrong me. I'd rather live in bliss._ Still, Ino stepped forward.

The older woman, hearing footsteps, looked up. "Ino." she determined, recognizing the aura. Then Maemi smiled. "Are you afraid of this old woman?" she teased. "Is that why you were hiding from me?"

Ino hurried forward, taking her aunt's hand. "No, of course not!" she said firmly. "I've been.. gah. Life kinda is starting to suck right about now." It was the simplest way to say it. "And I.. was wondering what was wrong. So I came to you, 'cause it's your level of expertise."

"And you're not sure if you want to know the truth?" Maemi prodded gently. Ino made a noise of agreement. Maemi sighed. "The truth.. Well.. how to say this.. Some people wish the path in front of them was lined with shadows, like your Nara boy. They don't wish to be able to see the path ahead, rather, they wish to experience it as they go." Maemi and Ino really didn't have a choice when it came to that. Yet, the old woman still gave her options. "Are you sure want to know what's going on?"

Hearing Maemi's grim tone, Ino started to get nervous. "What, is there something wrong with me?" she asked in a fearful whisper. _Oh no! I have a rare heart condition that will kill me in days.. No! She saw my demise at the ice cream parlor, where I will eat too much butterscotch ice cream and will die in agony of an ice cream headache!_ Alright, maybe she was being too silly, she thought, trying to calm herself down.

"Hm." Maemi let out a sad sigh. The genin froze, her calming breathes catching in her throat. Maemi rested her chin on her hand, seemingly gazing in Ino's direction. Ino swallowed harshly in the silence that followed. "I... Dunno."

The tension eased out of Ino's shoulders. "Aunty..." she whined. "Don't scare me like that!" The woman couldn't help it, she laughed.

"Ino.." she mimicked in the same whiny voice. "I only see what is shown to me of our path, nothing more." Maemi smiled. She could almost feel the power of Ino's sulk. "But you wish for me to look you over, to make sure there's nothing wrong with you, right?" Ino both perked up and deflated. Maemi folded her hands together, resting them on her lap. "But I see no reason to. I assure you, your visions, even though they can be disturbing and random, are not hazardous to your physical health." Ino was relieved, to say in the least.

"So, I'm fine." she said with a hopeful smile. Maemi nodded. "All the stuff I'm feeling.. just normal stuff. Whew. I was scared for a moment." The older woman started to nod, but paused at Ino's words.

"Wait." her aunt murmured. She frowned, something like an otherworldly sense telling her that there was something more to the scene than she was seeing. "What feeling?" Ino blinked.

"I thought you knew." the girl said slowly.

"I only know what is shown to me." Maemi repeated, standing up. "Please, tell me what it it you have been feeling."

Ino felt at odds, but quietly reported what had been happening for a while. "It's not really a feeling, it's more like I'm sick." she murmured. "I've been feeling weak and dizzy as of late. During a match, I had a vision and I nearly passed out afterwards."

"That's odd.." Maemi said, musing to herself. "The strength of your first vision wasn't anything extraordinary. I had believed that you wouldn't have very many visions in your life, unless they involved close friends." She shook her head. "No, that's not right.. Some thing's definitely wrong."

The nervous twist of her stomach was back with a vengeance. "I thought you said I was fine." Ino said, wincing when it came out accusingly.

"And I thought you were just jittery over a recent vision." the reply was slightly defensive. Maemi sighed, rubbing her temples. "Come closer, I must see how far you have advanced." Ino, a bit reluctantly, walked over to her aunt. The older woman took her wrist in her hand, trained fingers tracing over the lines on Ino's palm. Impassive face giving away nothing, her other hand trailed up to Ino's head and rested barely an inch away from the skin. And then Maemi was still, reading something in her that Ino could not even begin to understand.

Finally, Maemi pulled back, a frown tugging on her face. "What have you been experimenting in?" she asked flatly. Ino, understandably, was confused.

"What do you mean?" she asked, on the defensive this time. Her aunt almost seemed.. mad at her? Why?

Maemi sighed, explaining in a tight voice. "Your inner eye, it is opening at an unnaturally rapid rate. Only some type of outside influence could have forced it open. I repeat, what have you been doing?" Ino pulled back slightly, starting to understand why Maemi was so angry. Some thing or other had affected her, so much that she was starting to be more 'open' to visions.

But damn, it wasn't her fault! Ino herself started to get angry. "I haven't done anything!" she snapped. "Honest."

Maemi turned away from her, musing out loud to herself. "This acceleration could become deadly.. I must talk to my brother about watching over you more carefully." she murmured.

Ino, though annoyed at Maemi for suggesting that she'd do something that would effect her health, felt a stab of betrayal when she heard her aunt mutter that. "You're sicking my dad on me?" she whispered incredulously.

"If you cannot take care of yourself, then the duty falls to your elders." Maemi said quietly, almost remorseful. She reached for Ino. "Come, sit with me until your father-" Ino knocked the blind woman's wrist away from her.

To her horror, there was a burning heat behind her eyes. Why didn't anyone trust her? _Shikamaru, Chouji, Maemi, Dad.. none of you think I'm adult enough to take care of myself. But I am! I have been, and I have been doing really well! Why can't you trust me?_ "I haven't done anything wrong!" Ino shouted, pushing back the tears. "Why are you blaming this on me?"

Too late, Maemi realized the error of her words. She attempted to explain, but the sound of a door being pushed open drowned out her words. The clattering thumps of feet against hard wood floor as Ino ran out of the house rang in her head loudly, like her own heartbeat.

Nyoko poked her head in. "Um.. Is there something wrong?" she asked, wiping her hands off on her apron.

"Yes, very much so." Maemi said mournfully. "I have forgotten how a teenager thinks. I have forgotten that it is not very good to point fingers while in a dire situation." she steeled herself. "Would you be a dear and run to my brother's house? Please, tell him it's about Ino."

* * *

"You were attacked, this much you have told us already." Shizune was attempting to be patient, but he was not. "But by who? There was no signs of anyone breaking into your apartment, nor any signs on you that would suggest an identity." 

"What, did you expect a calling card?" Sasuke snapped, sounding less than impressive with his stuffy nose. He was cranky and twitchy. The damn overbearing woman wouldn't let him go home until she found out what happened to him. "I don't know who did it." It didn't help that even he couldn't remember what happened. _I was training.. then I was going to get something to drink.. and then..?_ A blank. He had woken up to a sore stomach and a nasty cold. He sneezed.

Shizune's hand twitched. She was about a second away from swatting the stubborn boy over the head. He was worse than Haku! The former mist nin had at least pretended to be polite. Speaking of which, she still had to go find that slippery brat. She did not have the time to babysit an arrogant child.

Jiraiya cleared his throat. He was leaning against the wall. "Hm, you might have hit your head, even though we found no trauma. Is there anything significant that you could-"

"No, I don't remember anything!" the genin snapped, sitting up on his bed. He didn't look so well. Jiraiya arched an eyebrow.

"Calm down, boy." he said passively. "If you jump around like that, your condition could worsen."

"Who the hell are you to order me around?" Sasuke kicked his legs out of the sheets, ignoring Shizune's attempts to push him back down.

"Respect, Uchiha!" she hissed, managing to push the irate boy back down. "He has every right! He's Jiraiya-sama, one of the three legendary sanins!"

Sasuke glared over her shoulder at him. "A sanin eh?" he smirked. "Shouldn't you be saving the world from evil, or something?"

Jiraiya sighed mournfully. "Trust me, kid. I could come up with a hundred things that I'd rather be doing right now than having to deal with you." he crossed his arms over his chest. "But congratulations! You are wasting my time with your whining. We, for god knows what reasons, actually are worried about you and want to make sure you're alright." Sasuke stared stubbornly to the side, his mouth set in a frown. Jiraiya snorted. "Your team was here earlier." That got a reaction from Sasuke: shame. His team had seen him in a weak state.

Jiraiya continued. "And you know what? Tsunade told me that your friends nearly cried. Naruto thought someone had killed you and nearly tore an Anbu's arm off because he was keeping him from you. That girl had to be forcibly led out of the door because she refused to leave you alone." the old man set his hand down heavily on the table next to him, the sudden sound making Sasuke flinch. "If you don't care about us having some info to make sure your scrawny ass isn't killed, then at least think of them. Do you think they want you dead?"

Sasuke was quiet. Jiraiya and Shizune looked at him, waiting for him to say something. With a sigh, Sasuke rubbed his temples as he tried to remember something. Then he did. "I.. it's like a block. I just can't remember much." he explained reluctantly. "But what I do remember is.. more like a feel. I grabbed on to something. It was.. kinda silky, but a bit rough too." he closed his eyes, thinking harder. "It was the guy's clothes. Yes, I am positive it was a guy." he said quickly before Shizune could ask. "It was.. darkly colored. A.. robe. With.. red.. clouds?" he shook his head. "I don't know, it sounds stupid to me. But that's what I remember."

Jiraiya's face went blank as he pushed himself away from the wall. "Thank you, Sasuke." he said, gesturing with his head for Shizune to follow him out the door. "You can go home tomorrow." Sasuke watched them leave, then sighed as he rested back, allowing himself to fall back into slumber. He really was too tired.

Out in the hall, Shizune struggled to keep up with Jiraiya's long strides. "Did you get something out of that?" she asked, noticing his grim face. He nodded, making a turn, intending to leave the hospital.

"This is much bigger than some punk genin from another country jumping one of ours illegally." he said quietly. "This is.. colossal." He looked over at her. "I must speak with the Hokage."

* * *

If only her lungs wouldn't wimp out and die on her. If only her legs would stop trembling under her. If only that annoying cramp in her side would simply disappear because it got the message: it wasn't wanted there. If only those things would happen, Ino would run forever. 

_Oh yeah, Ino._ She bashed herself relentlessly. _You're such a bad ass, running away from your frail and **blind **aunt._ She convinced herself to slow down to a walk, nearing the center of town. Blinking at the sudden glare of lights from the open shops, she found that she was surprised that she had made it so far.

"Oh, what's the damn point.." she mused quietly in defeat. "Might as well face the music at home." Her father definitely wasn't going to be pleased that she ran out on her aunt, and topped with her aunt's strange notion that she was doing something bad to herself, like she was a drug addict slowly destroying her body for just 'one more' fix. Ino scowled darkly. If one more person started treating her like a convict, she would-

She stumbled to a wall, needing the support as a sudden bout of dizziness threatened to take her own. "Ah, I hate karma." Ino mumbled as she rested her forehead against the pleasantly cool wall of the building. She willed for the world to stop spinning and stay still before she ended up doing something potential damaging to her reputation, like throwing up in public.

"Eh? Ino?" the blond cringed. She was not in the mood to entertain anyone. She mumbled a soft 'go away', but she doubted he heard it: after all, she wasn't sure if she had even parted her lips. "Are you okay?" _Damn concerned friends._ She thought darkly, about to tell him where to shove it. But she felt an impossibly warm touch on her cold bare arm, his hand, no doubt.. and then Konoha and he disappeared suddenly in a twist of colors that she started to associate with her accursed visions.

Large trees hung overhead, but the shadows provided by them during the day paled in comparison to the darkness of the night. It was nearly pitch black. A cry came from the distance. It sounded mournful and terrifying, making Ino nervous and paranoid.

She could see bare outlines of other forms, but she felt drawn forward, directly into the darkness instead of towards them. Without questioning it, she walked forward, her eyes slowly adjusting to the dark.

The dark figures around her seemed to be just as drawn forward as she was. Slowly, heavily, they walked alongside her.

One of them whispered softly. "Was that Hinata?" Ino knew she recognized that voice, but had never heard it pitched so low, or so full of sadness. She didn't want to acknowledge the name, simply because of that fact.

"We.. were late." another murmured. Again, another familiar voice, in the same tired and sad voice. "No.. no.. why.. " The horrid fascination in those voices was terrifying.

She tripped, landing harshly on the ground. Cursing softly, Ino looked back to glare at what she had fallen over, barely noticing the wet slippery substance on her hands when she braced her hands against the ground.

Staring blankly at her, a simple looking man wearing a size too big robe with red clouds on it was sprawled out on the ground like an ancient human sacrifice. Ino swallowed harshly. She could smell the scent of dead flesh and blood. _Oh god oh god.._ the mantra in her head did not sooth her. She scrambled to her feet, wiping sweat off of her brow. She realized at the last second that her hands were covered in blood.

Coughing as bile threatened to rise to her throat, Ino followed her instinct and followed the slowly retreating figures in the dark. They were the only comfort to her now.

Trailing after them, she came across a few more dead men like the one she had tripped over before. Unlike the first one, who had been stabbed in the heart, the other two were killed in a very unusual manner. One had claw and teeth markings all over his body and heaving bruising. Another one was bleeding from his ears, mouth, and nose, and, worst of all, his eyes had apparently burst, a gruesome sight to Ino's own.

Suddenly, she could see. She blinked rapidly at the sudden light, eyes narrowing at the source, a camp fire. With the light of the fire, she could see red writing everywhere. She stared at it for a moment, identifying the few signs that she knew before realized what it was. Scratched out on on the ground and surrounding trees, was the largest grouping of jutsu seals she had ever seen in her entire life.

The blond knelt, right in front of a massive grouping of symbols. "What's this one.. release." she touched a symbol, murmuring lightly to herself. "And this one.. freedom." She perked up slightly. "Well, that doesn't sound too bad." She located another. "Demon." she thought for a moment before she winced. "Oh, crap. I jinxed myself." Ino rubbed the back of her neck, trying to figure out what the jutsu's purpose was. "A release of a demon to give it it's freedom." she mused. "That doesn't sound too good."

She stood, unconsciously wiping her hands off on her skirt. "But where's the container?" she followed the symbols, signs, and loops of the odd jutsu with her eyes, noticing how it seemed to circle around something a bit far away from her. With a slight pause, she continued to the middle of the circle, never noticing how her future self followed her movements.

Ino moved around a rather large tree before coming upon a gathered group of many people she recognized. Without thinking, she started to hide, but one turned around to her, looking very serious.

"Ino." he said, his familiar voice heavy with sadness. "Are you alright?" Ino froze in place. Could he see her? She backed up slightly in denial. _That couldn't mean that this is all.. real..? _She jumped, startled when a voice responded.

"I told you." Ino turned around, looking her future self in the face. The other Ino leaned against the tree, her usually pristine clothes covered in blood and dirt. She was hugging herself as she stared at the ground. "Nothing changed this. No one stopped this from happening." Her face crumpled and she turned around, hiding her tears.

"What the hell is happening?" Ino demanded, wondering what had driven her to tears. "I'm so not a pansy." she snapped at him, turning around to glare at the oblivious chuunin. "I wouldn't cry about a dead guy unless I... knew.." the chuunin moved, maybe to turn around or to walk away, she didn't know. She had sudden tunnel vision, all of her focus on what his body had hid from her view.

She knew that boy. Knew him well enough to be able to quote everything from his favorite color to the type of underwear he wore. It was a type of knowing that almost, according to others, bordered upon obsessing. But the dejected way he held his head, the slump of his shoulders that suggested his defeat.. she found that she did not know that boy.

Almost reluctantly, she looked over to where his pain filled eyes were fixed. The sight disturbed her more that the broken proud boy.

The girl curled around another boy protectively, her hand clutching another that should have been twitching with life. The body that rested half in lap was limp and unresponsive, almost glowing an unnatural pale for someone who had been darkly tanned.

Ino sucked in her breath, a stab of pain going through her heart._ No.._ she thought, staring at his face. _Stand up. Do something._ Her mental pleas became insistent, but the boy did not move.

The girl gently wiped a bit of blood from the dead boy's lips, ignoring the hard stare of a man in a large black robe with red clouds.

"Why do you care for him?" the low voice caught Ino's attention, dragging her eyes away from the horror to fix upon a face that was a little familiar, but altogether foreign to her. "He was a mistake. A bane upon your village. A monster in the midst of children. And now he is dead. Do you not feel that.. justice has been served?"

The proud boy suddenly jumped at him, snarling vicious words. His attacks were blocked easily, another thing foreign about the boy she knew so well. "He was a thousand times the person you were, Itachi!" the boy grounded out, when the older of the two grabbed his arm and flipped him over his shoulder. The boy hacked out blood, obvious signs of previous injuries, but still was able to glare at the older boy with cold eyes. "Pah, you could never measure up to him."

"What is there to measure up to?" Itachi murmured. "There is naught but a corpse."

Ino couldn't tell if it was tears that were clouding her vision, or something else altogether. Colors whipped past her eyes quickly, blue and red intermingling, red as the dominate color. The girl she was looking at was no longer visible, Ino's vision was too distorted to see much more.

"..o."

Why him? Why was it always him? What could he have done to deserve such a fate?

"..no, come on.."

He wasn't a bad guy. He was actually kinda sweet, in an annoying way. Why did he have to die? Why couldn't.. someone stop it? Why couldn't anyone save him?

"..mmit.. don't make me have to take you to the hospital.."

Ino stirred, blinking rapidly at the sudden light from a local store. She had been picked up from where she had fallen and was placed on a bench. The metal underneath her was cold. She took comfort in it.

A shadow fell over her. The person knelt down in front of her, resting his elbows on his knees. "Damn girl." he muttered grouchily. "You should really take care where you fall." he sighed, oblivious to the surprised and wide eyed stare she sent in his direction. He ran a hand through his blond spikes. "If I was any slower, you'd be waking up in dog shit."

Noticing her lack of attention, he blinked and touched her knee, concern overriding annoyance. She nearly jumped at the sudden warmth. She had almost expected for him to be as cold as death. He stared up at her with worried eyes. "Hey, are you okay?"

"D..d..-" She was terrified. His somewhat flushed features accented by a few cuts and bruises, the obvious signs of a recent fight, had turned pale, almost blue, in her mind. His mouth dripped with blood and his hand no longer was warm.

A corpse knelt in front of her.

She knocked his hand away, jumping up from her seat. "Don't touch me!" she cried, running from the boy, from the vision, and from the future she knew she could do very little to change. Naruto, eyes pained from the sudden rejection, watched her go.

* * *

My rant on why I couldn't get this chapter out sooner is elsewhere, so I won't bore you with the details. 

Next chapter: The troublesome trio start messing with Naruto and his friends. Naruto teaches Konohamaru what it means to truly have his respect. Ino, after much contemplating, decides to try her hardest to change the future.

Sorry, no glimpses of the future this time.


	43. The Troublesome Trio

Hey, I have an LJ account. Whoo, one big step into the technology of the future for Foxie!note sarcasm Anyway, it will be mainly used to tell how far I am in chapters to come, so if you're impatient and want to know exactly _how_ I'm procrastinating, go there. I've been spending some free time zooming around LJ and checking things out. It's really fun, but I don't understand half of the things on there. -hangs head-  
You may or may not know this but I was nominated for the Naruto Fanfiction Awards. But that's not the important thing. Find out where TONFA is(I think they have an LJ account too) and you'll be able to find links to a bunch of great stories by other authors!  
I'll respond to any review that I feel needs to be answered, so if your review isn't answered, then don't be offended or anything.

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Forty-three: The Troublesome Trio

by Foxie

Sasuke was finally free. He took a moment to bask in that one thought, allowing the sun to shine down on him as he took a deep breath of non hospital scented air.

He sneezed. Out of nowhere, Shizune popped up, making Sasuke jump back a few feet.

"Did you just sneeze?" she asked, a certain familiar gleam in her eye.

"N-no.." Sasuke lied, not wanting to be escorted back into that horrid place. "Not at all. I'm better, you said so yourself."

The woman nodded. "Yeah, but.." she lingered, putting a hand on his forehead to check his temperature. Cursing himself for not putting on his forehead protector, Sasuke quickly pulled away and walked around her, nervously mumbling a curt good bye. Shizune watched him go with a frown.

"Hope to see you soon!" she called after him.

He snorted quietly. "How about never?"he mumbled quietly to himself.

"Did you say something?" Shizune called, startling Sasuke.

"Er.. No. Nothing at all."he said quickly, walking faster, trying to get as much distance between him and the hospital.

He didn't know what it was about her that made her so willing to grab him, toss him back into one of those silly gowns, and throw him on a hospital bed to stay there for a week or two. It could have been that she liked having people to care for in the hospital, or that she just was too overprotective. He only had a bit of a cold. Any other doctor would have given him something to get better quicker and then send him off, but Shizune insisted that he stay in the hospital for a few extra days, just to 'make sure that it didn't become too serious'.

Either way, he was not going to waste any more time he should be training. He held his breath in to avoid coughing, and quickly sprinted home.

Shizune sighed, watching him go. A second later, Jiraiya appeared at her side in a cloud of smoke. "The Uchiha kid won't stay any longer." she said, crossing her arms over her chest with a worried frown. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

The old man shook his head. "No, no signs of Akatsuki anywhere, as could be expected." Shizune shot him a questioning look. "Well, either they've left, or they're hiding. Most ninjas wouldn't be able to pick up them. They're the best of the worst ninjas alive, meaning that they're the enemies of Konoha, Suna, and any other village with a demon host." He closed his eyes. "There is no one worse than someone who is willing to kill someone with a burdened life just so they could willingly take their accursed power for their own."

Shizune nodded seriously. "Is Naruto protected?" she asked, concern for the blond that her mentor liked so much making her bite her lip in worry.

"Yeah. He has me." Jiraiya murmured, starting to walk away. "Sarutobi-sensei has a lot of faith in Naruto to protect himself. I don't know if I share that belief, so I'll look after him as well as I can." he raised a hand in salute. "See you."

----

"The target is in position." the leader told his subordinates quietly, looking around a corner at their prey. Obliviously, the exhausted boy stumbled home, stopping at his door and favoring his left leg as he paused to dig through his pockets to find the keys.

"Ready?" the leader hissed to his subordinates.

The two looked over at him seriously, nodding together. "Yes!" they hissed in unison. With a smirk, the leader looked back at the target, who took the time to yawn.

"Then..." he suddenly stood up, punching his fist in the air. "Charge!" With a battle cry, the three man team charged the single boy.

The cry alerted Naruto to his would be attackers. He pivoted on his foot, aching muscles tensing up to fight, but suddenly releasing when he realized who was trying to attack him. Blinking in a bemused sort of way, Naruto held out his hand and placed it on the first quickly approaching one's head, stopping Konohamaru in his tracks. With a groan, the smaller boy flailed, trying to hit Naruto. Naruto's arm was long enough to keep him safe from injury though.

Udon and Moegi leapt on Naruto, wrapping both of their arms around his each one of his legs.

"Haha!" Konohamaru laughed, attempting to appear intimidating through the cover of Naruto's hand. "I see, only my great rival would be able to pick us up despite our awesome stealth!"

Naruto was quiet for a moment, trying to make sense of the smaller boy's logic. "You're kidding, right?" he finally said, arching an eyebrow. "How the hell is a battle cry a prime example of 'awesome stealth'?" Seeing how utterly unimpressed Naruto was, Konohamaru took a few steps back.

"Uh.." he blinked rapidly a few times. "Retreat!" he made a move to run off, but Naruto stepped on his long flowing scarf, temporarily making the boy gag. He grabbed Udon by his ankle, lifting upside down with one hand, and grabbed the back of Moegi's shirt with the other as they too tried to escape.

"Wah!" Moegi cried. "Konohamaru-chan's big bad arch nemesis has captured us! I'm too pretty to die!"

Feeling a little guilty and amused at the situation he was in, Naruto let the little girl go."Arch nemesis?" he questioned, gently putting Udon down. The boy sniffled, mumbling a soft thank you as he pulled out his inhaler. "Where the hell do you get that?" Konohamaru, still trying to yank his scarf out from under Naruto's foot, got a big surprise when the blond simply lifted it and he went flying into a couple of trash cans.

"Ugh.." Konohamaru moaned, pulling off a rotten banana peel from his head. He shakily stood, aiming a dark glare at Naruto. "You!" he shouted angrily, pointing his finger at the blond.

Naruto arched an eyebrow. "What about me?" he shook his head. "No, let's talk about you." the genin advanced on the boy, looking very disapproving. "Kakashi-sensei's been telling me that my 'fan club' is bothering him about my so called 'weaknesses'. Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan have been telling me that their being stalked by three little runts. Sasuke-bastard says that if those three brats don't stop annoying him in the middle of his training, he's gonna pummel them, no matter what kinda laws are against it, or who they are." he sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "This is the seventh time today that I've noticed you fools following me. Don't you have better things to do? Go play with your dolls."

"We have-" Moegi's bright answer was cut off by Konohamaru.

"You're my rival! I have every right to trail you!" he shouted, shaking a fist at Naruto.

Naruto uncrossed his arms over his chest, letting them hang down as he tilted his head to the side. "That's some pretty screwed up logic." he said finally. He smirked. "Besides, anyone I consider to be my rival would have to be a bit taller, shrimp."

"Grr.." Konohamaru glared at Naruto. "You never listen! You never pay attention!" He turned on his heel and ran off, leaving a confused Naruto in his wake. After a moment, Moegi and Udon followed, calling after him.

_  
I know I have every right to tell him off. He and his little groupies are messing with everyone, and they're blaming it on me!_ he thought with a frown. _But why the hell do I feel so guilty?_ Naruto watched their retreating backs, his gaze a little less confident.

"Why do I feel deja vu?" he asked himself quietly. "What about this situation seems so.. familiar?"

----

Naruto endured the rest of the week, finding himself attacked by flying water balloons, encountering clever trip tricks involving wire and string, and having to defend against constant assaults upon his person.

"_It's like they're trying to do every prank you have ever pulled in your entire life in a week._" Sasuke had mused when Naruto had ran into by the ramen stand, pink and green gooey strings clashing with the demon host's blond hair. With a snarl, Naruto had run his hand through his hair again to try and take the gooey string out, then turned around to scream at the snickering group of wannabe pranksters.

Naruto was at his wit's end, and only had mere threads of patience left before he snapped and showed the brats who was boss. It was only Kakashi's words that he idly mentioned that kept him from starting an all out prank war.

"_Think about it: the more you do, the more they will copy you._" At first, it didn't make any sense until he slipped on a wet floor inside of a library and would have smashed his head into the ground if he hadn't grabbed onto a nearby bookshelf with chakra charged hands. The bookshelf wobbled, slipping several books to the ground, all thankfully missing Naruto.

Naruto didn't know that the slippery ground had been the result between of a water balloon fight between two delinquent upperclassmen to Konohamaru, not the work of the 'honorable' grandson, but it got him thinking about some of the more elaborate pranks he played on people, and then on the counter pranks he had been entertaining in his head while Konohamaru made a fool out of him. He shuddered, slipping to the ground when his control waned over his chakra.

_No way in hell do I want any of those things happening to me. _Naruto thought with a grimace at the water seeping through his shorts. A sudden thought made him pause while leaning to get up. _But how do I make the idiots stop? _

Hinata turned the corner, some papers in her hand, stopping in surprise when she saw Naruto sitting in a puddle with a contemplative look on his face. She nervously giggled, having the temptation to roll up a paper and smack him on the nose, saying 'no, bad Naruto!'.

Naruto blinked and looked up toward the sound. When he saw who it was, he smiled. "I slipped and hurt my knee." he said in a plaintive whine. "Kiss it and make it better?"

The amused smile slipped off of Hinata's face and she started to back up, her face taking on an unusually red hue. Naruto snickered, feeling revenge had been served. He stood, frowning at the wetness in his shorts. He let out a little bit of chakra, using it to force the water into evaporating faster.

"Uh.. um.." Realizing that he had been kidding, Hinata felt even more embarrassed than before. But that embarrassment quickly wore off when she remembered why she had been avoiding him. _Oh why is fate so cruel?_ She wondered gloomily, remembering the piece of paper that Shikamaru had showed her. She twisted her fingers together worriedly. "What are you doing here?" She would have thought the last place he'd be was in the library.

"I thought it would be the last place those brats would be would be in the library." he said surprisingly, proving her thought that he wouldn't come in there willingly. Sudden paranoia making him look around before scooting closer to Hinata. He poked her shoulder. "Are you sure you're not one of them?"

"Those children?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. "No, I'm pretty sure I'm me." Curiosity lead her forward. "The children who are pranking everyone in sight, right? The ones that were following my team?"

Naruto nodded. "I think that was for some.. oh, hell, probably research. I did that too, back when being a prankster was my main job." A thought made him frown. "They're pranking _everyone_?"

Hinata nodded. "Everyone." she echoed. She knelt down to pick up the books that Naruto had knocked off the bookshelf while he fell. Naruto automatically bent down to help her. "Neji-nisan was very angry this morning. His shirts were written on with phrases like 'You should see my other shirt. It's pretty' or 'Pink makes me happy' or 'I sleep with a plushie named Kyo'." Naruto, previously very serious, finally snickered, imagining the annoyed look on Neji's face. Hinata smiled as well although she tried her hardest not to. 

Hinata had seen Neji angrily stalking back and forth in his rumpled pajamas that morning, waving around the shirts and demanding his relatives who would have the gall to invade his sanctuary to to desecrate his shirts. A few, mostly the younger ones, replied 'Naruto'. She looked up. "You didn't-"

Naruto looked up as well. "Didn't..?" he echoed before realizing what he meant. "No, I didn't do that to him. I did it to Iruka-sensei a few years ago though." he shook his head. "Hell, I thought it was funny back then, but Iruka didn't." With a chuckle, Naruto recounted his memories of what Iruka forced him to do. So many chores.. who knew the Hokage monument needed to be wiped down annually? It was probably where he got his dislike for the looming faces of the Hokages. "Oh, my he didn't." He chuckled again, standing up to put away the books he had gathered.

Hinata paused for a moment, thinking back on her hesitation to speak to Naruto. At first, she was worried that he would hate her or something. At the very least, declare her as an enemy and spend his time glaring at her. But, after talking to Naruto, she realized that he didn't mention, nor seem to care about it at all.

"Hinata-chan?" he reached for the books in her hands. She wordlessly gave them to him, feeling worse that she did before. The only thing that was worse than being hated was being ignored. _Does he even.. care?_ She thought sadly. _No, I am nothing compared to him, that's why he doesn't care. _

Naruto looked down at her again, realizing that there was something wrong when her pale eyes stayed fixed to the ground. About to say something, he was interrupted by a sudden burst of sound.

Music, or poor attempts at it at least, blared in the near silent library, shaking people out of their thoughts or reading. Naruto jumped slightly while Hinata quickly got to her feet. Exchanging a look, they ran to the end of the aisle of books, looking out towards the source of the sound.

Near the lobby of the library, it looked like Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi were attempting to be a three man band, with trumpets being blared like horns and drums beaten viscously with no attempt at a beat, merely for the sake of sound. A small crowd gathered around, just staring at the trio.

Konohamaru looked up as the stern librarian made her way through the masses, about to order them out. "Retreat!" he bellowed over the sound of the instruments, dropping his own trombone. The other two followed leaving their instruments in the lobby.

After some yelling, the librarian finally got everyone to calm down and be quiet again, but at every table, someone was leaning over and talking about the latest prank of the troublesome trio.

Twitching, Naruto heard some were angry, while others were amused. He even heard one older chuunin say something about rebellious spirits while a few others mentioned him and his previous prank some years back involving the same situation. _Damn brats are copying me!_

He stayed at the end of the aisle while Hinata went back to get her research material that she had left on the floor, resting his arm against one of the posters promoting reading until the librarian glared pointedly at his arm until he took it off. When she turned away however, he put his elbow right back where it was. No damn librarian was gonna tell him what to do, especially since she hadn't done her duty of keeping copycatting brats out of the library so the original prankster could have a little peace!

"I forgot to ask you." he said, leaning back slightly as Hinata came back into view, "Why are you here?" Hinata blushed, her mouth opening and closing a few times without noise. With a grin, he seized her up. "Ah, it's one of _those_ things.." Hinata had no idea what one of 'those things' were but it didn't make her feel any less embarrassed. It was just the way Naruto referred to it, and the way that he looked at her when he said it, with a cocky smirk, that made her face darken even redder. "I see how it is. Fine. Don't tell me."

Hinata tried to smile, but failed. Why would he care anyway? Naruto blinked, his smirk slipping as he noticed her depression. He wanted to ask why, but she distracted him by speaking. "I think.." she swallowed. "I think those children just want to be.. acknowledged by you." Naruto blinked again, putting that idea up with the conclusions he had made earlier. "I think.. they're trying to show that they can do everything better than you can. But I don't think it's as much of the other two's desire as it is Konohamaru-chan's." She looked away. "Isn't that the answer to your questions that you have been looking for?"

It made sense, he realized. More than ever. He grinned, hugging her suddenly. She blushed and started stuttering. "You're the smartest girl ever! You always have been!" Hinata was warmed by the praise. He let go, grinning broadly. "It's my fault, so I promise to fix this. Just you wait, this will be the best prank ever!" He started to run off. 

"Wait!" At the last moment, she remembered to hiss and keep her voice down. "You better not do anything that will land you in trouble!" The last thing she wanted was for him to be in trouble. She shuddered to think of the consequences that could come from him pranking. Not only were the jonins already uptight with the presence of foreign ninjas in their village, but they tended to crack down harder on anyone who made their village seem less than perfect. The only reason why Konohamaru escaped punishment was because he didn't pull any pranks on the foreigners, and because no one wanted to punish Sarutobi's grandson. 

He turned, grinned at her words, and blew her a kiss. "Aw, your worry makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside." he said in a loud whisper. Kyuubi snarled at the double meaning. "Don't you worry! I'll have it all fixed, then we can have that date I promised you!" He waved, shouting good bye just to further antagonize the librarian.

Hinata's eyes widened. With the confusion during the survival exam and the prelims, not to mention the training schedule that she had strictly set herself on, she had forgotten all about that. She smiled softly to herself, realizing she had been avoiding him for no reason.

_I think I know him, but then he proves me wrong._ Hinata frowned, then quietly vowed to herself. _I must stop comparing him to other people. He is unique. He doesn't care that we will be enemies, so neither will I. We are friends until the end, and that's all that matters!_ She smiled, feeling energized. She went back into the aisle she was in before she ran into Naruto. Browsing over dusty documents, old scrolls, and somewhat old books, Hinata didn't notice the scroll perched precariously on the edge of the top shelf until it made a hard collision with her head.

"Ow.." the genin held her head in pain, looking for what hit her. She saw it on the ground, half rolled open from the momentum downward. Hinata reached for it, about to put it back on the shelf before a few words caught her eye. "Fire of life?" she frowned, the terms unfamiliar to her. Interested, she opened the scroll some more to read on.

---

"Alright! We've done every prank that everyone has ever said that he has ever done from the time he was born until the time he was eight!" Konohamaru said proudly, punching his fist in the air. Several people looked over to the source of the loud shout, but when they saw who it was, they just shook their heads and carried on with their shopping.

"Huh?" Udon was confused by the vast number of and different versions 'ever's used in one sentence. Konohamaru deflated.

"You guys are a pretty sucky group of soldiers." he mumbled. Moegi blinked at him, then pulled out his makeshift doll of Naruto, gesturing for him to take it.

"Are you sad?" she asked sweetly. "When I'm sad, I cuddle my plushies." Konohamaru glared at it and knocked it out of her hand, where it sailed neatly into someone's awaiting hand. Moegi's lip quivered.

Before the tears welled up in the little girl's eyes could overflow, a voice rang out. "And what the hell is this supposed to be?" The trio turned as one, seeing Naruto glare suspiciously at the doll. "Dammit, Konohamaru! You are messing with voodoo, aren't you?" He switched his glare to the surprised eight year old. He tossed the doll to Moegi, who caught it clumsily. "'Cause I've had some unexplainable pains and if I find out you're the cause of them-"

"My rival!" Konohamaru shouted, just realizing that the blond was standing there. The other two automatically jumped to his side, Moegi rubbing at her eyes furiously, one hand clenching the silly looking Naruto doll. "You've found my secret base!"

Naruto made a big show of looking around. "Secret base, eh?" It amused him to no end that they called the middle of the busiest street their base. "Playing make believe?" Konohamaru stomped his foot, about to explain the greatness of their base, but Naruto held his hand up. "Nah, don't wanna hear it." The genin grinned. "However, I, Uzumaki Naruto, have a proposal. Or an.. eh.. idea that I want you guys to agree on with me." he amended his vocabulary, realizing that he was talking to kids. "I'll give up the title of greatest prankster in the village to you guys if you can complete one task."

"Why the heck would I want that?" Konohamaru shouted, pointing his finger at Naruto. "I-"

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. "Because you'd get my respect. And you'd be one step closer to gaining the respect of the village as _Konohamaru_ instead of the 'honorable grandson', since I'll revoke.. or.. take my claim off of the title of Hokage." Was he going a little too far? He didn't think so. He had to teach Konohamaru a lesson, one that it had taken him twice to figure out. Seeing the boy interact with his two friends had confirmed his thought that Konohamaru needed to learn a few things before he even thought about being a ninja, let alone a Hokage.

Konohamaru sucked in a breath. That's what he wanted! He nodded very quickly. "I'll do it!"

Naruto nodded seriously. "Meet me by the ramen shop late tomorrow afternoon." his gaze shifted to Moegi and Udon. "Alone. This is a one man task, and only Konohamaru will do it." As he thought, the two looked worried at the idea of Konohamaru working alone.

"I'll do it!" Konohamaru looked excited. "I'll become the greatest and beat you, then I'll become Hokage and prove that I'm better than everyone!" As he expected, there was no mention of the two that had helped him along the way. Naruto frowned, turning around to leave. After a moment and a stern order not to follow given, Konohamaru followed.

"Hey!" Naruto stopped, hearing Konohamaru call out. The shorter boy ran up to him, sliding to a stop next to him. "What's the catch?" he asked suspiciously.

"That is the catch." Naruto said blandly. "You have to do this one task all by yourself."

"That's it?" Konohamaru murmured, looking surprised. Naruto nodded.

"That's it." he echoed. Naruto started to leave again, but paused after a moment of contemplation. "What are Udon and Moegi to you, Konohamaru?" he asked quietly, turning around to face the boy.

Off balanced by the random question, Konohamaru thought about the answers. "They're.. convenient." he decided finally. "They're always around me. So I made them my soldiers, just like you made that violent pink girl and that moody boy yours!"

Naruto frowned, not correcting the boy's assumption. He turned his back to Konohamaru. "See you tomorrow."

---

Tsunade swished the sake around in her cup, quite annoyed with herself but not sure what to do about it. She put down the cup without taking a sip and instead rubbed her aching temples.

Sometimes, even though she had been the one to approach Sakura, she wanted to tell the genin to stop trying to learn medical jutsu from her. What was the point of learning from someone who was afraid of blood?

Even just a small amount of blood made her dizzy and made bile rise to her throat, because she could remember the feel of so much more on her hands, slowly cooling blood that had been in the body of her beloved, forced out when he had been viscously attacked because of her and her stupid-

"Granny!" the title made her fist clench and her pivot on her stool, but instead of seeing a grinning blond that she had planned to punch, she saw a youngster hugging a much older woman. Soberly she watched as the tearful child pointed out her scraped knee. With a gentle smile, the older woman bent down and reached into her purse for a bandaid. With flourish, she put it on the superficial wound and proclaimed it to be 'all better!'

The child grinned happily, no signs of her previous pain and hugged her grandmother again before running off to go play with the other children. Tsunade turned back around, unwanted thoughts plaguing her mind.

_No, I have no reason to relearn an immunity to blood. After this damn exam is over, I won't have to come back to this forsaken village again, let alone practice medical jutsu._ Even as the same old mantra went on in her mind, she couldn't help but remember there was so much more to being a medic nin. It wasn't just about being able to heal people. It was about being able to promote such confidence in others by just being there, that they would believe you when you said that everything was 'all better'. 

_The very least I could do,_ Tsunade admitted reluctantly, _Is to try and teach Sakura that. If I cannot do just that, then I have no right to call myself the granddaughter of a Hokage._

Her hand went absently up to where the necklace should have been but now was hanging off of the neck of what could be one of Konoha's greatest future Hokages. She never tried to dwell on why it was content to be with her. She knew the obvious answer was that fate had proclaimed her to be a Hokage, but she always tried to write it off as the necklace feeling an affinity for her because she had Hokage blood.

She was much more willing to accept that Naruto, a demon host but one of the most overwhelmingly in-your-face-when-you're-not-in-the-mood kind of people she had ever met in her entire life, was to be Hokage. He had the traits. He had the will. He, even though his love was not reciprocated, loved the people of Konoha.

_The necklace refused Nawaki and Dan. It recognized Naruto and I as Hokages. It is fate that we are to be Hokages. Maybe.._ she thought back to Naruto shouting at her angrily because of her selfishness, to the usually cheerful Jiraiya's biting words to her indifference, and to Sakura's confusion when she ran out of a room because a patient was bleeding. _Maybe I should stop running away from fate._

---

What greeted his entry into the normally noisy house wasn't several greetings by overly hyper blonds, but utter silence. Disturbed, he walked in, not bothering to announce his arrival, nor go back outside to practice his manners by knocking on the door. He was too familiar with the house and its occupants to act like a stranger.

She hadn't shown up for practice for a week. Since their teacher had cut down training sessions to two days a week just for the Chuunin Exam, it wasn't much, but that still didn't make him any more comfortable with the thought of her missing practices. She was a lot of things, but she wasn't a slacker. That was his occupation, dammit.

Tense, he walked all the way to the back of the house to the sitting room. There, he found most of the small family that he considered a extension to his own. Somehow, though he was surprised to see the unusually solemn looks on their faces, he was not surprised to see Maemi. It had just naturally occurred to him where there was anything wrong with the Yamanaka family, Maemi would undoubtedly have some sort of hand in it.

The blind woman was the first to acknowledge his presence. "Shikamaru." she stated calmly. "How have you been?"

Shikamaru looked around, his heart seizing up when he realized that Ino wasn't a part of the solemn party. Almost accusingly, he turned his attention back to the woman full of uncanny knowledge. "You know that already." he said bluntly. "And you know why I am here. Stop beating around the bush."

Ino's mother looked like she was going to say something but Ino's father just shook his head, placing a hand over hers and squeezing it gently. Already irritated, Shikamaru tried to feel out his team mate's location, finding that she was upstairs in her room. Still, even though everything in him just wanted to leave the blank stare of the older woman and go to his friend's side, he stayed, something along the lines of respect and fear of what he could find upstairs keeping his legs locked in place.

"Ah. As forward as always." Maemi murmured. "But since you care as much about Ino as the rest of us, I will reveal why she is in such a.. state. Even if it is against clan tradition." the woman took a calming breath. Shikamaru was startled to realize that the woman's hands had been shaking. "As you are already aware, Ino has discovered a.. talent into reading the future. However, her glimpses into the shaky future have been much harsher on her health than it has been on any other Seer. And.. we think we know why." Guilt passed over her face before she looked away.

Ino's father continued. "Her inner eye, which is like this mental inner eye that sees things that your corporal eyes do not, has been forced open by some outside force." Sensing Shikamaru's struggle with the explanation, he sighed. "What I mean is, she's being forced to see these things, and her mind was neither prepped for it, nor made for processing visions. She's not supposed to be able to see what she sees."

Maemi, having composed herself, nodded seriously. "And apparently it has accelerated to a point where she has a vision every time someone touches her. Her chakra has become almost parasitic in an attempt to balance out the sudden changes in her mental state. She.. _samples_ someone's energy when they touch her, and that, through a long line of strange mental connections to the spiritual world that even I can't explain, somehow ends up with the product of a vision where the person touched is present."

Shikamaru's mind hurt just trying to figure it out. His logic was based on.. well, _logic_ and reason, but most of all experience. All of the mental things and the 'inner eye' and all just didn't make any sense to him. The most 'mental' experience he had was whenever Ino possessed him, the few seconds before she pushed his consciousness away from the front of his mind and he became practically asleep.

"She.. might have not been affected so much by it." Maemi finally whispered. "But she touched someone and she saw their death. It was a friend, as much as I could guess." She remembered trying to wrestle a screaming Ino into the house. She couldn't stop crying and shouting 'why him?' and hitting her head against the sidewalk, like the blows could erase the images from her mind.

They had given her a sedative and the day after, when Ino was calmer, Maemi tried to explain to her what was happening. But Ino didn't seem to care. Her gaze had been on the corner of the room and beyond it. For the rest of the week, Ino ignored them, barely ate, and mostly spent her time staring at that same corner.

Shikamaru frowned, looking over the three blonds. They sat there, almost helpless in their worry, but uncertain how to carry on. Finally, he snorted, walking out of the room.

"What are you doing?" Ino's father asked, not very surprised that Shikamaru was annoyed with them so easily.

"Doing what you idiots won't." he said blandly, walking up the stairs. Ino's father bit his lip, but didn't follow.

The banister under his hand was smooth, Shikamaru observed. The wood was old, but looked well tended to. All splinters had been worn away and the shiny coating hid the fact that the wood was probably rotting or that termites were ripping away at it.

The similarities between it and the situation with Ino was almost amusing in a cosmic way. He knew that Ino would have an easier time coping with the world and all of its flaws and pests if her parents would stop coating it with sugar. He could understand a parent's desire to protect their child from the harsher aspects of life, but Ino was a _ninja_. She couldn't go into a battle with fanciful thoughts of pink unicorns and cotton candy dreams.

Shikamaru heard what they would not tell him or the blond genin. They would not tell Ino that people died everyday, and those dead people weren't always someone that she wouldn't know. They would not tell her that sometimes, there was nothing one could do about it to save a dying friend. That bleak outlook on life was not one that they wanted their precious Ino to have.

But they forgot the most important ninja rule.

With a determined set to his features, Shikamaru pushed open the door to Ino's room. The still girl did not acknowledge his entrance. With a nearly nonexistent sigh, Shikamaru grabbed a chair and sat.

He got comfortable and just stared at Ino. He didn't bother with words because he knew Ino would respond more to silence. Hands, hidden under gloves which proved she had at least _listened_ to Maemi's explanation, nervously fiddled with the long sleeves over her arms. One blue eye peeked at Shikamaru, who merely stared back.

Something like a frown crossed over her face before she valiantly tried to keep her attention on the corner. However, five minutes later, it was proven that her attention was anywhere but there.

"Stop staring at me, you son of a bitch!" Ino finally burst out, glaring at Shikamaru. The shadow user covered his curved mouth. There was a use for the knowledge of her pet peeves, he mused. She hated being stared at.

To her, he merely arched an eyebrow. "Ino. Get out of bed." he said blandly. "You're being useless again." Anything that looked like sorrow was chased out of her expression. She glared at him, cursing darkly while shaking her fist.

"The only one who's useless is you!" she shouted. Suddenly irritated, Shikamaru shifted forward to rest his elbows against his knees.

"I'm not the one sitting in bed while everyone's worried about me. I'm not the one who's ignoring everyone around her just because she saw something unsavory." he said in a low tone. Ino sat up angrily, about to argue her point. He didn't see Naruto's dead body. He didn't see the agony in Hinata and Sasuke's faces, or the way that Sakura acknowledged the death of her friend with such a broken and defeated tone before she burst into tears on Kiba's shoulder. He didn't _feel_ the awful helplessness that suddenly appeared when they realized that Naruto was gone.

Shikamaru stood, grabbing her face with his hands. Ino tensed when she felt the warmth of his chakra seeping into her. The familiar feeling of dropping into a vision came over her, but a sudden firm push on her mind righted her. She blinked, feeling dizzy, but more surprised when she realized the one who had forced her out of a vision had been Shikamaru.

"You saw someone die." he said calmly, his voice not giving away how much energy he had used to shove her mind out of a vision. It had taken much concentration and probably hadn't been the smartest thing of him to do but it worked. "You saw a friend's cold dead body and there was nothing you could do about it then." Tearfully, she nodded. With a sigh, Shikamaru pulled away. "Then do something about it _now_." He turned away from her, putting the chair back and opening the door to her room. He paused, glancing over his shoulder. "The most important rule that a ninja has to remember is to never give up. It may seem impossible and defeat may already be spelled out for you, but how will you ever know if you made a difference if you don't do anything?"

Ino watched him go, so confused and so bewildered. Instead of looking at the corner, she looked out the window. A bird jumped on her window sill and, seeing her, chirped out a cheerful greeting before flying away.

---

"_What!_" The bellow echoed through out several alleys, but the person it was directed at didn't seem to care all that much. A shaking finger was pointed at the Hokage monument. "You want me.. to _that_?" Luckily for them, Konohamaru lowered his voice with his second sentence.

Naruto looked at him through the corner of his eye, his arms crossed over his chest as he faced the faces that he liked defacing. _Heh_. "Yup." he said simply. "The Hokage monument was my greatest prank and work of art." he mock glared at the shorter boy. "You want to best me, right? Then equal me in what was my greatest era of trickster greatness!" He turned to walk away, but paused to pat Konohamaru on the shoulder. "Oh yeah, and don't get caught. If you end up being exposed as the culprit, then our deal is null and void."

The smaller boy could only stare up at the Hokages, completely missing the pleased smirk on Naruto's face as he walked away.

---

That next morning, Ino got out of bed, Shikamaru's words from the day before still ringing in her head. She dressed slowly, taking her time to do her hair. With much hesitation, she decided on her normal clothing. Her fingers itched to grab a pair of gloves or something to save her from any unwanted visions, but she resisted the urge.

She looked at herself blankly in her full length mirror. Usually, she'd twirl and give herself a pep talk before heading out, but now she just stared at herself, noting the melancholy expression she wore and the shadows under her eyes.

Ino sighed, closing her eyes briefly before opening them to glare at herself. "Just listen to yourself." she whispered to the mirror. "No wonder Shikamaru was so annoyed! You're a mere shadow of your bright and brilliant self!" The words were hollow to her own ears. She massaged her temples. "Okay, so the bum was right for once." she admitted. "Maybe I should be doing something about N-Na.." her voice shuddered over his name. "_His_ death, instead of just moping around." Still, she felt like nothing could brighten her day. Not even a romantic serenade by Sasuke could pull her out of her funk, she realized with a depressed sigh.

Ino glared at herself in the mirror, angry that she was so weak. Something in the mirror caught her eye. She gazed at it carefully, realizing that the mirror was reflecting what was outside her window. Turning around, she went to her window and pushed it up to stare at the sight.

Something changed in the few seconds that she stared slack jawed at the sight. Her depression was pushed aside by something warmer and more familiar. She kept staring until she realized that she was not the only one who was seeing it. The thought of the many Hokage fans across the village fainting at the sight made her eyes widen and her amusement all the more greater.

Ino covered her mouth and giggled at the sight. Surely, the Fourth would have protested being in drag, even if it was with mere paint. The pink definitely did not go with the serious look on his face. Suddenly, her day was looking to be much brighter already.

--- 

That day was met with much chaos. Someone had defaced the Hokage monument. Being rather bright youngsters, Udon and Moegi figured out that Konohamaru was most likely the culprit. Even though others started blaming Naruto, they were sure that Konohamaru was the culprit. The blond genin had pretty much halted on any and all pranks once he had received a forehead protector, but the villagers ignored that fact.

The two vowed to stay silent and keep their knowledge to themselves, but they grew increasingly worried when they heard that the jonins were planning to punish the culprit severely. Their fears were realized when Naruto suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the Academy playground during recess. He was panting and sweat covered him in a thin layer. He looked slightly pale under his tan, but was grinning with an enjoyment that neither child could understand.

He saw them and quickly came over, his grin fading into a frown. "Hey, Udon, Moegi!" he greeted. Immediately, he knelt down to meet their eye level. He looked worried. "Have you heard? They said that the punishment for the defacing of the Hokage monument would be the revoking of the ninja license of the culprit forever!" The lie rolled easily off his tongue, his face carefully constructed to looked worried and helpless. Damn, he loved his job. 

"Oh no!" Moegi cried, turning to Udon. "Konohamaru-chan!"

"He'll never become Hokage!" the boy murmured in a shocked voice.

Naruto looked at Udon, then Moegi. "Then.." he mused before turning very serious, the shift in emotions rehearsed and pulled off easily. "You know what must be done."

Udon and Moegi looked at each other, then at Naruto. They sharply nodded. "Good bye, Naruto-kun!" they called out, immediately turning to jumped over the fence. Once they had gotten over, they stood and ran off to where, as Udon had hissed, he was sure there was some paint. Naruto watched with a smirk.

His smirk faded when he felt suddenly cold. "Any reason why you are so amused, Naruto-kun?" a deceptively soft voice whispered. Naruto's legs tensed. He was prepared to run again.

"Oh, what reason isn't there to be?" he stalled. "The day is nice and warm, a prank has been pulled, and I had absolutely nothing to do with either!"

"Oh really?" the sound of a flipping page accompanied a new arrival. "And _who_ do you think caused these things?" Naruto flinched. _They sent a retired Anbu captain **and** Haku after me?_ He wondered incredulously. After a moment, he grinned. _Sweet!_

"Ah, well.." he stalled some more, looking over his shoulder at Kakashi and Haku. Neither looked very happy with him. "You know, even geniuses like myself are not all powerful and omnipresent. But I sure as hell can try!" With a smirk, he quickly made copies of himself fly off in all directions.

Haku started to go after them, but was halted by Kakashi's hand. "No, trust me." he said to the younger ninja calmly, steering him in the other direction. "Naruto loves attention. There's no point wasting our energy when we know exactly where he is going: straight into the chaos."

---

Even though Kakashi was right about Naruto going back to the scene of the crime, neither the jonin nor Haku had the pleasure of finally catching Naruto. The credit for the capture went to someone else entirely.

"Put me down, put me down!" Naruto cried, vainly kicking his bound legs. "You son of a bitch! Your shoulder is as bony as hell!" All he got in return was a dark chuckle and slight twist of said shoulder, which then dug harshly into the blond's stomach. "Aaa...h... ba-bastard.."

"Hey, Zabuza!" Naruto visibly wilted when he heard the familiar voice call out. It was one thing to be suspected of pranking and being chased by Kakashi and most of the general ninja population(that was actually pretty fun), but it was quite another for Iruka to be involved.

Iruka saw who the the former mist nin had tossed over his shoulder. His temper flared. "Naruto! Why did you vandalize the Hokage monument!" Naruto, who previously had been murmuring rude things under his breath, still and went silent, suddenly ashamed of a crime that he did not commit.

"Oh ho ho!" Zabuza snickered at him, bouncing him on his shoulder. "The noisy little fox suddenly shuts up when the big bad dolphin snaps his jaws at him?" The poke at his pride made Naruto start to wiggle again.

"You fish faced, eyebrowless bastard!" he swore darkly. Somehow, he managed to bend his body back in a outstanding feat of flexibility and snapped his teeth dangerously close to Zabuza's ear. A little unnerved for his ear's sake, Zabuza dropped the blond on the ground, where Naruto landed on his rear. "Owie!"

A small crowd had developed in front of the monument. All with some unspoken agreement, they surrounded Naruto, who childishly glared at them all, Konoha native or otherwise. Konohamaru, one of the few Academy students in the crowd, started to get very angry. _He's taking credit for my work! _He thought, his fist clenching. _That bastard! _Yet he stayed still, the terms of his victory still ringing in his head: do it, and don't get caught. The Hokage took a step forward, looking very stern.

"Naruto, did you desecrate the monument?" he asked in a reasonable tone. Somehow, the even and almost impassive voice made him more guilty than Iruka's anger. Because of his need for elaborate schemes, Sarutobi was forced to think carefully about any and all of his decisions regarding him. There were too many foreign ninjas about for Sarutobi to allow them to see any weaknesses. No one should see that Sarutobi didn't always have control over his ninjas.

It wasn't the time for him to participate in any acts of teenage rebellion. Naruto took a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly before opening them to stare seriously up at Sarutobi. "I did not do such a thing, Hokage-sama." he said in a deeply respectful voice. Several people, including Sarutobi himself(though his expression did not reveal it), were startled. Since when was Naruto so respectful?

Konohamaru blinked. _He's not taking credit for it?_ He thought, rubbing his head. _Now I'm confused..._

Naruto continued calmly. "I might have done it in the past, but I am a ninja of Konoha now. I now put the safety of this village before any needs to express myself publicly." Sarutobi, though he kept on an impassive face, had to inwardly smile and thank Naruto. The blond, though his innocence had yet to be proven, had done as much as he could with words to make it seem like all Konoha ninjas were dedicated to the safety of their village, even ones with delinquent tendencies.

_The most well known trait of a Konoha ninja is unity in teamwork, and in the desire to keep Konoha safe._ Haku thought with a smile. _That unity is deadly to all those outside of the circle of trust. This is why Konoha is feared above all other villages._

"I can vouch for his innocence." The crowd parted for Jiraiya, who rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "He has been training with me. All day yesterday we trained and all of last night was spent resting. I've had my eye on him and he did not once move within thirty feet of the monument." The word of the frog hermit carried a lot of weight with Sarutobi. With a nod, the Hokage gestured for Iruka to untie his former student, who was too busy sticking his tongue out at someone to notice that his new teacher had just saved his ass.

"But why did you run?" Haku had to ask, kneeling down to help Iruka with the knots. "You could have just told us that you didn't do it."

Finally, that smirk that they all knew well appeared. "Don't you feel used?" he snickered. Iruka untied the first knot, surprised to find that Naruto had already undone most of the knots from the inside. "All you guys chasing me all around the village.. it was a good training exercise!"

Jiraiya chuckled heartily while several jonins groaned. Zabuza took a menacing step forward. "You mean all that time searching for you was just a waste of time?" he cracked his knuckles. "Please tell me that I am wrong, or I may feel the need to be a little.. _violent_." Several mist nins in the small crowd cringed and moved away.

Naruto, completely freed from his bonds, sprung to his feet happily. He mockingly jumped in a defensive position, bouncing from foot to foot. "Are you sure you want to fight me, old man?" the blond asked with a smirk. "I wouldn't want you to break a hip or something.." Zabuza looked surprised and was about to reply to the blond's verbal challenge when he was interrupted.

Sarutobi cleared his throat. The newly instated jonin and the genin stopped snarking at each other and turned towards the old man, more out of political reasons than any desire to stop fighting. "If Naruto did not do this deed, then who did?" Right on time, Udon and Moegi squeezed through the crowd. Their clothing was streaked with paint and Udon had a wet paint brush sticking out of his back pocket. Naruto took this time to ease his way into the crowd, searching for the one other person who would have come back to the scene of the crime.

"We did, we did!" they shouted. They looked almost proud of themselves.

"Moegi? Udon?" Iruka murmured incredulously. His logic stated that there was no way that the two normally quiet students could possibly do such a deed. But experience reminded him that it was those two students, with one other, who had been causing the most chaos around as of late. He glanced at Konohamaru, who looked equally as shocked. _There's something off about this situation._ The teacher thought with a frown.

Konohamaru's shock eventually turned into anger. _**They're** taking credit for it! Those.. those.. backstabbers!_ He couldn't find the words in his mind to express his anger.

"Yup!" Moegi said brightly. "We did it. It was all us. So, you can take away our chances of being ninja or whatever."

"He said 'revoked ninja license'." Udon said with a sniffle. Moegi stomped her foot.

"I said whatever!" she shouted with a pout.

Konohamaru was no longer angry, but confused as Iruka. As he tried to figure out what the two were saying, a voice rang out next to his ear. "Looks like they're trying to protect someone." the eight year old gritted his teeth, recognizing the voice. _This is all Naruto's fault!_ He decided, about to tell the blond off. Naruto interrupted him. "Having any and all chance of being a ninja taken away from you? They're pretty damn loyal to whoever they're protecting." he mused. Konohamaru's eyes widened in sudden realization. Naruto's next words echoed his thoughts. "Not having the chance to be a ninja means not having the chance to be Hokage, huh? Good thing neither of them wants to be ninjas, right? I mean, what is more important to them, their dreams or yours?"

While Naruto gained Konohamaru's full attention with his softly spoken words, Iruka frowned down at his students. There was no way that they would have such a harsh punishment for a simple prank. Yet, the two were almost willing to go find the papers that had signed them into the Academy and rip them up, if only everyone else would believe that they were the pranksters behind the mess of the monument. They seemed almost desperate.

"Wait just a moment." he said, critically looking them over. The paint on their clothing didn't quite correspond with the colors on the faces of the Hokages. He had an idea. "Turn your back to the monument." he ordered sharply. They did as they were told. Pacing back and forth in front of them, making them sweat in the process, he finally spoke. "What was painted on the left cheek of the fourth Hokage?" he asked in his best quizzing tone.

The two were quiet, sending each other questioning gazes. "..Dunno?" Moegi finally answered with a big smile. "I'm not so good with pop quizzes..."

"It was dark." Udon hastened to explain, realizing quickly that Iruka didn't believe them. "We were afraid we were going to get caught-"

"Oh really?" Iruka asked them calmly, looking almost sympathetic. "If you were so afraid that you were going to be caught, then why did you do it?"

"Uh.." they said in unison, trying to think of an answer. But Iruka continued on like an skilled endurance runner passing up an amateur one.

"If you did it last night, then why are you wearing clothes with paint on it today, when I have already seen you in those clothes, completely paint free?" he demanded, stopping in midstep to look at them for the answer.

"Um.. W-well.." As he could have guessed, neither had a good answer. He faced them fully, crossing his arms over his chest.

The two children gulped. Iruka looked very serious. "Come on. We all know that you didn't do it." he said quietly. "If you do not stop pretending to have been the ones to do this deed, I really _will_ make sure neither of you become ninjas." Konohamaru only caught the last part. Wide eyed, he tuned out Naruto's mocking voice and gave his full attention to the two solemn children covered in paint.

"My dream.. and theirs." he whispered. He could remember clearly every time Moegi shouted that she was going to be the best kunoichi that the world had ever seen. He could remember every time that Udon said he was going to prove that mathematics and brainpower was just as important to ninjas as brute strength. He had told them his own dream, and they had been there every step of the way to make sure that he could achieve his dream, even at the expense of their own.

"_What are Udon and Moegi to you?_" Naruto's question had been random. What were they, indeed.

They were slow, they didn't understand him half of the time, and they weren't all that much to look at. But they were..

_"What are Udon and Moegi to you?"_

Foolish, naive, and nowhere near his social status. Udon had allergies to nearly every type of hair, save for human hair, and tended to sneeze whenever they were near flowers. He turned red and his nose became stuffy, and it was so embarrassing. But..

_"What are Udon and Moegi to you?"_

Impatient, impractical, and boring. Moegi had to be wrestled away from her teddy bear on the first day of the Academy. She had bawled then, and she still cried whenever someone took something she thought was hers. She was loud and very bossy. She had the habit of throwing tantrums when things didn't go her way, which always made Konohamaru burn in shame, especially when she was standing right next to him and there was no escape in sight. But still, despite all these flaws..

A hand fell to his shoulder. Konohamaru looked up at Naruto. The genin, who had been so gleefully poking at his conscience, now was very serious. "Konohamaru." he said quietly, guessing at what had run through Konohamaru's head during the last few seconds. "What are they to you? Soldiers? A convenient resource?"

Konohamaru knew exactly what they were.

He jerked away from Naruto and pushed through the crowd, stomping almost angrily up to Iruka. "I did it, sensei!" he yelled. Iruka blinked in surprise, but not at the idea that the 'honorable grandson' had followed in his mentor's foot steps. He was surprised that he admitted to it. Immediately, Udon and Moegi were at his sides, both covering his mouth.

"Don't pay attention to him, sensei!" Moegi said quickly with a nervous laugh. With her free hand, she tapped on her head with her knuckles. "Too many hits in the head, ya know?"

"He doesn't know what he's talking about." Udon said with a sniffle.

With a growl, Konohamaru pushed them away from him. "I did it, sensei! Don't punish them!" he shouted, easily keeping the other two at bay when they tried to cover his mouth again. "They're just trying to keep me out of trouble because.." he took a deep shuddering breath. He knew what they were. They were there for him through thick and thin, through flaws and failures and victories.

Konohamaru clenched his hands into fists and yelled, "They're my _friends_!" 

Naruto smiled. _Stubborn ass._ He thought affectionately before turning on his heel, exiting the crowd without anyone noticing.

Konohamaru continued, easily calling out every profane image or word(s) that he had defaced the monument with. He lifted up his foot, showing where there was paint hidden in the cracks of his sandals. He did this all loudly, protesting his innocence and just as loudly proving that Moegi and Udon did not have a hand in it. Sarutobi watched, tugging the brim of his hat far enough down so no one could see his smile.

When he finally quieted, he was shaking and his face was flushed. Iruka really didn't know what to say. Zabuza suddenly laughed. "I guess you take the whole 'protect your friends before the mission' thing very seriously!" Iruka rubbed his temples.

Konoha was one of the few villages that had many ninjas that practiced that rule, from people like Jiraiya and Sarutobi to Academy students. There was mumbling from the foreign ninjas in the crowd, but the Konoha natives did not care. It was a good thing that their other peers knew about their loyalty to one another. They would at least think twice about attacking them, knowing that they would fight a united Konoha. 

Iruka rubbed the back of his head. Or, at least, that was the ideal view of it. "Okay." he said, clapping his hands together. "No recess for a week, or until you can completely clean off the monument." Konohamaru was surprised at the weak punishment. He was sure that he was going to lose any and all chance at the title of Hokage because one, he broke the rules of Naruto's game which stated that he was not to be caught, and two, because he had heard that the person who had defaced the monument was going to get their ninja license forever considered suspended. Although the first part had been true, the second part had not. Konohamaru didn't question the punishment, not wanting to push his luck.

Suddenly, Moegi and Udon were in Iruka's face. "We do that too!" they said in unison. They both had determined sets to their mouths.

"What?" Iruka asked, backing up slightly. "Why?"

"We're.. we're.." Moegi's face was scrunched up in thought. "Acco.. account.. accompt.." she turned to Udon, a question on her mind. "What was that word again?"

The boy sniffled. "Accomplices." he said.

"Yeah!" the girl said proudly, turning back to Iruka. "We're acco-whatevers, so we have to be punished too!" Iruka just shrugged.

"Very well. You may aid him." he said, defeated. What could he do when faced with such team work and loyalty? "Your punishment starts tomorrow." Slowly, the crowd dissipated. As he left, Sarutobi gently patted Konohamaru's shoulder and smiled at him proudly, making the boy flush with embarrassment. He had made the right choice.

All alone, the troublesome trio looked at each other shyly. Konohamaru cleared his throat.  
"You guys-" he started to say, wanting to apologize. 

"We know." Udon said with a smile. Moegi grinned. 

"Group hug!" she called out in a sing song voice, hugging both of the halfheartedly protesting boys. "Friends forever!" They laughed, pushed each other, and prodded each other in the sides.

After some protests, Konohamaru stopped wiggling and looked at his two friends with a serious gaze. "I have to go after him." he said quietly. Calming down, the two nodded.

"We know." Moegi said, patting his shoulder. "Go." Almost reluctantly, he pulled away from his friends. They both gave him reassuring smiles. "We'll be right here!" Moegi called after him when he walked away.

"..always." Udon murmured quietly. The girl and the boy looked at each other with a smile, then found a bench to sit on while waiting for their leader to come back.

----

"Hey!" Naruto paused, turning around to see who called him. Something like a smirk passed over his face before it was masked with a scowl. Konohamaru ran up to him, scowling himself. "You bastard!"

"You're the one who couldn't follow the rules." Naruto said dryly. "If you would have just let your friends take the blame, I would have been out of your way."

"Well, your rules suck!" Konohamaru shouted. "And I'm mad 'cause you put my friends' futures at stake!" Naruto, though he frowned, looked distinctly pleased with himself, like a cat that finally caught the canary.

"No, it is you who put them in danger." Naruto murmured. "You and your pathetic attempts to be superior than everyone else in the village." Konohamaru felt a flash of shame, but quickly defended himself.

"Hey, you want to be Hokage too!" he said with a scowl. "You want to be acknowledged too! You want to be known as the best of the best!"

Naruto was quiet for a moment. The angle of the sun and the building above him threw his face into shadow. "You see the title of a Kage as a title. As some sort of medal of honor or some bull shit like that. Do you think people jump head first into wars just for stupid little tokens like that?" Though his words were harsh, there was no anger directed at Konohamaru. "Being a Kage is more than just being considered the best of the best. It's about your friends, your soldiers, your enemies. How you react to each and every one of them. Whether or not you choose a mission over a friend's life. Whether or not you decide to kill an innocent person just because they were in your way. Some kages have been total bastards, but, you know, they haven't lasted very long." He pointed a finger at the monument just barely visible from where they were. It looked less majestic as usual, for obvious reasons. "Those kages are good kages. Those kages are the only kages that people care about. You want to be like those kages. Like the First, who led our struggling people to this hidden place and built a village where we could live. Like the Second and your gramps, who built upon the foundation that the First gave them. Like the Fourth, who died while defending this village." He almost went on, but caught himself. He looked over, seeing the other boy stare down at his shoes before staring at him with his dark and honest eyes.

"I know all of that." Konohamaru said desperately. "I really do."

Naruto regarded him with a stern expression before breaking out in a smile. "I know you do." he said proudly. "You chose your friends over a title. You may not have been able to follow the rules, but, ya know-" He ruffled a hand through the shorter boy's hair affectionately. The boy made a face and attempted to put his hair back the way it was."-You have my respect."

And Konohamaru realized as Naruto walked away that he had been merely a pawn in one of Naruto's grand schemes. Awed by his mentor's ability to manipulate and confuse, he shouted after the blond, "You're still my rival!"

His reply was Naruto's warm laughter.

---

Shikamaru twirled his chopsticks between his fingers, not hungry enough to eat the unappetizing food in front of him. Chouji looked over his shoulder at his untouched meal, his eyes gleaming with want for the food. Without even acknowledging the look of desire in Chouji's eyes, Shikamaru pushed the plate towards him.

Chouji blinked at his friend's plate before looking at his friend. "Bad training?" he asked with a worried frown. He had noticed that Shikamaru kept rubbing his side, as if it was in pain. Shikamaru only grunted, his eyes fixed on the grains of the woods of the table.

Chouji frowned. He knew there was something wrong with his friend. With a great sigh of regret, he pushed the plate back towards Shikamaru. "Eat. You'll feel better."

Shikamaru rubbed his temples. "Eating is not the solution to everything." he said tiredly to Chouji. The other boy beamed.

"Maybe not, but it sure does help!" After regarding the slimy sludge of whatever that was on his plate, Shikamaru gave him an exasperated glance which was lazy to be a glare before resting his head on his arms. Chouji turned serious. "It's about Ino, isn't it?"

All three of them had been friends for years, but as close as he was with Shikamaru, his relationship with Ino could not begin to compare to Shikamaru's relationship with Ino. Where Chouji was a wary friend of Ino, Shikamaru was more often Ino's enemy than her friend. His snarky comments and sarcasm had gotten him on her bad side more than once. Still, if Ino had a problem, Chouji knew that she would go to Shikamaru before she'd go to him, if she even thought to ask any on their little team. Ino, though she would never admit to it, respected and trusted Shikamaru more than anyone else in the village. If there was something wrong with her, Shikamaru would know.

Chouji couldn't see Shikamaru's eyes, but the sudden slump of the lazy boy's shoulders told him all. "How much do you know?" Shikamaru finally asked warily, his voice slightly muffled in his arm.

"Not much." Chouji admitted. "My dad knows something, I think, but he won't tell me."

Shikamaru was quiet for a moment, idly tracing a pattern in the table with a finger. "Ino's.. not well." he said after a while. "She's.. not feeling very good."

Chouji sighed. "I got that much on my own." he said, a little irritated that he was left out of the loop. Shikamaru mumbled an apology. A moment went by seeing both boys gloomily thinking.

Chouji rested one of his chopsticks on the edge of his plate at an angle. "Do you.." he was hesitant to ask. He stalled, fiddling with the chopstick until he determined that it was at the right angle. He brought his hand down on one of the ends and the chopstick went flying into the air to land in someone else's soup. Deprived of his toy, the genin stopped stalling. "Do you think she'll be ok?" It came out in a whisper.

Shikamaru sat up, wincing when his muscles did not agree with the motion. He poked at the quivering mass of food on his plate with a chopstick. He could have sworn the evil thing cackled at him. "Ino's not stupid." he said firmly, jabbing the food a bit harder. "She'll realize what she needs to and she will get better." The chopstick got stuck in the food. Shikamaru watched as the utensil was slowly engulfed by the strange substance. 

Realizing idly that he should be alarmed, the shadow user flicked the strange creature with finger. "She'll realize that half of life is based on choice. And when she realizes that, she'll come back to us." he commented lightly. The chopstick totally disappeared. The sludge shuddered with a squelch that sounded suspiciously like a burp. Shikamaru sent Chouji a half hearted glare. "Remind me to never test out a new restaurant with you ever again." The food cackled evilly while Chouji rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

---

TBC

A nice and lengthy glimpse into the future...

_The cold was settling in quickly. Night was approaching and the cold air rushed through the cave, giving the already damp area an even chillier temperature.   
Naruto grabbed the strap of his backpack, shivering slightly. He took a few steps closer to the small group for some type of body warmth. Finally, he complained. "Who gives a crap about some damn ore that we don't even use?"  
Shino looked across Hinata at Kiba. "I won." he said calmly. "Twenty minutes exactly."  
Kiba winced. "Fine, I'll pay you when we get back." Hinata had to laugh. She didn't know that Shino was the betting type.  
"On the contrary, Naruto." Jiraiya said with a toss of his hair. "That damn ore is pretty damn important."  
"It's used in all types of kunai, throwing stars, and in most types of katana." their guide added helpfully. Naruto glared at the man's back.  
"And why do you people need our help in finding this ore crap?" he asked rudely.  
From the angle that the guide was facing, none of the ninjas could see the sudden greedy look on his face. "It's.. dreadfully dangerous." he said, deciding on an answer.  
Naruto, already bored with the topic, looked away. "Yeah, whatever."  
They continued farther in. The guide protested a cramp and they stopped for a break. The cave was very dark. If it wasn't for the lamps that the guide and Jiraiya were carrying, it would have been pitch black.  
Hinata wandered over to Naruto, who stood a little ways away from the group, shyly offering some of her leftover lunch. He took it without hesitation, praising her cooking as he swallowed down the last of the rice ball.  
Shino was oddly nervous. Kiba, quite amused with this sudden change in events, physically and verbally poked the normally stoic, who answered harshly. Jiraiya was lost in his own thoughts, the only hint about what those thoughts were was the perverted grin he wore.  
None of them noticed when the guide edged to the wall and pushed down on a button almost invisible on the rock wall. They all, however, were jerked out of their thoughts and conversations when everything around them started to shake.  
"Earthquake!" the guide cried. A large rock dropped in the space Jiraiya and the two Team Eight boys, narrowly missing Akamaru, who yelped and clung to the back of Shino's jacket with his nails.  
Naruto and Hinata stumbled around as the ground shook beneath them. Naruto got a secure footing with the aid of chakra, but Hinata tripped over one of his legs and fell. Just as Naruto tried to help her up, his keen hearing picked up the sound of loosening rocks above. His gaze went upwards, seeing a huge rock detaching itself and falling towards them at a rapid speed. Hinata would have never had the chance nor the time to get up and away before the rock crushed her._


	44. The Return of an Old Enemy

Three things: one, I'm sorry about the slow update. No, this story isn't stopping, it's just coming along slower this month than you would have predicted. And two, it might just get even slower. You see, this time of year is hell because I have finals, projects, and massive amounts of homework to do. Luckily for me, by the next time I update, it will all be over. So, be patient during this month, because, trust me, I'm even more annoyed than you are. And finally, three: much thanks to Angel's Hazard, who is my oh so wonderful(and new!) beta! Hopefully, all the errors that you all have been cringing over have been fixed.  
---

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Forty-four: The Return of an Old Enemy

by Foxie

----  
It had been hard to get up, but considerably easier to get dressed. It got even easier somehow to walk downstairs and greet her surprised family, habit taking over the wheel easily. It still was hard to look them in the face and know that they had to avoid her like a disease. It wasn't something that she was used to, being such a social person. But she'd deal with it, because choice b wasn't worth it.

"Ino." her father greeted, looking over his shoulder briefly to give his wife a meaningful look. She got the message and rummaged around the living room for something, disappearing from Ino's view.

"Morning." Though she had gotten a good laugh earlier, Ino still didn't think it was that great of a morning. She was determined to be extra careful not to bump into people today. Ino didn't think she could take another image of death.

She rubbed her bare arms, longing for her long-sleeve shirt and mittens. Leaving them in her room had taken some courage brought on by a single thought: _what would he think of me if he saw me this way?_ Ino found it slightly disturbing that she couldn't decide whether by 'he' she meant Sasuke or Shikamaru. Though it would be bad for her image in the dark Uchiha's eyes if she came out dressed for the winter when it was hotter than hell (if she was even _acknowledged_ by the boy..), somehow, the thought of Shikamaru being disappointed in her again was prevalent in her mind when she fingered the gloves and sweater that morning, making her swiftly decide that she did not need them.

Attempting a smile, Ino reached around her father, grabbing a piece of fruit before turning to leave. Looking panicked, he made a move to grab her, but stopped as he remembered Maemi's words. He stuttered for a moment, catching Ino's attention. "Just... wait." he said finally at her questioning look.

Ino's mother came out of the living room with a small box in her hand. She smiled at her somber daughter. "Maemi left this for you," she said, carefully handing over the box without touching her daughter's fingers. It hardly looked like something that could help her on her new quest to prevent Naruto from dying.

Ino looked at it disinterestedly for a moment before halfheartedly opening it. Hung on a very simple string was a collection of oddly shaped beads. Frowning, Ino put a hand right above it, a little disturbed to feel chakra coming from it. "It's for... well, you know." Her mother trailed off, looking at her husband for help.

"It suppresses your chakra from dragging others into you," the jonin picked up a little nervously. Ino looked at him for a moment before slipping on the bracelet. She wasn't quite sure what she felt, but she was sure she felt less open somehow. It was like a blanket had fallen over her. A warm fluffy blanket that kept out the cold.

"This will keep me from seeing things?" she whispered finally, doubtful hope making her voice low. Her parents nodded in unison when she looked up. Several things passed her mind quickly before she suddenly jumped up and hugged them both. After stiffening in an instinctive reaction, they both hugged her back. "Oh, thank god! I didn't want to walk on eggshells around everyone today." At her light words, both adults smiled.

"We were so worried about you!" her mother said tearfully, running a hand through her daughter's hair.

Ino's father perked up. "But you know, I came with the perfect-oof." his wife elbowed him the gut with a growl for him to be quiet. Sheepishly, he rubbed his sore stomach.

"What?" Ino asked, a little curious. Ino's mother sighed, rubbing her temples.

With a watchful eye for his wife's attack, he continued. "Well, I know it's not exactly what one should think when his daughter is in pain, but it just came to me," he said in a guilty voice, warming up to the idea as he talked about it. There was a glint in his eyes that warned all that knew him of his harebrained schemes. "You know how your chakra became parasitic, right? Well I was thinking.. anti-Shintenshin no Jutsu."

Ino blinked, putting the two ideas together before she started to get the same twinkle in her eyes. With a grin at her acceptance at the idea, the father pulled his daughter into his study, eager to show her the plans for the jutsu that he had already drawn up, thanks to a sleepless night.

Ino's mother tossed her hands into the air. "Typical Yamanakas!" she said without any heat behind her exasperated words. She smiled, moving towards the phone with a certain phone number in mind. She just had to thank Ino's teammate for his words to her, whatever they had been, that had pulled her daughter out of her funk.

---

After a day had passed and the troublesome trio was assigned to clean up the mess of the monument, Naruto swore to himself that he was never going to be stupid again. That was it. He put his foot down. No way in hell was he going to make his life any worse by doing or saying something dumb. What was he _thinking _when he had asked Jiraiya if he could teach him the highly difficult flash jutsu of the late Yondaime?

He swore it as soon as a bucket of ice cold water had been poured on him hours before any bird sleepily chirped a greeting. It wasn't as if he could jump up and attempt to beat the crap out of the culprit, as he would if his newfound enemy was Sasuke. No, he doubted Jiraiya would like a foot stuck permanently up his perverted ass. It might even encourage the old bastard to not teach him.

He swore it as soon as an all too cheery voice called out, "Good morning!" It was definitely not a good morning. Even in hell, it would be considered bad. Satan and all the other demons and devils would whimper and hide under their pillows, just as Naruto was tempted to.

He mumbled something into said pillow before rolling out of bed with a sleepy grumble. Kyuubi was hissing very much like a cat in the back of his mind, not agreeing with the old man's way of waking them up either. They exchanged creative ideas for a moment in the back of his mind before Kyuubi punted Naruto back to the front of his conscience just in time to dodge the bucket being thrown at him.

"Hurry up and get dressed, brat!" Jiraiya said with a grin. "You have no time to be staring at your toes!" At the mention of time, Naruto suddenly sobered up grimly.

As stupid as he thought he was for even thinking about suggesting that Jiraiya teach him the Fourth's most prized technique, it all was for that one simple purpose: for his friends to live. _Yep_, he thought, rubbing his shoulders and wincing at the memory of how sore they were the day before, _Guess I just have to take it for the team._

Jiraiya, once Naruto had convinced him both with his words and with his successes with the summoning jutsu, rasengan, and pretty much any other jutsu that came to the old man's mind, had looked the short blond boy up and down before promptly announcing that Naruto couldn't do the technique.

Naruto, naturally, started yelling and flailing his arms about. Jiraiya quickly amended his words. "It's just... your build," he had said simply. "Not only are you incredibly short-" here, Naruto fumed and stuck his tongue out, simply because that was what he would have done when he was twelve, "But you're also broad."

It took Jiraiya a few moments to understand that his new student didn't understand. So, a little annoyed that he had to explain it, he compared Sasuke and Naruto. "Now see," he had said calmly, "Sasuke has a slimmer and longer build than you. He's faster than you on his feet, quicker than you in battle, and I bet he's more flexible than you too." Instead of the complaints he expected from Naruto about Sasuke and whatever the blond boy could think of saying bad about his rival, the boy looked interested and gestured for him to carry on. Jiraiya coughed into his hand and did just that. "Your shoulders are wider; your body is broader... It appears to me that Sasuke was built for speed while you were built for power." In the end, the old man had a solution: increase Naruto's strength so much that his build wouldn't be a problem. After all, speed depended heavily on strength. The stronger someone's legs were, the faster that their muscles could contract, right?

Well, Jiraiya wasn't too sure. That was his teammate's area of expertise, but it made sense to him, and Naruto was willing to buy it, so it was all good.

If Naruto knew that the grueling strength building sessions that he had been suffering through the entire week had been based on Jiraiya's logic (as faulty as it sometimes was), and not scientific fact... well...

**The old fart dies**. Kyuubi snarled. Naruto rolled his eyes. The genin couldn't see why the demon was more pissed at Jiraiya than he was. It was his body, dammit! He was the one limping home and dragging his weakened and sore body to the bed where he would fall and be out like a light for ten hours straight.

But, then again, it was Kyuubi who spent that time mending his body back together, easing strained muscles and fixing the occasional fractured limb.

**He's killing you!** The demon protested. **Come now.. if I just eased into your immune system..**

"No." Naruto said flatly, not noticing that he had said it out loud. It wasn't a new offer. Kyuubi often complained about the lack of youki in Naruto's immune system, a complaint that became all the more insistent when Naruto was poisoned and nearly died.

The demon couldn't understand why Naruto always refused. If he would just allow his youki to seep into his immune system, the blond would never get sick, no disease would ever ail him, and, most importantly, Naruto would never be affected by a poison again.

But Naruto had more in mind than just an immune system powered by youki. He knew, and tried to explain to the stubborn fox, that the more youki that Kyuubi allowed to mix in with his own chakra, the more impossible it would become for the two to ever be separated. Naruto had already accepted the fact that he would die without Kyuubi, if Akatsuki ever managed to get their hands on him. But the demon himself would suffer from the separation as well, if he kept melding their energies together and kept trying to make Naruto into some sort of superhuman.

He couldn't count on his fingers how many people hated Kyuubi, but he himself, after decades with the demon, couldn't hate him anymore than he could hate Sasuke. And he just couldn't accept Kyuubi's 'gift', not when he knew it might later mean life or death for the fox.

Jiraiya looked up, surprised to see that the boy was moving throughout his entire morning routine with a vague and glazed look in his eye. He was half-tempted to stick his foot out to see if the genin was conscious enough to notice the difference in his surroundings.

"Off in la-la land?" Jiraiya teased when Naruto blinked suddenly and focused his eyes on him.

"Just tired." Naruto lied, running a hand through his hair and looking around for his forehead protector. The frog hermit smirked and dangled it from his hand. With a faint scowl, the blonde swiped at it and snagged it. "Are we gonna go or what?" he asked as he wrapped one of his most prized possessions around his head. He smirked at the old man before grabbing some rice balls that he had snagged from Hinata the day before. He brightened a little as he went out the door. After his training session, he was going to take her to his most favorite spot in the world.

Once upon a time, in a past future, he had carved her name there when what little tradition Konoha had left had denied her the honor of having her name on the memorial stone. It did not matter that Tsunade had put her name on the crowded stone anyway. He, as well as the few people he had disclosed the information to, thought it was only fitting that the girl had her name carved on the largest symbol of his most precious dream.

Jiraiya sighed, turning off the oven that Naruto had been using in place of a heater. He closed and locked the door behind the blond, wondering how he had even survived without parental supervision. "I was waiting for _you_, brat."

--

Midday came and passed, yet neither Shikamaru's mother nor Ino knew where the shadow user was.

"I'm sorry, Ino." His mother said with an apologetic smile. "But I'm afraid I haven't seen much of him this week." Her eyes brightened up a little. "Your mother called, saying that Shika had done the sweetest thing for you!" Ino rolled her eyes. Shikamaru had been anything but sweet when he had talked to her. "She wouldn't say what it was, but I wouldn't be surprised if Shika was hiding just because he didn't want any recognition." While the Nara woman beamed at the thought of her usually apathetic son being helpful, Ino weighed her words.

_Maybe he is hiding,_ she thought with a frown. _Hiding because he knows that I'm going to kick his ass!_ Her depression almost immediately evaporated when she put on the bracelet, leaving only the slight anger that the Nara boy had spoke so harshly to her. Now that there was no sorrow covering it, she fanned the flames of her anger unconsciously, directing her frustration about not knowing what to do to prevent Naruto's untimely death at him, an easier and less resistant target. Shikamaru almost never fought back.

"Well, I'm gonna go find him." Ino told his mother with a toss of her hair. "He has some explaining to do!"

---

Sarutobi, the third Hokage out of four of Konoha, one of the most powerful ninjas that had ever graced the village, had to rub his temples and close his eyes to ward off the coming headache. Being the great Hokage, he didn't have to go on many missions, unless they were absolute emergencies. But, in exchange for a little peace, there were tons and tons of paperwork.  
Out of all of the papers he had to sign or look over, which included everything from building deeds to assassination requests, what he found to be the most tedious, annoying, and headache inducing was assigning people missions.

He had to worry about assigning teams the too hard of missions, or face the wrath of those annoyed with the too easy of missions. Either way, he had a headache from worrying or a headache from hearing a ninja whine or complain about being underestimated. Though that was usually an action that he expected from younger genins like Naruto, he still had to deal with the wounded egos of the older ninjas, who knew they were good and wanted to prove it.

"So..." he drawled out, opening one eye to stare at the ninja in front of him. The ninja in question was beaming while the ninja next to him looked stressed enough to have a mild heart attack. "You're saying that you'll do a C-class mission?"

"Yup!" the ninja said with a grin. "I'll even settle with the crappy pay, as an extra bonus!"

The ninja next to him sputtered, finally coming up with the words that he wanted to say. "This is highly irregular!" Ebisu cried, flailing before he caught himself. He straightened with a cough. "I mean, I can understand having me do this job.. but you.. of all people!" The first ninja looked a little offended and sniffed haughtily.

Sarutobi rubbed his temples again. "I agree with Ebisu on this, I'm afraid." he said wearily. He tapped his fingers on the file. "You haven't done a C-class mission in... oh... about thirty years, Jiraiya." 

There had been some difficulty lately with assigning missions. Most chuunins were supervising the Chuunin Exam, which meant a whole lot of C-class and B-class missions weren't being fulfilled. While he could hand off some of the lower C-class missions off to the genins who didn't participate in the exam, he still found himself assigning jonins to a chuunin task, which lead to much annoyance all around. But they accepted it, knowing the circumstances.

But having one of his students, one of the most powerful ninjas in Konoha, who was better equipped to S-class missions, do a C-class mission? Even Sarutobi had to draw the line.

"Hey, it's not like I'm bored and I'm doing this for kicks, Sensei." Jiraiya said sulkily. He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm doing it as a part of my student's training."

"Oh!" Sarutobi said, his tone banking on approving. That changed everything. While genins were exempt from missions if they participated in the Chuunin Exam, there was no rule about them taking a mission for training. "How is that going?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Better than I thought, actually," he admitted. "He's an easier student than you'd think he is."

Sarutobi looked over to the slightly confused Ebisu. "He's training one of Kakashi's students," he explained. He shot a sly smirk towards his old pupil. "Apparently, he was conned into it as well." Jiraiya flushed, muttering something rude underneath his breath.

"Oh!" Ebisu said, turning to Jiraiya. "That explains it. Are you training that Uchiha boy?"

Jiraiya grinned. "Nope!" he said, watching the wheels turn in the jonin's head.

The jonin was quiet for a moment. "Then.. the girl?" he asked finally.

"Nope. Naruto," Jiraiya declared. As he could have expected, a look of disgust passed over his face. Looking back between the calm hermit and the indifferent Hokage, he sputtered for a moment.

Suddenly, he turned to the Hokage. "Sir!" he said in a panicked tone. "Think of the calamities that could come with that... _thing_ being taught by Jiraiya-sama, the one who taught the man who sealed him!"

"Naruto has done no harm to our village." Sarutobi said, warding off a new headache. It never ceased to surprise him to see some of his most loyal ninjas cringing at the thought of the genin. It also equally surprised him that Naruto had managed to gain the support and sometimes verbal protection of some of his most powerful ninjas, including not only people like Kakashi, whose allegiance could naturally be explained by their teacher-student bond, but also mysterious and dangerous people like the two former mist nins.

He had a report on his desk, in fact, that claimed that Haku, when in the presence of a chuunin that dared to speak darkly about Naruto, had made an ultimate threat of castration if the chuunin did not take back his words. Terrified, the chuunin did, but reported Haku to his superior officer, naturally leaving out the parts where he was in the wrong. Knowing that this would happen, Zabuza went up to the Hokage himself to relate the incident in full detail, since he had been a witness. The Hokage was still unsure how to handle that situation.

"I would ask for you not to talk about your fellow ninja in such a negative way," he continued, still thinking about how unfair it was that everyone discriminated against Naruto when he should have been viewed as a hero. The Yondaime would have been disgusted at what little action he had done against the villager's unprovoked discrimination.

Jiraiya wasn't as careful with his words. A hateful and frustrated feeling built up in his chest. He took a deep breath before speaking. "You're frightened of him, aren't you?" he said quietly, a dangerous tone leaking into his voice. "His potential is so high, higher than anyone else in this village. Yet, instead of praising him for his strength like you do with that Uchiha boy, you and others of this village outcast him. Isolate him. Glare your petty glares in hope that your imagined daggers would become reality so you could kill him." Jiraiya took another deep breath. Since when had he been this angry? He could think of no other time where his anger and frustration at the injustices of the world had burned any hotter. He tried to remember that people were stupid and they couldn't see the truth as easily as he could.

Ebisu countered angrily. "But you, of all people, know what he did twelve years ago!" he cried, gesturing in the general direction of the Hokage monument, as if to remind Jiraiya of the death of his student.

The hermit, however, laughed bitterly. "Yes, tell us!" he took a menacing step forward, dark eyes flashing angrily. "What did Naruto do twelve years ago?" he snapped mockingly. "Tell me, what did a scrawny and whiny little baby do, besides cry in pain from being bonded to a demon? Besides weep bitterly at being yanked away from his parents so suddenly?"

Ebisu was silent for a moment. "That's not what I meant…" he said finally and quietly, crossing his arms over his chest. Jiraiya looked like he was going to say something more.

"Jiraiya," It only took one word from his teacher, but he stopped, turning his back to the thoughtful jonin. Sarutobi looked over at Ebisu. "You are dismissed." The dark haired jonin nodded and bowed towards the older men before leaving. Sarutobi watched him leave before turning a stern stare on his old student. "Jiraiya-"

The hermit flinched. "Yeah yeah, I know," he said roughly. "I know you want them to like Naruto naturally instead of having it forced…" he looked over at his teacher, reminding Sarutobi of the troublesome youth that he used to be. "Or whatever went through your mind when you made that stupid law."

Sarutobi sighed heavily. Everything he did regarding Naruto was for his own good, but he was more than aware that his measures made against Naruto facing open discrimination only made people smarter in their ways of letting the boy know that he wasn't liked. He decided to change the subject. "So, how is he?"

The younger man shot him a look for changing the subject, but he found himself quickly warming up to the topic. Just thinking about it made him excited. "Oh man, sensei! You've never seen a kid with this much potential!" he said with a grin, putting his hands on the Hokage's table. He leaned forward slightly, as if he only wished for the older man to hear about his newfound prize. "Sure, he's short and can have a pretty nasty temper when crossed, but hell! I haven't seen anyone with his skill since... the Yondaime! This brat just keeps zooming through all the things I've taught him." _It's kinda like... he already knows it._ A frown crossed over his face briefly as he thought about Naruto. He shook his head, dismissing the absurd thought. As he arranged the finer details of the mission with the Hokage, Jiraiya chuckled at his own stupidity. After all, the only way the blond could have had prior knowledge was a full-out mind read, which, as the Yamanakas pointed out, was nearly impossible, or if Naruto had dabbled in time travel. He chuckled harder at the last thought. _It's amusing how quickly one's mind deteriorates when under the influence of time!_ He thought with a grin. _To think that I even considered the idea!_

---

She swallowed harshly, peeking out from under her bangs at him. He looked so calm, but so very sad and lonely. He stared out at the sights below, looking not really at them, but beyond them, lost in memories and thoughts entirely his own.

Though she was almost painfully curious about what was going on behind those unfocused eyes, she was a little too paranoid to ask. She tucked her legs close to her body, looking around as if she expected a group of ninjas to pop out of nowhere and shout 'Caught you red-handed!' She didn't think people were allowed up there, especially with pranksters like Konohamaru and Naruto who were perfectly willing to desecrate the monument. In fact, she was surprised that there wasn't at least an Anbu team or two patrolling around-

"Hinata," she jumped guiltily at the sound of her name, looking towards the source of it. The source smiled at the look on her face before patting her knee. "Come on, I _promise_ that you won't get in trouble." Hinata couldn't help but look at the grinning blond with some distrust. It wasn't that she would accuse him of lying to her. She knew he always told her the truth... or, at least, some _version_ of it.

But she knew that he had a different definition for trouble, which made her worried. What Naruto didn't think was wrong could end up bending or breaking about ten or twenty rules.

But it was pretty nice up there, she admitted to herself. Maybe it was the weather or the view, but their village looked so much prettier from up on top the Hokage monument. The warm drafts of air were nice but sent her into a lazy state of mind. Hinata thought back to the events before their trek up to the top of the monument.

Naruto, when he eventually caught up to her after his training, had been oddly and uncharacteristically nervous. When she had asked the reason why, he tried to explain.

He had stumbled over his own words. "_I... You see, this is how it is. I... You... I think we should..._" She didn't know what she did besides just look at him questioningly, but his determination had wilted under her eyes. "_You know what, just forget I said anything._"

A brief period of awkwardness had gone between them, Naruto thinking his own thoughts while Hinata couldn't help but feel a little rejected, trying to deal with the fact that Naruto would never be completely straight with her.

It ended almost abruptly when Naruto suddenly had whirled around, gripping her wrist in one of his hands. He tugged her closer to him almost hesitantly, embracing her with his free arm. All the while, Hinata felt faint and was sure that her face was glowing red.

"_Please don't give me that look,_" he had pleaded desperately, resting his head on her shoulder. Hinata would have stiffened and completely passed out, but his words had paused her reaction. "_I'll do anything that you want me to, just please don't be sad._"

Hinata couldn't quite remember what she had said in return. The reply had come so naturally to her that it didn't stick in her mind. What she said was something she believed, and she didn't think any more on it besides that.

After that, their date, though still slightly awkward, since neither were regular participants of similar acts, became a lot lighter. Naruto had dragged her to a new building that had been set up rather recently near the edge of their town. Though the inside was very dark, Hinata found that it was full of strange contraptions like that of which she had never seen before. They were lit up with neon lights and tended to make loud noises.

She found out quickly that they were games, things that she found herself getting quickly engrossed into. They were fun! Especially the one where the player was supposed to roll a ball into number hoops. Naturally, such a game was easy for a ninja, but Hinata still had fun winning.  
Naruto's favorite game involved a lot of colorful buttons that controlled a character's movements, as she or he furiously fought his or her opponent. Hinata was entertained mostly by the blond's commentary, made consciously or not.

Some of the games that Naruto had talked her into playing made little to no sense to Hinata. Like, was that thing on the screen supposed to be her? And what did this or that little button do? She liked the old-fashioned games more, since they were self-explanatory.

Naruto simply had laughed, saying he should have known that she had no idea that a video game was. Hinata couldn't find it in her to be mad that he was laughing at her. Not when he so rarely was truly happy enough to laugh.

But the one that she found herself getting the hang of quickly was something even odder. There were buttons on the floor that they were supposed to step on. At first, she thought that was pretty stupid because, obviously, they would break. She had almost convinced Naruto to go play a different game when another couple, their representative being a cocky foreigner who was in town to watch the Chuunin Final Exam, had challenged them to a 'dance-off'.

Though she had no idea what the sandy-haired boy meant, she had got the gist that it was a challenge. And Naruto never backed down from a challenge, even if it was from a guy who had probably never touched a kunai before in his life.

Naruto had explained the rules to her quickly before the strange glowing contraption in front of her started emitting weird noises. Hinata had to admit that she was the weakest link in their partnered battle during the beginning. She had just stared at the screen in confusion for a moment as little arrows went up the screen.

The other male had taunted her and his girlfriend, slightly flushed, had giggled, but Naruto just smiled. "_Watch my feet,_" he had said. She followed his advice, managing to get them some points. "_Now watch the screen._" She watched it, every once and a while looking at Naruto's feet before she realized what she had to do. It was such a simple concept that Hinata could have hit herself later for mucking it up so bad in the first place.

The couple regretted challenging them when it came to the more advanced round. Hinata and Naruto, with the agility of the ninjas that they were, weren't missing a single step, while they, at best, got one out of every three. Needless to say, Naruto and Hinata won.

Naruto had stuck out his hand. "_Good game,"_ he had said passively.

The other male only stepped away from the blonde's thoughtful gesture of good sportsmanship. "_F-freaks!"_ the guy had said, his girlfriend hanging off his arm.

Naruto had grinned in response, letting his hand drop. "_No. **Ninjas**_,_"_ he had corrected, turning slightly to grin at Hinata. "_Even though we ninjas aren't quite sure what the hell we're doing half of the time, when we do figure it out-"_ he had looked back over to the couple. "_We totally rock."_ Hinata had blushed at the backhanded compliment.

She opened her eyes, blinking at the bright sun. They had left shortly afterwards, making a beeline towards Ichiraku as Naruto had complained of serious need of food. She really didn't understand him. What he really needed was sleep. He had just finished with his training for the day, and, from what he had told her, he usually used the rest of the day sleeping it off.

When she tried to tell him to go home and rest, he had merely brushed it off. Still, it didn't make her feel any less guilty every time she saw his eyes unfocus, or when he forgot to disguise a yawn. Afterwards, he had asked her if she would come with him somewhere. She, somewhat defiantly, said that she would only go if he would get some rest right afterwards. With a slightly somber smile, he had agreed.

And there she was, sitting on top of the Hokages' heads with her favorite blond.

Finally, the blond spoke, having been quiet the entire time that she had reminisced. "This is my favorite thinking spot," he said. In his future's past, as Kyuubi often referred to it, he had many thinking spots, but the only one that stuck was the Hokage monument. Instinctively, every ninja had defended it. It was their lifeline, after all. Their ultimate back-up plan, for the four faces were naught but a cover for a very long set of passageways that led all the way out of Fire Country. They also had tons of nonperishable foods and even more bottled water hidden in there in case of emergency. Naruto knew that only four people in the village, not including the Hokage, were privy to this knowledge at a time, to protect against traitor ninjas that would use it against them, but also to make sure that if there was an emergency, the four would be able to lead the others through the tunnel.

The Hokage learned it after their coronation, by mouth of his or her predecessor (if they were alive) or by letter, which every Hokage composed right after they took the position, occasionally updating it through the years. The only Hokage that didn't have enough time to write the mandatory letter was the Yondaime, who was almost immediately pressed to do something about the approaching Kyuubi. He had put it aside to strategize how to put a stop to the demon, and it was never finished.

He also knew that the Hokage chose people not of a blood limit like the Uchihas and the Hyuugas, since both tended to be power hungry. And there always seemed to be at least one Akimichi that knew. He himself had become privy to this knowledge when Tenten, the secret keeper before him, had died.

He suddenly had the painful thought of the possibility that more Konoha survivors had hid in the tunnels, one place that they always neglected to check. They, meaning, the few that had escaped the Hyuuga estate, hadn't had the chance to reach the tunnels. There were too many Sound nin between them and their secret escape route.

Just thinking about the past made him grim. He turned to say something to Hinata, once again trying to cut off relations with her. If he wasn't involved with her, then she wouldn't die. If he wasn't cruel enough, or selfish enough, to allow her to get close to him, she would find no need to try and save him in any situation that Fate decided to throw at him.

But then he remembered what she said the first time he attempted to push her away. He had just caught up to her and was determined to make sure that Hyuuga Hinata would never be a name that his enemies would know as his weakness and seek to destroy.

Well, he _thought_ he was firm of purpose. However, one look into her pale honest eyes had made his more selfish side push his chivalrous side out of the way. He remembered thinking that it didn't matter if they knew that she was weakness; he'd only protect her that much more. It didn't help that his desire to keep her safe and his desire to keep _her_ started angrily debating in his mind.

The thoughts faded when he had seen that Hinata was sad. Such a look in her eyes was bitterly familiar. Even before the war started to get bad, she had that look in her eyes. Even before he became a genin, he faintly remembered the slightly haunted look in her eyes. He knew the beginning source of it was the constant strife in her family, while later on it was because of her sorrow for the loss of her friends and peers.

He liked to think that he had fixed the first problem back then, but he could do nothing about the war, much less bring those who were dead back to the living. But now he had a fresh start. He could nip the war at the bud. Sasuke wasn't going to go to Orochimaru, even if he had to beat the stubborn boy black and blue to keep him from going. Shikamaru wasn't going to die while trying to save his wife's life, Iruka wasn't going to die while protecting Tsunade, Kakashi's last threads of sanity wouldn't snap and lead him willingly into a suicide mission for a stupid rock, and there was no way in hell that Hinata was going to die by flushing poison out of his blood even as her inner coil system protested against the movement of chakra, weakened and wounded from a match so long ago with her grim cousin.

He never wanted to see that look on her face again and was pretty sure he told her that. But he would never forget her words. "_All I want is for you to be happy... **really** happy, not just those fake smiles of yours. As long as you're happy and well, then I will be too."_ She had smiled then, leaving Naruto with the slightly bittersweet knowledge that he could never push her away.

_Sweet selfless Hinata-chan._ He thought sadly. _I'm sorry I'm too selfish to let you go. I'm too selfish 'cause I like when you're around me. I'm too selfish 'cause I know what you'd be crushed if I pushed you away, and the last thing that I want is for you to cry._ He steeled himself. _But the least I can do is tell you what I'm hiding._ He wasn't quite sure if he meant the Kyuubi, or the even bigger secret of his highly illegal and dangerous trip into the past. 

He had only trusted Shikamaru with a sample of his knowledge of the future because the boy was a genius, and Naruto himself was terrified of the thought that he was going to end up making an even worse future than the one that he had parted from and desperately needed the aid of his friend's brain to keep from screwing up. He didn't think his sanity could take it if his friends died all over again.

He turned to her again; his mouth open, ready to spill all of his secrets to her ears alone, when there was a sudden explosion of smoke in front of his feet. Hinata gasped sharply, rolling out of the way, a move that Naruto mimicked.

With a set expression on his face, Naruto reached for his kunai, prepared to defend himself from the new threat. The only thought that ran through Hinata's head was that they had been caught.

A grinning face popped out of the smoke. "Hiya!"

Naruto, instantly recognizing the face, nearly fell over, a mixture of grim relief and gleeful annoyance building up in his chest. The relief was welcome, but he would only be that more careful because Konoha wasn't the safe haven that it pretended to be. The annoyance was also a welcome, for it meant that not all things had changed, which made Naruto all the more happy to bask in it.

He grumbled, whining at the older man. "Ero-senin!" he complained, absentmindedly twirling his kunai before putting it away. "Why are you bugging me? You said that this was my free time!"

The hermit turned red. "Don't call me that, whelp!" he snapped, a little unnerved how quickly Naruto had slid into a defensive position. It was commonplace among genin and chuunin to walk around Konoha completely unarmed. However, Naruto wore his weapons like a cautious jonin or Anbu, who never really believed that they were safe, even in their own village. Now that he thought about it, he had never _once_ seen Naruto without some sort of weapon on hand...

Hinata looked between the two, confusion making her shy. She backed up, nervously twisting her hands together. The slight movement gained the attention of the old man. He looked over at her, promptly grinning. "Ah.. so _little_ Naruto is finally man enough for a girlfriend, eh?" he drawled, casting a glance towards his newest student. Naruto and Hinata both flamed red, for different reasons.

"Oh, I'll show you _little_, you perverted old man!" he shouted before lunging at the old man. Laughing at his annoyance, the hermit dodged and blocked the attempted hits on his person, finally ending it when he ducked under a kick and grabbed the supporting leg. With ease, Jiraiya yanked out his support with his grip on his ankle and stood, letting Naruto dangle by his hand.

Hinata had to stop her instinctive response when seeing Naruto dangling, realizing that they were playing with one another. The man, whose chakra was on a level that Hinata rarely felt, was laughing and generally looked pleased to see Naruto, no matter how sour he acted. Naruto was equally as lighthearted, but any and all annoyance or anger shown was tinged with a slightly forced tone, almost like he thought he was supposed to act like that. Nonetheless, Hinata bit her lip and tried to stay inconspicuous, feeling much like an intruder on a private moment, promptly forgetting that it had been Jiraiya who invaded on a private moment, not her.

With a grin, the old man waited for the blond to stop flailing before he spoke. "But seriously, free time is over. This is mission time."

Naruto blinked in confusion. Annoyed that he wasn't getting the point, Jiraiya promptly let go of the boy's ankle, fully expecting the blond to land on his head.

Instead, the genin shocked him by shooting out his arms just in time to catch himself in a handstand, before springing to his feet with a push of his arms. He landed neatly, a scowl set firmly on his face. "Alright!" he said sulkily. "But I was kinda under the impression that we chuunin hopefuls wouldn't have to do any damn missions."

"Not when it's technically a training mission," Jiraiya said, expecting Naruto's typical zeal for training to rear its head, but was disappointed when the blond turned his head to look at Hinata instead. He sighed, grabbing the blond around the middle and tossing him over his shoulder. Ignoring the boy's protests, he started to walk down the trail that had led them up to the top of the monument. "Stop complaining! Your little girlfriend can see you off." Hinata, considering this the permission she had been hoping for, quickly hurried after them.

Naruto scrunched up his face in a childish pout. "Hinata-chan, he's mean." he said with mock seriousness. "He's mean and he eats cute little puppies." Hinata bit back a smile when Jiraiya snorted.

"Hey, any thing's edible as long as it has some barbecue sauce." The pale look on Naruto face was priceless.

--- 

"It's a C-class mission. Someone has it on good authority that there's a plentiful vein of ore in the mountains in western Fire Country. All we have to do is go in and find it." Naruto had been let down once they reached the village. Walking slightly behind his sensei and right next Hinata, he listened as Jiraiya told him about the mission. "The miners have done a great job drilling their way through, but the way it's going, it's getting too dangerous for them to continue. There's been a few earthquakes and it's halted their progress, but there are a few that think that they reached it." Jiraiya shrugged. "Well, that was before the cave-in."

"And how the hell is that relevant to my training?" Naruto asked moodily. His bad mood had more than one source, including a whole plethora of things between from having his ego and pride crushed in front of Hinata, of all people, when his sensei decided to carry him around like a misbehaving child that should be on a leash, to the grim realization that the future had altered greatly, since he had not heard of or gone on any mission like Jiraiya was explaining to him.

Jiraiya grinned. "Think about all those rocks and the lifting that you'll have to do!" Naruto's expression turned decidedly sour. He realized that it was probably because he requested to learn the Shunshin jutsu that the future had changed so drastically. He bit his lip, wondering how much other things he had taken for granted; such as gaining Gaara's respect and friendship, or his friends remaining blissfully ignorant of his demon partner; that, he believed, was vitally important for them to trust him, which could be changed by this new turn in events.

"Jiraiya-sama!" The hermit looked over at the source of the call, making Hinata suddenly realize exactly who Naruto's sensei was. Needless to say, she was greatly surprised that Naruto was the sole student of one of the three legendary sanin. But, even as she turned to greet her own sensei (who greeted her in return), she was even more surprised by the favor that Kurenai asked.

The red-eyed woman had a pack slung over her shoulder, a slight frown on her face. "I apologize for the inconvenience, but may I ask you a favor?" she glanced at the sun, making a face at how few hours left of sunlight she had left. She looked back at the hermit. "I promised my team that I would take them out on a training mission before the final exam, but I have this mission and I don't think I'll be back in time for another. Can you take them with you?"

"But.. Sensei," Hinata spoke up softly, "You said that we'd train with Asuma-sensei's team instead of the mission."

Kurenai nodded, rubbing her temple with her hand. "Yes, but that was before I learned that Jiraiya-sama was taking Naruto out on a training mission." Jiraiya tensed slightly. Naruto popped his head around the old man, beaming at the red-eyed woman.

"Hiya Kurenai-sensei!" he chirped. The serious special jonin cracked a smile.

"Hello Naruto," she said warmly. "How is Kakashi?"

Naruto made a face. "He's still a pervert," he replied. Jiraiya relaxed. He had been worried that she too had been one of the people who hated Naruto with an unrivaled passion.

It almost decided the case for him, of whether or not he should grant her favor. But the pervert in him reared its head. He grinned lecherously. "What will I get in return?"

Naruto kicked him in the back of his knee, making him swear softly. "She's young enough to be your daughter, you damn pervert!" he hissed. He looked up at the amused special jonin. "He'll do it." The blond ignored the sanin's protests.

"Alright then." The jonin nodded.

"Hey!" The hermit was ignored.

"I'll tell Kiba and Shino." Hinata offered shyly. Naruto beamed at her.

"Great!" he said happily. "Then we'll all meet up at the gate tomorrow for the mission."

"Uh, hello-"

"I don't have time to talk." Kurenai said hurriedly. "I wish you all luck." The woman disappeared.

"Doesn't anyone pay attention to me anymore?" Jiraiya whined, disappointed that the pretty woman with the red eyes had left.

"I have to go buy some food-," Naruto was snagged by the back of his vest.

"No," Hinata said firmly. "You promised that you would sleep. I bet you can barely see straight." After a moment, she added, "Besides, I can always buy some groceries for you."

Naruto brightened, jumping forward to hug her. "Thank you!" Blushing darkly, Hinata gently pushed him away from her, in the direction of his house. Hinata, after making sure that he was indeed going home, bowed to Jiraiya before running off to the store.

Jiraiya groaned. No one had any respect for their elders anymore.

---

The cold was settling in quickly. Night was approaching and the cold air rushed through the caves, giving the already damp area an even chillier temperature. Not to mention putting them all on edge with the soft but eerie sounds the wind made as it moved throughout the tunnel. And it didn't help that their, oh so helpful, guide already started talking about the ghost sightings that the miners supposedly had.

Naruto grabbed the strap of his backpack, shivering slightly. It wasn't the ghost stories that made him shiver; it was the almost bone-aching chill that had come with the approaching night. Kyuubi had similar complaints, but mostly about how much of his youki was going towards Naruto's cold limbs. With a sigh, Naruto took a few steps closer to the small group for some type of body warmth, assuring the demon fox that he could last for a while without any of the warm youki. 

Finally, he complained. "Who gives a crap about some damn ore that we don't even use?" he said, mildly cursing when his foot went into something wet and cold.

Shino looked across Hinata at Kiba. "I won," he said calmly, with a hint of a satisfied smirk. "Twenty minutes exactly."

Kiba winced. "Fine, I'll pay you when we get back," he said sulkily. He was so sure that Naruto was going to complain beforehand! Hinata had to laugh. She didn't know that Shino was the betting type.

"On the contrary, Naruto," Jiraiya said with a toss of his hair. "That damn ore is pretty damn important."

"It's used in all types of kunai, throwing stars, and in most types of katana," their guide added helpfully. Naruto glared at the man's back. The guide had been patiently waiting for them by the village gate, and was a little too enthusiastic about helping them out. Apparently, he was just a lower-level employee in a business that wished to mine the ore, and whose workers had apparently found some before the cave-in.

Naruto didn't know what rubbed him the wrong way about Takahashi Juro, but his whole story sounded fishy to him. "And why do you people need our help in finding this ore crap?" he asked rudely.

From the angle that the guide was facing, none of the ninjas could see the sudden greedy look on his face. "It's... dreadfully dangerous," he said, deciding on an answer.

Naruto, already bored with the topic, looked away. Perhaps, he decided with a sigh, he was just too paranoid about traitors and double crossers. "Yeah, whatever."

They continued farther in. The guide protested a cramp and they stopped for a break. The cave was very dark. If it wasn't for the lamps that the guide and Jiraiya were carrying, it would have been pitch black.

Hinata wandered over to Naruto, who stood a little ways away from the group, shyly offering some of her leftover lunch. He took it without hesitation, praising her cooking as he swallowed down the last of the rice ball.

Shino was oddly nervous, having quietly mentioned to Naruto earlier how very forbidding the caves were to his senses and to his bugs. While Naruto took his confession very seriously, Kiba, who overheard, was quite amused with this sudden change in events, and physically and verbally poked the normally stoic genin, who answered harshly. Jiraiya was lost in his own thoughts; the only hint about what those thoughts were was the perverted grin he wore.

None of them noticed when the guide edged to the wall and pushed down on a button almost invisible on the rock wall. They all, however, were jerked out of their thoughts and conversations when everything around them started to shake.

"Earthquake!" the guide cried. A large rock dropped in the space between Jiraiya and the two Team Eight boys, narrowly missing Akamaru, who yelped and clung to the back of Shino's jacket with his nails.

Naruto and Hinata stumbled around as the ground shook beneath them. Naruto got a secure footing with the aid of chakra, but Hinata tripped over one of his legs and fell. Just as Naruto tried to help her up, his keen hearing picked up the sound of loosening rocks above. His gaze went upwards, seeing a huge rock detaching itself and falling towards them at a rapid speed. Hinata would have never had the chance or the time to get up and away before the rock crushed her.

With a grim set to his features, Naruto stepped over her, bracing his feet against the ground and widening his stance. The rock came down on Naruto's shoulders, who grabbed it with a slight groan, tension on his face when he realized just how heavy it was. He opened one eye, looking down at Hinata's horrified face. "M-move!" he gasped, feeling his grip on the rock slipping. Hinata swiftly climbed out from underneath him, not stopping until her back was to the rock that had separated her and Naruto from Shino and Kiba.

Grinning painfully at the thought of her being safe, Naruto used a burst of strength to toss the rock slightly up, while he dove forward, out of the rock's way. Though he managed to get most of his body out of the path of the falling rock, his foot got caught underneath.

The ground finally stopped shaking, leaving nothing short of chaos in its aftermath. Kiba ran a hand through his hair, vainly trying to get the dust out of it. He sneezed repeatedly when Akamaru detached himself from Shino and suddenly shook himself, spreading dust everywhere. Shino grimaced and stood, a difficult feat because of the raw wounds on his back from Akamaru's nails.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked, raising his voice slightly so his companions behind the rocks could hear him. He heard a cough from his right.

"Yeah, I'm fine." It was Jiraiya. The senin, though unseen by anyone else, started to move some of the rocks around him. "Can't find Juro though..." He paused for a moment, his hand running over the wall, fingers feeling out the outline of the button that the guide had pressed. He frowned, a grim suspicion starting to form in his mind.

"It's as dark as hell in here!" Kiba said between sneezes. Shino sighed, gathering chakra to his hand. A faint blue light lit up the face of his friend, who immediately flinched back, not realizing how close Shino had been.

"Ah, my nose," he complained in a stuffy tone. "Stupid dust." He sniffed slightly, turning to the right. He could just barely smell his other teammate through the rock. "Hey, Hinata-chan, are you okay?"

Hinata bit back a whimper, too horrified to answer. Naruto had reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a lighter, using it to see the extent of the damage. By the light of the small flame, she could see that Naruto's foot was trapped underneath the rock.

"We're fine." Naruto said shortly, bracing his other foot against the rock, vainly trying to yank it out. He cursed softly to himself, angry at the rock and his foot. It was always the little things that annoyed him. His shoe was stuck under the rock where there was a slight space between the ground and the rock itself, his shoe being too big to get free, but all Hinata saw was a crushed foot, gained because she couldn't keep her balance.

Kiba sighed in relief when the dust finally settled, but suddenly frowned when a new scent reached his nose. Akamaru suddenly was at attention, his little nose pointed up in the air. "You guys..." he murmured, sniffing the air. "I smell dynamite. And gunpowder." He sniffed again. "And something else too."

Jiraiya grimaced, a sudden realization making him sigh heavily. "That was no earthquake," he said with a frown. "And that was no average friendly guide either." He wondered if Juro had been crushed or if he had escaped. Either way, he decided that he didn't care.

Naruto snorted, gritting his teeth as he tried to yank his foot out again. "Well, no duh." He failed with a curse. "The walls here aren't completely rock, some of it is plastic too. I say we walked right into a movie set." He glared at the rock, deciding that he didn't need his shoe anyway. He slipped his fingers under the rock. "Or a trap," he decided, yanking his foot out of his shoe.

He beamed at Hinata, who stared at his bare foot in shock. "My shoe got stuck," he said quietly to her. "The rock wanted to eat it." He grinned as a sheepish and slightly embarrassed smile sprang up on the Hyuuga's face.

"So let's get the hell out of here!" Kiba shouted, paranoid that more dynamite would go off. "I don't want to get caught in anymore traps!" As soon as he said that, parts of the walls slid open, revealing open pipes and catching the attention of the Konoha ninjas. Purple gas poured out of the pipes, quickly covering what little they could see with a dense purple fog.

They covered their mouths instinctively, but the gas had already reached their lungs. Kiba fell first, his superior sense of smell being his downfall, for he had already inhaled more of it than the rest of them. Akamaru was a close second. Shino ordered his bugs to absorb much of the gas as they could, as he checked the vitals of his unconscious friend. When Kiba didn't respond to Shino, the bug user found himself hoping that the gas wasn't lethal, as he coughed and felt weariness rush over him.

Jiraiya held his breath and stuffed the pipe closest to him with a piece of his shirt, even though he was aware that it was much too late for that sort of thing. Hinata and Naruto did the same. One of the pipes wasn't secured tightly enough and the piece of cloth fell out, unfortunately giving Naruto a mouthful of the gas. He swayed, backing away from it. Hinata stopped trying to cork the pipes and ran to Naruto instead. The blond collapsed, knowing no more as darkness overtook him.

-----

"It is working excellently!" the short man said enthusiastically. He wore a pair of shades and a suit, sitting up straight behind a desk covered with important looking papers. Three steaming cups of tea were on the table, one in front of him, the other two in front of his guests.

He was the sort of man that other people called boss. He was 'the man'. Lives ended and began with his call. He had brought countries down to their knees and bent powerful men under his will.  
But, to the people in front of him, he was nothing but a pawn.

_They_ had found him, bitter and cold, cursing his enemies, and had spared his life because it wasn't worth killing him. Later, he had run into them again, a few businesses under his belt, revenge on his mind. They had found out what his latest scheme was; the excavation of the den of a dead local demon.

Now, he wasn't the sort of man who was superstitious and believed in demons, but his last bitter exchange with his enemy a month or so ago had changed his mind. He sent in his men, hoping to find anything from gold to ancient techniques, anything that could aid him in his revenge. After all, what better way to kill a demon than with another demon's techniques?

_They_ had figured out his plot, yet had done nothing, watching impassively as he raged when another report came back saying that another team had been mysteriously killed. He really hated those ninjas. And any other ninjas as well. They all mocked his existence.

When he had turned to them and demanded that they leave him alone, one slyly mentioned a contract that he had signed. A contract that the stupid ninja shouldn't have known was connected to him, one that forbade him from ever stepping a foot in Fire Country.

_They_ looked at him, one arching an eyebrow that almost disappeared underneath a slashed forehead protector. His uninterested eyes made the business man feel a little angry. Shouldn't they be just as excited as he was? They were the ones who went through the effort of blackmailing their way into his scheme. His eyes darkened as he thought about it.

_They_ had him snared. They wanted a cut. They couldn't care less about the money, they wanted the techniques. Typical ninjas.

But they gave him advice. If normal humans couldn't get into the heart of the demon's cave, where he believed that the demon had hoarded his stash, without being killed, then the answer was that ninjas had to be the ones to go in there.

He hated ninjas, but he hated his enemy more. He made up a story, sending a request over to the closest ninja village, ironically the home of his hated enemy. All the pieces were in place. The ninjas would stumble around(separated, of course), trigger all of the traps, and then he would send his team in to kill the ninjas once they had made it to the heart of the caves. The ninjas wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.

_They_ had assured it, giving him a non-lethal poison that would prevent the use of their silly ninja magic. Chakra, or what ever it was called. He had taken it and weaponized it, making it very easy to weaken the ninjas that would end up enabling him to destroy his arrogant enemy.

"They all have been deposited deeper into the caves, away from each other." The businessman went on, a little unnerved by the other ninja, who grinned sharp teeth at him. "In no time, they'll set off all the traps and I'll send in my cleanup team."

The first one of the ninjas, the cold one with the bored looking eyes, shifted his arm slightly in his black and red coat. "Did you look at them? Identify them?" he asked blandly, tapping his black nails against his other arm.

The businessman looked disgusted. "Why should I?" he asked with a smirk. "They're just ninjas. Who cares?"

_They_ exchanged glances before looking back at him. They stood, leaving their tea untouched. "If this blows up in your face," the man with the odd teeth said warningly, "You'll be the one who suffers the consequences." He smirked, a frightening look that made the businessman recoil.

"Good day," the other one said offhandedly, leading the way out of the room.

When they were safely out of earshot, the businessman cursed, swiping his arm across his desk, knocking papers and whatnot every which way. He hated dealing with them. But their alliance was necessary if he was to exact his revenge. He was aware that he had to be careful around those two ninjas. He had no idea what their motives were, or if he would even survive to tell about his experiences with them. But, if he would just drag his enemy down with him, he found that he didn't care if he died.

But one thing was for certain. The Akatsuki organization wasn't a group to be trifled with.

---

The surface beneath him was hard and cold, his least favorite combination. But, when you don't have much of a choice, you can learn to get used to things, as uncomfortable as they may be.  
He felt groggy and had a massive migraine, but he had fought with worse hurts. His body was sore, almost as if someone had roughly dropped him on the ground, but most minor pains could be ignored.

It's not like he could go up to his inner demon and ask for a little relief from the pain when the pains were minor. He'd get laughed at. And he _hated_ being laughed at.

Groaning softly, Naruto braced his hands against the unforgiving floor and pushed himself up, tired eyes sweeping over what little he could see. Thanks to Kyuubi, he had excellent sight, but even he couldn't see in pitch darkness. He could very faintly pick up a light off in the distance, so he picked himself up and stumbled towards it.

He had no idea where he was. It looked faintly like a dead end, but he knew for sure he was not where he was when he fell unconscious, Hinata wasn't near him, and he couldn't sense the rest of Team Eight or his own perverted sensei. In fact, he realized with a frown, he couldn't sense much of anything.

He reached the light, wondering groggily why he couldn't sense the energy in the lantern. The fire flickered and danced, but still he could not sense the energy he knew was in it. He turned around; biting his lip when he realized that he couldn't sense the energy that he knew was running through the rock either.

He grabbed his head, grimacing as he realized that the gas probably muted his senses. _But why just drop me off farther in the caves?_ He wondered. He had thought that the reason that they were attacked in the first place was because whoever was behind it all didn't want them in the caves. _Why not just kill us and be done with it?_

Kyuubi moved somewhere in the back of his mind and suddenly Naruto remembered exactly how everything happened. _The rocks... were to separate us!_ He realized angrily. _And the gas was to make us weak! And our lives..._ he paused, musing it over. _They want us to do something before they end our lives._

He ignored the slight doubt that 'us' was actually 'me' because he was too optimistic to believe that the others were already dead. He couldn't sense them, he couldn't see them, and he didn't know where they were, but he just _knew_ that they were fine.

Naruto took one step forward, following the string of lanterns that led down the passage he was in, and then took another.

Somewhere, they were waiting for him. He just had to get there.

----

Shino realized that he had a bit of a problem and needed some help. His pride in himself was so much so that his 'little problems' (which tended to be quite big) almost always were hidden from his companions. It wasn't that he didn't trust them, or that he himself wouldn't jump in to aid them if their little problems became too big. He just wasn't the sort of person who would ask for help.  
But now, he needed help, and if he knew where someone else was, he would gladly ask it without a flinch.

"Where are you going?" he finally asked, frustrated to the point of allowing it to be heard in his voice. His bugs were scattered everywhere, some running around in circles while others just took off. He tried to pick them up but they ran away from him, slipping through his fingers.

It was bad enough when he woke up and realized that he couldn't use his chakra. It had been suppressed to the point that even the bugs didn't recognize it. And, deeply confused, they left his body, probably to find him.

He couldn't contact them using his mind, since the delicate balance of chakra that connected their minds with his own had been severed with the suppression of his chakra. Shino refrained from using some of the words he was frequent to hear Kiba using when the dog user was in a particularly bad mood.

His bugs were simple creatures. Perhaps they could have understood the situation had they attempted to contact his mind on their own when they suddenly couldn't sense him, but that thought hadn't run through their minds. Shino sighed. They were almost too simple.

He stood, very carefully moving until he reached a wall. He knew it was hopeless to just stay in one position, so he followed the wall. It seemed to go on forever, but he continued moving, leaving his bugs behind.

He thought, very morbidly, that it was useless to carry useless weapons. But they were more than just his weapons. They were his defense, his senses, his eyes.. Leaving them behind was like leaving everything behind and jumping into battle with absolutely nothing.

But a strange feeling of despair and hopelessness made Shino desire the companionship of one of his friends, if only they were there to make sure he didn't trip over himself. It was an act of stupidity, to move forward, but nonetheless, he moved.

Perhaps it would lead him into danger, or perhaps it would lead him nowhere. He did not know which he feared the most.

Shino froze at the soft clicking sound of something tapping against the rock. He tried to figure out where the noise was coming from when something touched the back of his legs and something cold and wet touched his hand. His other hand halted its descent to his kunai pouch when he heard a familiar bark. He turned around, kneeling hesitantly as cautious hands felt out the small dog's head. The warm fur was reassuring.

"Akamaru." he acknowledged. The dog barked happily and pounced on him, licking his chin. He was excited to see one of his master's friends. Shino allowed this, waiting until the dog had calmed down enough before he made his request. "Take me to Kiba."  
---

While Team Eight and Naruto were unconscious in a cave some hundred miles away from Konoha, a certain blonde interrogated a certain Akimichi harshly. Though she had no idea that the boy she was working on saving was currently in a big mess of changed fate, she was focused on the idea that Shikamaru, her somewhat lazy teammate, could aid her in the long run.

But he couldn't aid her if she was mad at him, and she couldn't get un-mad at him if she couldn't find him, and if she couldn't find him, she wouldn't get any help. She was in quite a predicament, one that Chouji thought she wasn't helping in the least.

_Ino is gonna kill Shika_, Chouji thought, nervously smiling at the irate blonde who had a firm grip on his shirt. _And she's gonna do it after she kills me._ He gulped, looking anywhere but Ino's bright and angry eyes.

"Chouji!" she growled. He was being so infuriating! Every question she asked about Shikamaru came back unanswered, every demand for his whereabouts dodged, and every threat nervously contemplated before ignoring it. It made Shikamaru suddenly look a lot guiltier than before.

She should have thought more about the protectiveness that Chouji would feel for his best friend, when she stomped over with flaming eyes to where he was sitting and eating some ramen. _Well then,_ she thought with a spark of a temper as she tightened her grip on his shirt. _I guess I'll have to scare the truth out of him!  
_  
"Chouji!" she growled again, trying to think of a new way to force the truth out of the chubby boy. But, luckily for her(and not so fortunate for Shikamaru), Chouji decided that he rather liked his head attached on, and abandoned the thought of dying in martyrdom over one girl and a friend. Though an excellent friend he was, and Chouji would take a bullet(or a kunai, in their case) for him, but not the wrath of an emotional girl with a serious temper.

He bowed his head quickly, pressing his hands together in front of him like he was begging her for something. The motion yanked her grip off of his shirt. "I'm sorry!" he shouted, startling many people. "He told me not to bother you with it!"

Ino blinked. _Bother me with what?_ Chouji must have believed the reason why she was demanding to know where Shikamaru was hiding was because of some information that he had withheld from her, not because she was irrationally angry with him because of his callous words and her own feeling of inadequacy. However, his words interested her, so she paused in her current interrogation.

Chouji continued, looking up at her fearfully. "He said that you had enough to do with it anyway and you had your own problems and-" he gulped when she snapped at him to stop stalling. Stumbling over his words, he finally reached into his pocket, handing over a folded up piece of paper. It was slight stained with old food and crumbled from being in his pocket for so long. When she barely grabbed the corner of the dirty piece of paper with a look of disgust, Chouji laughed nervously and blushed.

"What's this?" she asked, gingerly handling the paper. She opened it up, squinting slightly when she saw a list of names and what looked like a tournament chart. She read it over, lips quirking up in brief amusement when she realized that it was the Chuunin Final Exam match ups.

"I..er.." Chouji was relieved that some of the tension had been taken off of him. "One of the chuunins made Shikamaru pass it around to all the chuunin hopefuls. I asked him if I could keep it and he gave it to me."

Ino clicked her tongue in sympathy, feeling bad for some of the people who got matched up. Naruto and Shino had to fight Hyuugas! They'd never win! And then, the two Hyuugas would have to fight one another. Because of the way it was set up, the two Hyuugas, Shino, and Naruto would need to win three battles, the sand ninja Gaara would only have to fight two battles, while the others had to win four.

Curiously, she traced the path of Sasuke. Because he was on the right side, he was bound to fight that creepy Gaara, as well as some genin that she didn't recognize, one of the Hyuugas from the other side and then.. She traced her way back down to the list of names, trying to figure out who would have to fight him next.

Her finger froze on two familiar names. Chouji saw the look on her face. "Yeah, that's why he didn't want you to know." he whispered quietly, cringing slightly.

Ino stared down at the two names, feelings of anxiety and burning shame making her throat tight. She had never felt so petty and stupid before in her entire life. _In the forth match of the first round of the final exam of the Chuunin Exam,_ she thought, her clenched fingers wrinkling the paper, _the two genins, Nara Shikamaru and Kankurou of the sand will fight. _She stared down at her feet, biting her lip harshly. _Here I've been chasing after him, angry for no damn reason, when he took time out of his own training schedule to see me.. training that he needs if he wants to last a minute against that guy! All to make **me** feel better._

"What are you.." Chouji said softly, swallowing at the vulnerable look on his feisty teammate's face. He coughed before attempting to ask again. "What are you gonna do?"

She looked up, looking lost. Her eyes darted around as she thought. She finally spoke. "I still.. really need to see him." she said quietly. Ino shot him a pleading look. "Please, Chouji. Tell me where he is."

Chouji found it harder to say no to her when she looked so sad, than when she was hurling threats at him. He could only hope that Shikamaru would forgive him for caving in to her.

--

TBC

Again, I don't have the time for a preview, since I just barely got this chapter finished, but here's a summary of what is going to happen in the next chapter:

In the next chapter, more is revealed about the mysterious businessman who hates a Konoha ninja, as well the inevitable reunion of Shikamaru and Ino. The four genins who were unluckily assigned to a mission that their employer expects them to die will find out more about the truth of their mission, while the businessman is forced to take matters into his own hands when his plans do not work out properly, bringing him face to face with the very ninja he vowed to kill.


	45. Businessmen and Unfortunate Enemies

For the Love of my Friends  
Chapter Forty-five: Crafty Businessmen and Unfortunate Enemies  
by Foxie

--

Sarutobi liked to think that he was a reasonable man. Certainly, during his time as Hokage, he had made some very unreasonable judgments (such as allowing Orochimaru to live and other such decisions that came into conflict with his duties and what he felt in his heart), but he'd like to think that at least a third of his decisions and decrees were right, as he only thought about and worked to improve the good of his people.

He knew he wasn't immune from being influenced by others into making decisions(a fact made glaringly obvious after he realized that a twelve year old managed to talk him into demanding two of his old students to come back to Konoha) so he tried to avoid anyone who might talk him into a bad decision.

Thus, with this in mind, he really couldn't think of anyone to blame for his recent decision making but himself.

He didn't think he made a bad decision in letting Jiraiya out of Konoha, even though his student was there based upon the hunch impressed on him by a devious blond. That left just Tsunade in Konoha, but she was flaky. At times, Sarutobi was sure that she was back to her usual self, a reliable and powerful ninja who would let no one and nothing between her and Konoha, but then she would get pensive, grab a bottle of sake, and start talking about leaving Konoha for good again. He wished she would make up her mind.

Jiraiya was as loyal as a dog to the point of single-minded stubbornness. He'd always been that way, even as a child. There were many who were loyal to Konoha as a great power, but very few who were loyal to it as a people. The Hokages before him and the Yondaime were just a few. Jiraiya was one, Sarutobi was another, and the Sandaime was pretty sure that Naruto was too.  
Even so, with this stubborn loyalty to his people, Sarutobi's instinctive reaction, when faced with the rumor that Akatsuki was nearby, wasn't to arm up his people, but to jump at the chance of getting Naruto as far away from danger as possible, even at the expense and loss of Jiraiya as a protector.

He wasn't blind to the comings and goings of the mysterious Akatsuki. He knew that they were extracting demons from their demon hosts, leaving their lifeless vessels to lie where they fell as they took the demons and used them for gods know what purpose. He wasn't quite sure if he agreed to spiriting away Naruto to save the boy from dying from the removal of Kyuubi, or to save everyone from the revival of Kyuubi in the hands of someone like Itachi.

Akatsuki's move couldn't have happened at a worse time. The Fire Lord, as well as every influential person on the continent and then some, was in Konoha, prepared to watch an age-old tradition of keeping peace between the nations in the only way that their villages knew how: by advertising their ninjas and controlling the population of others by killing them in combat. The Hokage was supposed to be a gracious host to hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, without even knowing if the person next to him was an Akatsuki assassin in disguise.  
Unfortunately, he _had_ gotten the news of a spy in their midst. It had come in the form of Anbu script, a type of code that every Anbu learned to pass on messages, but only without an ID number to identify who was the source of the information.

When decoded, it read 'The head hourglass is faulty and all the smaller hourglasses that set themselves by it are off.' The message was put on his desk two weeks ago, but it didn't take much to figure out what it meant. Something was wrong with the Kazekage and the sand nins who were ruled by him didn't know that anything was wrong. As a precaution, Sarutobi asked Tsunade and Jiraiya to stand near him when the finals finally commenced, just in case the Kazekage, who had been acting a little odd as of recently, tried anything.

A second note had come in three days later, same handwriting and same code. It read 'A snake hides in the leaves, blending in with the ease of a wolf in sheep's clothing.' This note alarmed him more than the first. It could mean one of two things, based upon two common phrases used in similar reports. 'Snake' was synonymous with 'Orochimaru', which was bad enough. But 'wolves in sheep's clothing' was directly translated into 'there's a spy among us'. Nothing wore down his soul like the thought that one of his own would willingly betray him.

The third one was even worse. It read, 'The monkey will die if he does not have the aid of the slug and the frog against the snake and its nest.' It was almost the exact thing that Naruto had said to him so long ago that had prompted him into sending for Tsunade, the slug, and Jiraiya, 'the toad'. Which meant 'the snake' was about to have his homecoming.

This also led Sarutobi into second guessing his first decision in letting Jiraiya out of the village. If a clash between the three legendary sannin broke out, the Akatsuki would back off. There was simply too much power between the three of them for any of them to dare try anything.

But if a clash between his former students _did_ break out... He sighed heavily. There's nothing worse for a teacher to witness than to see his former students, who he had watched as they grew up, fight each other to the death.

He drummed his fingers against his desk, a frown tightening his face. Hayate had reported that he was sure of some sort of connection between Yakushi Kabuto and Baki of the sand and it being of a malicious nature. But before he could follow Kabuto, he had been halted when he had seen Haku, the new chuunin, collapsed against a wall, suffering from a bad reaction to the new antidote that a doctor gave him. The poor boy kept on having to take potion after potion until the medic nins were absolutely sure that there was no drop of poison left in his blood stream whatsoever. The snake that had bit him had been highly poisonous and the venom tended to linger, feeding off the muscle tissue as it waited for a weakness in the immune system of the victim.

Hayate had immediately taken the boy to the hospital and by the time he was free, Kabuto denied everything and even had an alibi. The gray-haired genin, sincerely concerned about the idea of a spy in Konoha, proposed the idea that Zabuza was the spy, according to some suspicious things he had seen. Hayate had been angry at the thought that Sarutobi would even consider the idea that Zabuza was the spy and stalked off in the middle of their meeting.

Sarutobi had countered the jonin's anger with a simple, "_Can you blame me for not wanting to believe that one of my own people is a spy?_"

Hayate had immediately snapped out, "_Zabuza **is** one of your people_." Then left.  
Left and right, jonin tossed out ideas who could be the spy in their midst. All the accusations were incredible. People from the cook at Ichiraku to Naruto were accused of being spies. He couldn't listen to all of the accusations, so he told them to keep their mouths shut unless they had concrete evidence supporting their claim.

One actually had the guts to say that it was proof enough that Naruto was the Kyuubi. Before Sarutobi could say anything, Kakashi tapped the jonin on the shoulder with his book, and with a misleading smile, asked to spar with the man.

The jonin who dared to badmouth Naruto was still in the hospital, with two broken legs and a spiral fracture in his left arm that had almost been unhealable.

The Hokage sighed. With all of the chaos and discord that had been sailing around during the last few weeks, he could hardly tell who was a friend and who was an enemy. It was truly a sad day to look into a smiling face and wonder if the face was hiding a poison-covered dagger. He hoped Jiraiya got back soon.

---

It was cold, and it was getting even colder. He could only imagine that he was getting deeper into the cave, where occasional warm drafts of air turned cold before reaching even halfway to his current location.

He had come to an intersection somewhere behind him, and after a very non ninja-like process of elimination of which path to take (tossing his kunai up in the air and going the direction that the tip pointed to when it landed), had continued on into a place that was full of big burlap bags and unopened boxes.

The path he was going through was much smaller, allowing the lights to fully light up the entire path. Or, it would have, if most of them hadn't already been broken. He walked in almost complete darkness, holding his breath and listening carefully for a friend, or worse, an enemy.  
Almost as if his paranoid thoughts had conjured his fears, he heard a light tapping sound of footsteps hitting the ground that wasn't in time with his own. He stopped immediately, hovering stiffly behind a box, knowing that he wouldn't be seen in the darkness. After a moment, the other footsteps stopped too.

Holding his breath, he looked out from behind the box, barely making out the outline of another. He squinted, trying to see any physical characteristics that could identify the other person. He failed to see beyond the darkness and failed to keep his body out of vision. There was a slight intake of a breath when the other person saw him. Damn. His hair was just too bright for any type of stealth.

He wasn't dumb enough to call out to the other person, but he also wasn't smart enough to think to avoid them. Or perhaps his pride wouldn't allow him. He hovered for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. When the kunai hit the box dangerously close to his head, he rolled into action.  
He dodged the next kunai quickly, racing to the other side of the hallway. Leaping on top of some of the boxes, he tossed shuriken at his target. They were deflected with a kunai, which flew at him mere seconds later. He leapt onto another box pile to dodge it. The boxes weren't stacked well and swayed with the movement, dropping him to the ground when they fell.

He rolled on his shoulder, landing in a slight crouch. He squinted, seeing a vague form in front of him. Stupidly, he lunged at it, nearly tripping when the smaller person dodged swiftly out of his way. He caught himself just before he fell, attention suddenly perking up when he heard quick footsteps behind him.

He pivoted, gasping when the other person slammed into him, knocking him into the sacks. He hit them with a resounding thud, coughing as his lungs and back burned with bruising pain. The other person quickly ran up to him, preparing to attack.

"Ow..." he grumbled, grabbing the wrist that shot out at him before it could touch his shoulder. He looked blankly at the way his enemy held their hand, squinting in the darkness at the way their hand was completely flat in a blade like position, in an oddly familiar way that reminded him vaguely of-

"Naruto-kun?" A soft and confused whisper in front of him confirmed his suspicions.

"Hinata-chan?" he whispered back, gentling his grip on her wrist. He had to keep from flinching when suddenly another hand was on his shoulder. It traveled up, tracing the side of his face, as if she was trying to see him with her fingers.

"I can't sense anything," she whispered, her hand disappearing quickly. He had a feeling that she had that cute blush on her face again. "I can't use my byakugan and I can't use my chakra." She sounded so vulnerable, a fact that almost hurt Naruto physically. "Naruto-kun, what's going on?"

The sacks that Naruto had been shoved against suddenly ripped open, having been weakened by their battle. Both genin were showered with heavy powder. Coughing, they backed away from it. Naruto grabbed her hand and ran to the closest lights.

Once they were in a circle of light, they stopped, trying to brush the white substance from their clothing. After some observations, Naruto figured out what the substance was. It was flour. Naruto really couldn't understand a reason for flour being in a cave, but suddenly remembered an old lesson a lifetime ago where he learned how to make explosives in order to destroy a dam, and the enemy-controlled town that would directly affected by it.

Naruto, frustrated that it wasn't coming off easily, looked up at Hinata, who was engrossed in brushing her pants off.

After staring at her for a moment, he started to laugh. She looked up, surprised at the sudden sound. Naruto's bright blue eyes stood out in stark contrast with the white powder that made him look ghastly pale.

"Yo-you..." he stammered over his words, laughing too hard to pull together a complete sentence. "You... totally kicked my ass."

She blinked. "How is that amusing?" she asked, frowning slightly. It wasn't that she was upset by his laughter. She actually liked his laugh, it was warm and comforting, but she just couldn't understand why he was so amused.

Naruto grinned, waving it off. "Never mind, it's not really something that someone who's not... _me_ could understand." he shrugged. "I guess I'm just happy."

After a moment, Hinata beamed. "Then I am happy too," she said softly.

---

Gaara was fascinated. Not with blood, or destruction. It wasn't even violence. It wasn't even something that was new. He had seen things like that before, but never so close. People like _her_ tended to shy away from him.

He hadn't seen Naruto, his soon-to-be dead enemy and brother in their similar desolate fates, for three days. He couldn't help but feel a little cheated, wanting to show the blond that he had followed Naruto's silly rules about 'not killing anyone' until they fought, as strange as it sounded or felt.

Naturally, he had twisted Naruto's firm demands into some sort of conditions that he had to meet in order to fight the other demon host. Oh; and how he wanted to fight that blond!

Gaara winced as he felt Shukaku twist in him, howling something about blood and death. He clutched the material over his shoulder instinctively, pushing back the youki until his mind was relatively blank.

Of course, he could always blame the demon's restlessness on _her_, despite the fact that he knew that it was only because the demon had been deprived of blood for almost a month and a half, a new record for Gaara. But something in his mind protested it.

He was very screwed up; Gaara would be the first to admit. Feelings and emotions, desires and needs... Sometimes these things resounded so sharply in his head so harshly, that he struck out at the person closest to him. He didn't know what was influenced by the tanuki or what was influenced by himself.

His desire for pain, not blood or death as the demon desired, but just pain, spoke up. When he was feeling particularly morbid or sarcastic, he referred that bitter emotion as 'Mom'. It only seemed fitting, since she had died cursing him and everyone in their village, since she seemed to have only wanted to inflict pain on others, by allowing him to live instead of killing him when she had him inside her.

"Ow!" The little boy had a nasty cut on his arm and tears in his eyes. Two children stood beside him, looking very guilty and concerned about the boy. The boy's arm was gently handled by someone Gaara felt he should be familiar with, but wasn't important enough to have had him remember her name.

"Were you playing with kunai?" She wasn't even four years older than them, but somehow she managed to sound almost motherly. Gaara pushed back the urge to inflict pain, pushed back the demon's desire for blood, and made sure his position could not be picked out by the other genin. He watched, not sure why he was so interested in her anyway.

The three children looked at each other guiltily, then looked away. "Yes." The injured boy admitted with a sulk. He brightened up slightly, his chest sticking out proudly. "We were being ninjas!"

The genin sighed, shaking her head. "You're too young." She held up a hand when the three children started to argue. "I'm not saying that you'll never touch a kunai again, but you just need to mature a little before you can handle the bigger things." She smiled at them, leaning forward as if to confide in them a great secret. Gaara rolled his eyes, still very much within earshot. "You know, Iruka-sensei wouldn't let Naruto around _pencils_, let alone kunai, when he was your age."

Gaara started at the name, looking closer at the genin. Now, he could remember. She was a teammate of the other demon host, he was almost certain.

The three children looked interested. "You mean, we're not going too slow?" the little girl of the group asked, looking excited. "We're even better than _Naruto-kun_?" the girl grinned hopefully.

"Well, when he was your age," the genin said, emphasizing that fact. The three children still looked excited though, happy to have one up on their hero. The injured boy started to turn and say something to his friends when the injury let itself be known again. He had twisted his arm the wrong way and had opened up the scab. It barely bled, but the boy looked like he was going to cry.

Gaara scoffed. Hardly a flesh wound.

"Ah, Konohamaru..." the genin said softly, pulling the boy closer to her so she could have a better look. Gaara scoffed again, but this time at the weird name. The girl looked up from the wound, serious green eyes meeting tearful dark ones. "Listen here and listen well. I'm not doing this for my health, or so you can go play with weapons and hurt yourself even more."

The reason why Gaara had even stopped made itself be known again. A slight glow encased the hand of the genin, a type of chakra that was not destructive. The subtle difference had shocked and interested him, leading him into following the relatively uninteresting girl around all day, after she had healed a nasty scrape on a genin he clearly remembered was named Rock Lee.  
Someone that... _unique_ was a little hard to ignore or to forget.

She brought the strange type of chakra over the wound, unaware of how Gaara leaned forward in spite himself. Smiling, she performed the very jutsu that her own teammate had taught her what seemed so long ago, gently piecing the skin back together.

Konohamaru closed his eyes when Sakura had started to touch his arm. When he felt brave enough to peak out of one eye, he was shocked. "Wow!" he exclaimed, looking at the unblemished skin. "Magic!"

His friends peered over his shoulder, oohing and ahhing over his arm. "You're so cool, Sakura-chan!" The little girl cried, clapping her hands. Gaara frowned, quickly taking that information and imprinting it in his mind. Sakura…

Sakura grinned, blushing slightly as she modestly waved it off, before turning almost deathly serious. "I'm not even going to ask why you three troublemakers aren't at school right now!" The trio froze, laughing nervously as she pointed a finger at them. Her green eyes looked over them seriously, before she broke out into a warm smile. "If you promise not to get hurt again." They quickly agreed, running off happily. Sakura sighed and shook her head.

Gaara jumped down from his hiding spot, piercing eyes watching as the other genin smiled gently. How could someone be so happy about wasting their chakra on someone else with the purpose not being dealing a swift death, but healing a wound? What was so gratifying about improving the condition of someone's life when they end up losing it in the long run anyway? He wanted to glare, to hate her for being everything he wasn't. Hate came easily to him, but it wouldn't come now.

He backed up, eyes narrowing as his logic told him to get away from her as fast as he could.  
Sakura frowned, a sixth sense warning her that she was being watched. She turned to where she could feel the gaze, blinking when she realized that there was nothing there but a few grains of sand being wisped away by the wind.

--

Shino found Kiba with ease, seeing as Akamaru made sure to yap loudly so the bug user had the sound to follow. Sometimes, with the echoes, it was a little hard, but every time Shino got confused, Akamaru would trot up to him, get a good grip on his sandal with his teeth, and walk in the direction he wanted Shino to go.

Kiba greeted both of his friends happily. Shino was surprised to find that Akamaru had been separated from Kiba, and wasn't on the orders of his master to search for the other members of their temporary team for the mission.

He quickly found out that Kiba couldn't talk to his dog either, since his chakra was inaccessible and it took chakra for the partners to pass ideas to one another. However, Akamaru was a dog, not a bug. He didn't need as much direction as Shino's bugs needed and very clearly remembered who his best friend and his best friend's friends were.

"'Kay, then let's go find Hinata-chan!" the dog user said enthusiastically, jumping to his feet.

"Oh, and maybe that sannin guy and Naruto too." He wisely didn't mention Shino's current disability, knowing that the bug user was most likely annoyed that he couldn't see. He, instead, guided his teammate by staying a half a step behind, pushing Shino gently in the right direction when the bug user started to veer off course. Shino was very thankful that Kiba's usually thoughtless mouth had decided to take a hiatus.

However, he had to question the logic that steered Kiba into blindly walking down the path. He remembered, of course, that the miners had died in a cave in, and he didn't know if the smartest thing to do was walk deeper in a disaster that was waiting to happen.

He knew Juro had been lying a little and he had to wonder if the problem that the burly employee had explained was better or worse than he let on.

"I see something." Kiba said, peering out along the hallway. Something white and it was moving. He didn't think too much about it, but when it got closer and he could see that they had human forms, he gripped the back of Shino's jacket tightly and froze. Shino had no choice but to stop.

"What is the matter?" he asked warily, unaware of the irony. Kiba gulped, mind flashing back to the chilling tales that Juro had told him, about wrathful ghosts of murderers and wails of the shrieking ghost that announced it presence right before it killed. Akamaru, reacting to Kiba's fear, whimpered.

"It's ghosts!" he hissed. They moved closer, their glowing white figures making Kiba's throat clench. He hastily attempted to yank Shino back, but the stubborn boy would not move.

"There is no such thing as ghosts." the bug user said tiredly; already weary of the conversation material that had sprung up ever since Juro started to tell them ghost stories. Sitting around the fire at night, the somewhat tired looking man had awakened, with a gleam in his eyes as he imparted ghostly tales upon them, tales told almost too well. If Shino remembered properly, Kiba and Hinata had listened with diligent attention, fear in their eyes as the tale moved forward as Jiraiya always laughed at the end. Naruto always fell asleep in the middle of the story. Shino supposed it was because the horrors of reality were so much more horrible than the horrors of fantasy.

The bug user took a step forward, moving closer to approaching pale figures and very aware that they were there. "Juro was lying." he took another step, becoming within ten feet of them. They looked at him, Kiba could clearly see, sizing the poor bug user before they killed him. "And you're an idiot."

The pale creature that was closest to Shino suddenly looked at Kiba, eyes flashing strangely in the light. "Boo."

Kiba yelped in fear, collapsing to the ground in a dead faint. The two figures covered in white stared for a moment.

"Holy…" whatever the first was going to say was lost as he looked at Shino. "Did he just faint?"

Shino nodded, wondering not for the last time why he was in such a situation. "Yes, Naruto. He did." he said bluntly. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, waiting for what he knew was to come. Naruto stared at the still form of his temporary teammate before collapsing in a fit of hilarity. The blond's laughter broke the silence.

"Oh, Kiba-kun!" Hinata cried in worry, running to his side. Shino sighed, wondering at how someone who was so unpredictable could be so... predictable.

"Like a little girl?" Naruto pressed on between his laughs, nudging Shino with his elbow. "Like a kid at their first real horror movie? Like a toddler at the sight of blood?" Kiba, Shino realized with another sigh, was never going to live this one down.

Hinata lightly tapped Kiba's face, trying to wake the boy up. He didn't respond. "Oh no... What if he hurt his head?" she wondered out loud, concerned to the point of making sure the boy didn't have a concussion.

"Not like he had many brain cells left anyway..." Naruto said with a sharp grin.

"You know, others have said the same about you," Shino murmured. He sniffed curiously, picking up a weird smell. He did not have any more of a sense of smell than your average person, but he was trained to notice the small differences that others might have missed. "What's that smell?" He sniffed again, frowning slight. "Flour?"

Naruto blinked, suddenly realizing that, without chakra and his bugs, Shino couldn't see a damn thing. "Yeah." he said, all humor sapped out of his voice. "That was a pretty good guess."

Shino shrugged. "My dad once tried to bake the clan some cookies." Just like that, the stoic boy dropped personal information that he would have never told anyone else. Naruto couldn't help but feel honored, knowing that the other boy trusted him with it, but couldn't help but smile at the thought of what Shino's personal family life was like. _**Is** like,_ He reminded himself. _He isn't dead. _Sometimes that fact was a little hard to remember. He was shaken out of his thoughts when the bug user turned his head in his direction. "You are covered in flour… Why?" There was more questions that he could have asked that were related to that topic, but Shino skipped to the vaguest one, hoping to get the most information with the least amount of talking.

Naruto ran a hand through his hair, grimacing when flour went everywhere. "There was flour a couple of paths back. Hinata and I... Well, we were fighting and we broke one of the sacks." He shrugged, momentarily forgetting that Shino couldn't see him. "I guess they had flour because it's a cheap explosive. Not a very good one…" he shrugged.

Flour, in some countries, tended to be pretty expensive, but in Fire Country, wheat was rather abundant, especially in the southern regions. Because of that abundance, the price of a pound of flour was lower than an ounce of gunpowder.

Naruto had learned that flour could explode under pressure when one of his explosive tagged kunai landed dangerously next to a bakery. He hadn't thought anything about it as it exploded, but was soon knocked off his feet when a second explosion startled him. His enemy fled and he had left, being rather confused. Naturally, when he attempted to explain the strange phenomenon to Sakura, the medic cursed darkly at his stupidity before giving him a hefty bruise on his head. That bruise was probably the only reason why he remembered it, even if, technically, Sakura's fist never came in contact with his head in this current time line. Well, under similar circumstances, no.

Shino nodded sagely. "Yes, I know." he said without any change in tone. "Father blew up the kitchen." When Naruto let out a strangled noise that was halfway between a cough and a laugh, the other genin tilted his head to the side. "I did say that he tried. I didn't say that he succeeded." he shook his head lightly. "It was truly unfortunate."

"W-why?" Naruto barely got out, trying very hard not to laugh when Shino was being so serious.

Shino let out a bare hint of a smile. "I liked the chocolate chip cookies, but they were charred to a crisp." Naruto grinned.

Knowing that the other genin was distracted, Shino decided not to question why Hinata and Naruto were fighting in the first place. It would be better off to be left as unknown. He, somewhat distractedly, took his hands out of their customary positions in his pockets. He fidgeted instead with a string hanging off one of his sleeves. Naruto, no longer so amused, watched the telltale signs of Shino's nervousness. That probably explained the unusual slip in personal information.  
Shino's voice did not waver from its typical monotone though. "This is some predicament we are in." he stated. Naruto couldn't help but agree.

Meanwhile, Hinata had the ingenious idea of spraying Kiba with some water. She didn't wish to waste her own drinking water (who knew if they would be able to find good water in this desolate cave?), so, with an embarrassed silent apology, she cringed and sunk her hand in the puddle of water right next to Kiba, hoping it wasn't diseased and flicked droplets of it in his face.  
He frowned, flinching as the cold water hit his face. He tiredly opened his eyes, focusing on Hinata's face. He started to panic when he realized what he saw.

"Kiba-kun!" Hinata said urgently. She couldn't have him faint again. "Are you alright?" Naruto, while in the middle of wiping off the flour that covered his face, grinned at the sound of his answering murmur.

"Why Kiba!" he said in a mockingly sympathetic voice. He rushed over; adopting the most apologetic look he could muster to cover his amusement. "We were so worried!" he broke the angelic innocence by grinning wickedly. "You aren't gonna _faint_ on us again, are you?" Easily catching the sarcasm and silent jab at his ego, Kiba's face turned purple as he lunged from his half-seated position toward Naruto.

Naruto jumped back slightly, snickering as he took several steps away from Kiba to insure his safety as Shino blindly groped for the dog user's coat and held him still. The grinning genin stepped through a not quite finished opening in the wall into another pathway.

"Kiba, must we really be subjected to your immaturity in this sort of situation?" Shino asked with a sigh, a little alarmed how easily Kiba was fighting against his grip. Normally, he would just dig his heels in and stand until Kiba's temper burnt out, using a little bit of chakra to glue himself to the ground, but without that extra chakra, the dog user was almost dragging him towards Naruto.  
"He started it!" Kiba growled, shaking his fist at the insanely giggling Naruto. Sometimes he wondered if Naruto was a regular kid like him or really some kitsune on an insane sugar high. It didn't help that the blond's scent was always changing…

Naruto grinned wider. For some reason, he felt very hyper all of the sudden. Maybe it was because of the extra charged air in the pathway that he just walked into, one that he could sense even in his weakened state.

Shino nodded distractedly when Naruto called out that he was going to check out the path before them a bit, managing to get Kiba focused by suggesting an inventory of their items. While Kiba whined about how boring that was, Hinata called out to Naruto, telling him to stay in sight. The blond waved, shouting his agreement back. Hinata kept her eyes on him, unsure why she felt like the second shoe was about to drop.

Aware that she was looking at him, Naruto tried to calm himself, not wanting to make her or anyone else worry. The odd aura seemed to only affect him, but then again, he was the only one in there. They were still in the man made part of the mine.

The path he stepped in was much different than the almost geometrically perfect paths they had walked along before. The rock ceiling was up much higher and the caverns that he could barely see off into the distance split off into many different paths. Naruto could see no reason why an area was so charged with energy that even the average person could feel it. _Maybe ghosts or monsters or wicked beasties._ He thought with a slight twinge of amusement, a little disappointed that Kyuubi didn't take the opportunity to add a sarcastic remark.

While on that subject, he hadn't heard much from Kyuubi. Naruto could still feel him, but it was in a more detached way that he faintly remembered from his childhood. Was the kitsune being an ass, or, gods forbid, did Naruto hurt his _feelings_ when he said to stay the hell out of his immune system-

The ground under his feet disappeared with a loud screech, cutting into his sarcastic ponderings. He fell, harshly banging his head against the side of the hole he unwittingly walked right into. He slipped into the once hidden trap, leaving blood where it had hit.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelled, rushing to him when she realizing he was falling. She missed his outstretched hand by inches. Naruto watched numbly as her horrified face steadily grew smaller.  
What could have been seconds were drawn out to minutes in his mind as he turned halfway as he fell and saw nasty looking spikes with dried blood on them, as well as a few rotting corpses.  
Instinct had his arms and legs fling out. Luckily, he was just big enough to touch both sides of the hole. He ignored the pain of rocks ripping up the skin of his palms, focusing merely on locking his elbows and knees, pushing his feet (man, was he regretting leaving his shoe under that rock..) and his bloodied hands against the walls and creating a flat table like surface with his body.  
He slid for a few more inches before coming to an abrupt halt, his nose about two inches away from one of the spikes.

"Naruto!" The collective cry was a balm on his nerves. He coughed several times after he tried to get some words out of his mouth. He winced, his mind going away from the sudden dryness in his throat, the horrible scent of rotting dead bodies, and his close brush with death.

He felt like a total ass. Sakura, _his_ Sakura, the proud medic nin of his doomed future, had always yelled at him for taking his mind off of the mission. It was a trait that he held even as an older and more mature adult: that is, his very easily distracted mind. It tended to get him in a lot of trouble, but he couldn't help it. There were very few things that could hold his attention for more than a few minutes, and those things were limited to the most important things.

She had screamed up at him when he was suspended upside down and some twenty feet from ground, _"Watch out for the traps, you idiot!"_ Naturally, her yell had made their 'top secret stealth mission' public news, but Naruto and the others had to forgive her. She had been only fifteen and they were on the trail of Sasuke. It was enough to put anyone's nerves on the edge.

A simple routine escorting mission could not hold his attention as well as an assassination mission could. This was truly unfortunate, because he hated killing people. Over the years though, he adopted a mind trick of Kyuubi's, which had him merely considering any who wore the emblem of the sound as walking corpses that needed to be brought down. It was a relief for his fragile and tattered conscience.

"Don't worry!" Kiba called out, swinging his back pack off his shoulder. "I'm pretty sure I have some rope in here!" Shino, while muttering that taking inventory had been a good thing after all, helped pull out objects from Kiba's backpack as the dog user tossed them out wildly, searching for the rope he knew was at the bottom. Hinata leaned over the edge of the hole, trying to muster up the words needed to comfort Naruto, but none would come.

"'Kay." he whispered, a little alarmed how quickly his muscles were starting to give out. Naruto had to change his position. He took in a deep breath, regretting it as noxious fumes of decomposing flesh floated through his nostrils. He shifted his hands, using one to keep the flat surface of his body intact as the other one reached down to grasp a spike to use as leverage.  
Naruto looked reluctantly down at the poor soul who had fallen into the trap before him, glassy eyes looking blankly back at him as bugs tore his flesh apart. He looked like your average worker, stocky, strong-shouldered, and plain. Naruto wondered morbidly, as he shifted his body so he could fit one foot in the gap between spikes, resting the bare appendage almost disrespectfully on the corpse, if the man had a family that was waiting back home for him.

"Ah ha!" Kiba shouted triumphantly. "Found it!" Hinata tore her eyes away from Naruto, quickly grabbing the end of the rope tossed at her, then turned back to the hole.

"Naruto-kun?" Half-insistent and half-concerned, her worried voice caught Naruto's attention.  
His body shaking, in perhaps repulsion or fear or maybe even anger that no one took the man's body back to his family, he waved up to Team Eight and grabbed on to the rope tossed to him. Deciding on anger, he wondered as he was pulled up what kind of hero was he supposed to be when the people he was supposed to be protecting were already dead.

---

The predator stalked his prey. Even without his senses, he was a fearsome foe. A foe bent on his advancement of knowledge of the situation he was in, like all smart foes who wished to be fully prepared before simply jumping into a situation.

He felt a burst of pride with a streak of guilt. His prey was injured. Even his charges, a bunch of ragtag wannabe ninjas with bigger egos than Gamabunta's rear end, hadn't gotten injured.  
His prey was white with pain, clenching his arm with a bruising force, as if it would make the pain go away. His arm, the older and much wiser man could tell, was broken in at least two places, judging by the odd angle it was in. He felt a twinge of sympathy.

Looking at something written on his forearm, the prey hurried up, racing down the cavern that the stalker knew was a dead end. His head whipping from the roughly scribbled note on his arm and the dead end that the prey could now see with his own two eyes, a strangled sound like a moan escaped his lips.

"No... No!" he collapsed on his knees, banging his fist against the wall. His voice was anguished. "No... wait. Maybe I took a wrong turn… Read the directions wrong... yeah..."

The predator rolled his eyes, jumping from his hiding spot to land on the ground with a resounding clatter as his wooden sandals hit the floor. The prey wiped his head around, eyes widening in horror as he recognized the white hair, illuminated brightly by the lights on the support beams.

"Congratulations." the predator said blandly. "You've been duped too." For he could see a map drawn out on the man's arm, drawing out the quickest escape route from that beginning cavern where they had been ambushed by an avalanche of rocks and gas, to an imaginary exit that led straight outside. "Don't you feel like an ass, Juro?"

Juro collapsed inward on himself, brown eyes becoming glassy and blank. "No... I failed..." he whispered softly to himself, running his hand over a plain band on his ring finger. "Screwed everything up, as usual... I'm so sorry..." He gripped his arm again, cursing the trap that had broken it. The pain was almost too much to bear. Perhaps, if he was in better health, he could find another way out, but in the condition he was in, he was doomed to die. He looked up at his stalker, dead eyes insisting. "I tricked you. Kill me then, Jiraiya." he said in a detached voice. Nothing that a no good and evil ninja could do to him now was worse than what he had already done to himself and others because of his greed.

His lips pressed in a disapproving line, the hermit squatted down in front of the injured man. Juro closed his eyes, expecting the final blow, only to be tapped rather lightly for a death blow, but still pretty hard on his head. "We're not having any of this." Jiraiya said with a final tone. He extended his hand to the younger man. "Let me see your arm."

---

The ground was slightly uneven. Or maybe it was a root that she tripped over. Whatever the reason, Ino ungracefully flopped into the clearing, face planting into the soft dirt.

With a groan, she pushed herself up to her feet, brushing stray dirt off of her skirt. She promptly blushed when she realized that her dramatic entrance had an audience.

Shikamaru was sweaty, she realized. And tired. Bewildered and surprised to see her, he stared at her, wide eyes like that of a child caught with his fingers in the cookie jar. And he didn't even know why he was feeling guilty.

Three long days of searching for him, just missing him, and wondering what the hell he was doing had made her both annoyed and worried. The sudden loneliness that had gripped her at his absence had made her question everything.

Was he angry at her? Was he finally fed up with her? Would she never be able to change that horrible vision she had of Naruto's demise? Would Shikamaru even last long enough to live past his match with that sand nin Kankurou?

The worst of the questions had to be the last one, she realized. The puppet master had the capabilities and mindset to kill if he felt like it. And Shikamaru was... Shikamaru. Lazy, easily annoyed, and too laid back. He didn't like fighting the way that other people their age did.

_And he didn't tell you that he was in the finals._ A voice in the back of her head suddenly piped up. Her shoulders dropped slightly as she ran over that thought again. _That's it, isn't it?_ Shikamaru thought that she wouldn't care, or she didn't need to know. _He doesn't trust me anymore. _That idea was surprisingly painful.

Ino looked away from him, blinking back a hot sensation behind her eyes. She should have known that he'd choose a place like that clearing to train in. Huge trees with branches that seemed to stretch on forever made the clearing and its surrounding dark, covered in thick shadows. Yet, in the middle of the clearing, the branches didn't touch, allowing ample view of the sky and the clouds that Shikamaru loved to watch. She was reminded of the time when she looked up at the sky. It was a little past four and the sky was reddening with the inevitable sunset.

"Uh, Ino..." Shikamaru put his hands up in a pacifying way, backing up slightly. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it." She couldn't help but smile at his nervousness. Shikamaru always made her smile, whether she realized it or not. Before he was put on her team, she never saw him act nervous at all. Either she never noticed that he was frequently nervous, or she just made him that way.

Ino looked him up and down; trying to figure out what else was different about him. He had abandoned his jacket for once, just wearing the fishnet shirt he always wore underneath. He wore black pants and was barefoot, and, most noticeably, his hair hung around his shoulders instead of up in a ponytail. Almost gleefully, she pictured him as a hippie, telling the world to turn to the clouds for answers and to avoid war because it is simply too troublesome. _That's it, I've officially gone insane. _She thought with a giggle.

At that slight sound, Shikamaru relaxed. When she had stumbled through the woods (he could hear her from a mile away) and finally came across his clearing, she had looked so miserable, so full of self-hatred that Shikamaru was at a loss.

Ino wasn't supposed to look so miserable. She wasn't supposed to have a leaf in her normally perfectly combed hair. She wasn't supposed to have a smear of dirt down the side of her face, or tears in her clothes. He felt responsible for the state she was in. _How long has she been looking for me?_

He honestly hadn't thought much beyond his training and the future that was proposed to him in such a horrific way. Normally, he wouldn't bother training, even for something as important as the Chuunin Exam, but if Konoha was going to be attacked during the finals, he couldn't just sit and do nothing. Even if doing something would be very troublesome.

Besides, he was going to wrangle Naruto for some more information. As specific as the blond had been about the sound nation, he had been very vague about everything else. He normally wasn't the kind who liked knowing about what was going to happen in the future, but since the information was hurled at him anyway and didn't seem very pleasant, he wanted to know as much as possible to halt it in its tracks.

So he wasn't just getting stronger just for the finals (in which he only participated for some pay back) or the future. He also had to make sure that his control over the shadows was strong enough so he could trap Naruto and force some answers out of him. If only Naruto hadn't dodged him every time that he asked for some more clues... How troublesome.

He sighed, his guilt pushing away the faint annoyance of being bothered. At the sound, Ino swallowed harshly, her momentary amusement drifting away.

"I'm sorry." she whispered softly. Shikamaru's head snapped up, dark eyes tearing away from the rock he had been staring at to lock with hers.

Frowning, he took a step towards her. "For what?" he asked, genuinely curious.

Ino nearly took a step back, but at the last moment stood firm. "I'm so sorry." she repeated instead of answering.

Shikamaru was a little annoyed with the spin the world had taken, and very worried. A contrite Ino was like saying that Hell had frozen over. Feeling off balanced, he nearly snapped at her. "Look, whatever you did, I'm not mad at you." Almost immediately afterwards, he felt both guilty again for snapping at her and also nervous that she was going to respond violently.

Violence was the furthest thing from Ino's mind.

He never was mad at her, Ino realized. No matter what she did to him, he'd merely sigh irritably, and ignore it, save for the rare times he had actually gotten her back for the random pranks she'd pull on him or Chouji. In any case, the next day he'd act as normal as ever, as if nothing had happened between them.

He never got mad at her for bossing him around. He never got mad at her for nagging. He never got mad when she abandoned the team to go flirt with Sasuke. Shikamaru just was... _there_. Always. Waiting for her to bounce back, which she always did. Then he'd sigh, shake his head at her, and then they'd continue on.

He took another careful step towards her, then another when she didn't move. He stood within arms reach, calmly tugging the leaf out of her hair and wiping the mud off of her face with his thumb. He smiled, a tiny unconscious smile, somehow smug that the one of the things that made the situation so strange was corrected and fixed.

Ino felt tears come to her eyes and a smile tugged at her lips. _Perfectionist_. She thought with a small happy sigh.

There was worry in his eyes when he saw her tears. "Don't cry Ino." he said, almost desperately. There was too many things _wrong_ with the situation _without_ her crying. And he didn't think he could fix them all.

Ino agreed wholeheartedly. _Later_, she thought, rubbing her eyes furiously to get rid of the tears, _I'll figure this out. _Too many things were wrong with the situation and there were so many more problems that needed to be fixed before she could try and piece together what was happening between her and Shikamaru.

"So…" she said in a hoarse voice, attempting to smile. An eyebrow arched over a bright blue eye. "Train here often?"

Shikamaru was quiet for a moment before he smirked. "I don't train much at all." he admitted loftily.

Ino grinned. "Lazy ass." she said affectionately. Shikamaru shrugged, not disagreeing. She made a rude sound when he didn't even attempt to deny it, socking him lightly on his arm. She sniffed airily, trying to hide her smile. "I was looking everywhere for you, you jerk!" She turned around, nearly hitting him in the face with her long ponytail. "You owe me dinner!" Ino stalked away, fully expecting him to follow. And follow, with a chuckle, Shikamaru did, pausing only to pick up his discarded jacket and shoes.

Normalcy was something that he believed was half of the reasons why getting married sucked, and why it made perfectly decent males go completely docile and women to become so overbearingly bossy. Yet the males and females of the completely boring relationship didn't seem to mind the normalcy. In fact, they seemed to relish it.

Normal was boring but much more tolerable than uncertainty. Chaos and disorder, surprises and abnormal events… These were so troublesome. He'd take an average normal and boring girl to marry, if only to avoid all of those troubles.

But he couldn't help but feel like his definition of normal was twisted because of Ino. Boring became abnormal, silence was almost unknown, and surprises were frequent. All things he believed were troublesome suddenly were expected and needed, while the plain and the normal started to become very annoying.

Having a quiet training mission was impossible. It was almost inevitable and expected that Ino would somehow leap right in the middle of it and end it quickly. He was surprised when he realized that he had been waiting with almost bated breath for three days, waiting for her to jump in and halt his training.

Somehow, his definition of normal was warped, some time between the Academy days and right then. And, even as he realized that his childish notions of a plain and untroublesome girl were steadily changing into a very familiar depiction of his only female teammate, he didn't really mind it at all.

---

Naruto hadn't said a word. It was this silence that had all of them worried. After they had pulled him up, he brushed off all of their concerns and questions, merely mumbling something about moving forward.

Shino noticed a distinct change in temperature. Where it had been achingly cold before, it was now oddly warm. They had left the mine where human tools had dug into the rock, where human hands had set up support beams, and where human beings had worked day in and day out for an ore that Shino was starting to doubt really existed.

From what Kiba described, there were no more support beams. The long and seemingly never ending mines had almost suddenly jumped into more natural looking caves that could have been made from anything from erosion to lava.

"Walk where I walk and no more." Naruto's simple order still rang through Shino's head. Though he couldn't say that he was comfortable with the idea of Naruto as a leader, he really didn't have much of a choice. He could tell that Kiba hadn't liked it at all, but had been rapidly subdued when he stepped out of the path that Naruto had specially told them to go on, and ended up setting off a trap. That was a nerve-racking five minutes, as they ran as fast as they could across the cavern as blades, arrows, and wicked-looking needles came at them in all directions.

He had been dragged like a rag doll and was pretty sure that a kunai had clipped him in the ear. His ear stung and strange warmth made its way down his neck, no doubt blood. Shino didn't ask anyone to check, seeing as they were all running for their lives.

When they were finally out of harms way, Naruto had muttered an exasperated curse underneath his breath and they continued on. The blond was starting to wonder if he wasn't just leading them around and around in circles. He himself shared the same doubts that Shino had, not that he would voice them out loud. It was better for the team's morale if he didn't say that he had a pretty good idea who had once lived in the caves. Certainly, if his musings were true (he didn't know if they were, since he was having difficulty talking with Kyuubi), he would not like the consequences surrounding their knowledge of the fact. He, of all people, knew how much knowledge could be both a blessing and a curse.

Either way, the blond was pretty sure that he was in an area that was on his Do-Not-Go-**Ever** lists. The aura of the place alone grated on his nerves, making him feel both very hyper and very paranoid. And that wasn't even talking about the traps, which were everywhere and nerve-racking on their own. Some of them were painfully obvious while others were clever and well hidden. Diligence (and, if he ever thought about it more closely, a nudge of youki from his very own inner demon) helped him find every one before one of them set it off. But they all were very deadly. Who ever put them in had both the desire to keep everyone out and also way too much time on their hands.

Naruto paused, squinting ahead in the distance instead of assiduously looking for traps as he had before. Unless he was mistaken, the shimmering thing he could just barely see was some kind of body of water. Cautiously approaching it, he realized it was a hot spring.

He soundlessly gestured for the others to follow him towards it, slightly relieved that he could wash his foot off. He didn't care much about the flour still lightly clinging in a few places, but the guts in between his toes made him nauseated. He had been standing on the man's ribcage as they tossed the rope down and it had collapsed under his weight.

He sat down abruptly on the bank of the small body of water and blinked rapidly while roughly washing his foot off. Team Eight hovered behind him awkwardly. He could see their worried faces in the reflection of the water. Naruto took a deep breath, clearing his mind of all he had seen. Though he was not an advocate of vengeance, especially after Sasuke, he knew that revenge would be his, as soon as he found out who their employer was. It was this thought only that allowed him to reign in his rising anger. Once his mind was a blank slate, he turned slightly, grinning sheepishly at the other three.

"I think I kinda led us more into the cave than out of it." he said apologetically, taking off his other shoe and tossing it. There was no point in walking around with only one anyway. "But we need to find my perverted excuse of a teacher." He looked over at them, blue eyes a bit clouded over. "Sorry 'bout that."

"No need to apologize, Naruto." Shino replied immediately. Naruto brightened. "We understand your concern and gladly accept the challenge of finding him."

"Hey!" Kiba shouted, jumping back slightly. "I'm the leader of our team, who the hell do you think you are to offer our services like that without even consulting us first!" Shino chose that moment to dig his elbow into the loud boy's ribs.

"Like you would have said no." he muttered, much to Kiba's immediate embarrassment. Naruto truly smiled for what seemed like the first time in a while. Shino shifted his weight with a slight sigh. "Anyway, what we need to concern ourselves with, instead of bickering like children, is first the location of Jiraiya-sama, then the location of the most immediate exit."

"What about the mission?" Hinata asked softly, a hand tugging lightly on one of the drawstrings on her jacket.

"Screw the mission." Naruto piped up, seemingly regaining his normal buoyancy at an alarming rate. "We know that our employer, the cruel and heartless bastard, wherever he may be, knowingly sent us into this death trap. What's the point of working for a guy if he's just gonna do you in?"

"We were paid for half of the mission." Shino reminded him lightly. "It seems a little… _unprofessional_ of us to not do our job when we are already paid."

Kiba smirked, sharing a look with an equally feisty Naruto. "He wants some rocks?" he snarled, pushing back his sleeve. "I'll give him some rocks." Akamaru yipped happily from his position in Kiba's coat.

"Yeah, then shove them so far up his ass that he won't know whether he's coming or going." Naruto added in candidly. They both snickered heartily. Kiba grabbed Naruto's outstretched hand and yanked him up. The blind leading the blind, they randomly chose a path and gestured for the other two to follow, not once pausing in their amusing anecdote on what they were going to do to their employer once they caught up with him.

With twin sighs, Shino and Hinata, her hand on his elbow, walked behind them. Shino was wondering how long he would have to put up with two equally immature and bellicose people for the next unknown period of time, while Hinata idly mused why it kept getting warmer the farther they moved in the cave.

---

Juro had never been the smartest of men, or the man with the greatest opportunities. Or, actually, he was positive that he did have the greatest of opportunities, but was too stupid to take advantage of them. If he wasn't, then he wouldn't be in a demon's den, now would he?

Despite his rather grim outlook on himself, Juro still was content with being a simple man. He did not understand the whole concept of out talking an opponent, or the dog-eat-dog society of the business man. He took things at face value, trusted someone when they said they were going to do something, and never considered the thought that he was being manipulated.

Two lessons had come out of his current predicament. One was never to trust businessmen who smirked and promised you the world. The other was to never trust what those men say about other men.

After all, he had spent almost a month and a half listening to his employer moan and gripe about the evils of ninja. He had spent a month and a half believing that his employer was his savior and salvation in a pinstriped suit. And who was the one kneeling in front of him, splinting his arm so it would heal properly? Who was the one who gave him bogus instruction and let him willingly walk into a death trap? Certainly not who he would have thought a week ago.

"Married?" The question was unexpected, but the evidence of the answer gleamed as obviously as the ring on his left hand. Juro blinked several times before it really sunk in. The hermit didn't look up from carefully shifting the bone into place. "I doubt your wife would have wanted you to be involved in this sort of thing." Jiraiya continued when Juro didn't answer. When the younger man winced at a painful shift, he looked up. "Does she know?"

Swallowing harshly, Juro shook his head. Jiraiya was an unusually benign man. His employer, though swearing to make all of his money problems go away, did not care at all about his wife or what she had to go through. "She wouldn't know." he said thickly. "She's been in the hospital for the last month."

A sharp look crossed over Jiraiya's eyes. "So… This is what it's about." he said simply. Juro nodded, half glad that he didn't have to explain it, half sick that he had managed to screw everything up again.

They, meaning Juro and his wife, lived in a rural part of Wind Country, where the ground was barely arable and where the dry winds from the desert could steal the moisture from someone's skin faster than a bullet. His wife was a kind and homely woman, unable to have children, but still the greatest thing to happen to Juro. Their life was quiet and arduous, but she never complained. She never looked beyond him, wishing for a better life, or belittling him for being simple and not involving himself in the rich business world.

They had been married for five years, working on a nearly unmanageable acre of land, growing crops for them and the rest of the town, which barely counted up to forty other people. It was because of their combined hard work that the city even survived, being where it was. Juro was happy with the life he led, and so was Asami, his quiet wife.

And then some sort of plague went about, killing all of their crops. It eventually evolved into a form that hit humans harshly, rapidly subjecting their bodies to atrophy until there was nothing left but a lifeless husk. The population of the town dropped like flies, with Juro feeling as if he was to blame. He had been warned about the plague, but had neglected to do anything to prevent it because it would have cost more money than they had. The few surviving people moved to the cities, leaving Asami and Juro, the latter of the two pouring over their crops, trying to find some way to revive them.

Asami only ever asked him one thing during their entire marriage, yet he failed to do even her simple request properly. She had come to him while he was in the middle of his futile efforts in the middle of the night, her robe held closed with one hand as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. _"Please."_ she had begged, soft eyes nearly watering over. _"Let's go to the city, where it's safe. I don't want you to get sick too."_ He had mumbled, gesturing for her to go away.

Juro never felt so stupid and so selfish before in his entire life. All he wanted was to come up with some sort of way to get the crops growing again, becoming a hero in the eyes of his fellow townspeople. For someone who wore the same clothing for two days in a row and had to be forced to comb his hair and take a bath, he was surprisingly vain.

There was hardly a town left anymore. It was too dangerous to stay there. But he still was, attempting to do something that no one else was dumb enough to do in such a dangerous area.  
His single minded stubbornness led to the worst possible thing that could happen in his life: Asami grew ill with the plague. It started with a innocent little cough, quickly escalating into her coughing up blood and not being able to lift her head from her pillow. Juro, fearing for her life, immediately went for the city, taking her to the doctor he knew had the cure to the plague. It could be treated and cured, but it wasn't easy. And it wasn't inexpensive either.

Juro was harshly reminded of how people much people took advantage of one another when the doctor brushed his hands off and walked away, refusing to treat Asami because Juro didn't have enough money to pay him. He ended up selling everything of theirs to pay for the treatment, but it still wasn't enough.

And then, like a noble knight in shining armor, his savior came, offering him a way out of his troubles.

"_Listen here, Juro_._"_ the businessman had said with a seemingly kind smile. _"You need money. I have money, but I need you to help me with something. You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours."_ Juro fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. He left his wife's bedside as she was dying, following every beck and call of his employer, like a dog wagging its tail at the sight of a treat, all around the continent. But the treat, in Juro's case, was a wad of cash he sent home every week.

The doctor accepted the payment plan and began treating his wife. And life continued on in this fashion, where Juro followed every order, every direct violation with his morals and ideals that his employer gave him without ever seeing his wife. He hadn't laid eyes on her in a month and dearly missed her.

And, just a week ago, a letter in her own hand came to him from a messenger. She was completely healed and in good spirits, but begged for him to come home. Juro had the intention to do just that, so he went up to his employer and gave him the good news. His employer wasn't as pleased.

But no offer of cash would continue to bind Juro to his side. All the simple man wanted was to go home to his wife. He wanted nothing more to do with the corrupted businessman or his dirty work.  
Then the businessman offered an astoundingly high price, one that made Juro pause for a moment. With that sort of money, he could buy his wife a nice house in the city, instead of subjecting her to the harsh life of which he was accustomed to. Maybe a house in Fire Country, where he had discovered it was beautiful and unlike anywhere Asami had ever been; where there were endless forests of green instead of endless stretches of sand.

Seeing Juro's weakness, the businessman dug in. _"One last errand."_ he promised with a smirk. _"It'll barely take a week and then I'll take you home myself in the fastest transportation money can buy."_ Juro fell for it again, pushing aside his morals and ideals once more for money. He would have never described himself as greedy before, but something about that crooked businessman seemed to bring out the worst in him.

Every time he looked into those youthful faces that he deceived, he knew it was because of him that they would die young. Every time one of them laughed or bickered or smiled, something inside of him cringed and twisted in agony. He tried to ignore the sudden flashes of their cold dead bodies with images of his wife, or tried to sink himself into denial by telling them old ghost stories that his grandfather used to tell him.

The guilt tore at him, but he oppressed it, reasoning that ninjas were murderers and all sorts of morally wrong people. That's what his employer always said. Ninjas were cruel people and would kill you as soon as look at you. He had twisted it into making Juro believe that he wasn't putting innocent people into a death trap, but actually doing a good deed for the community.

Juro watched through clouded eyes as Jiraiya concentrated ferociously, pulling up chakra that didn't want to be pulled up, subjecting him to so much pain that his hand shook over the other man's splinted arm. Nevertheless, he still yanked it up, molding it into a jutsu that he used on Juro's arm. The horrible pain in his arm suddenly dulled under the light of the calming chakra.  
Juro blinked twice, feeling moisture fall from his eye and travel down his cheek.

TBC

Ed. Note: Like Foxie said, various unforeseen difficulties made it impossible to get a chapter out before now, though I should say I made the wait even longer due to an annoying habit I call procrastination. --'

Anyhow, hope you enjoyed the completely revised chapter, I know I liked it when I first saw it!


	46. Dangerous Partners and Bad Teammates

Yay, an update! Much thanks to my beta Angel's Hazard and, of course, all of my lovely readers and reviewers. : )

* * *

For the Love of my Friends 

Chapter Forty-six: Dangerous Partners and Bad Teammates

by Foxie

* * *

"They're getting... er... very annoyed, sir." The man in the doorway was twisting his fingers together, a very visible tremble going throughout his shoulders. The paleness of his face was darkly contrasted by a blood spatter on his cheek. 

The businessman sighed. They must have killed another one of his employees. "Look, tell them-" he started irritably, but paused when he looked over the man's shoulder. Like two looming shadows, they stood there, throwing darkness over his shaking employee. The businessman swallowed suddenly, a familiar feeling of nervousness tightening up his throat. His next words were hoarse. "Tell them to come in."

The man turned around, jolting when he saw them behind him. Stammering nervously, he jumped out of the doorway, gesturing for them to walk through. Casually, the two strolled through, disdainful eyes gazing down at him. The worker, as soon as he was out of their sight, closed the door respectfully, then bolted, deciding that no amount of money was worth dying for.

"My, my." the first one drawled. "You have made a royal mess of things, have you not?" He looked sideways at his smirking companion. "Kisame, I believe we might have made a mistake when we entrusted this to him."

The smirk on Kisame's face turned predatory as his hand inched to the huge bandaged sword at his back. "That's truly a pity, Itachi." he said amiably, his hand closing around the hilt. "I don't like making mistakes."

The businessman, who had been previously gritting his teeth in annoyance, took several large steps back, fearful of the missing nin. He could tell that it was Kisame who had killed one of his employees, as the back of the man's hand was coated with blood.

"Gatou-san." Itachi stated in a smooth tone. The businessman swallowed harshly, forgetting to remind them to not call him by his old name. The dark ninja took half of a step forward, red eyes gleaming strangely. "We have an invested interest in what is in those caves. Your... system of operation highly endangers our interest." Itachi picked up a paperweight on the man's desk, idly letting light shine through the clear globe. He gave off a bored and disinterested air, but when his eyes shifted from the paperweight to Gatou, the businessman straightened and swallowed once more.

"Not to mention that we have other matters that need to be dealt with." The words that came of Kisame's mouth were coarse yet full of dark amusement. Gatou's eyes almost involuntarily shifted from Itachi to Kisame, wondering how he managed to get involved with those devils. Even Zabuza couldn't match up to the sheer menace in their eyes and auras. "Unless you move your operations a bit faster, we might have to render you... obsolete." Gatou flinched at Kisame's horrible grin, not realizing that he had backed up until the wall hit his back.

Itachi continued, crossing his arms over his chest as his red eyes sparkled eerily. He still had the paperweight in one hand. "In one week, we must move on. You have two hours to find Kyuubi's so-called hidden chamber of his stolen artifacts." In a motion that Gatou couldn't see, the dark ninja's wrist twisted and the paperweight went flying speedily through the air. It embedded in the wall behind Gatou, barely an inch off from his ear.

To put it as the ultimate understatement of the year, this alarmed Gatou. He backed away from the wall, scuttling around the two Akatsuki members, bowing slightly. "N-no worries!" he stuttered, a nervous smile appearing on his face. It was slightly strained. "I'll have my best team down there A.S.A.P. We'll get the goods and divide them amongst ourselves in two hours!"

Almost pleased with the businessman's humble behavior, Kisame turned around, walking out of the office, his dark cloak billowing around him. Itachi paused, seemingly admiring his work on Gatou's wall. Once Kisame was out of the room, Itachi addressed Gatou.

"Why don't you go down there yourself, Gatou-san?" he said quietly, the look in his eyes making it very clear that it wasn't a suggestion. "It might be very... enlightening." Just by speaking, the Akatsuki member unsettled him. But Gatou nodded, and would have even jumped up and done a jig, if the man had just told him to. Anything to live through their partnership.

Itachi smiled to himself in quiet amusement, a strange sight in itself, before following his companion's steps out of the office. Gatou watched the well known killer walk out of his room before he sunk down to the carpet.

"Damn... ninjas..." he whispered, shaking in fear. "They all should die." He gripped his head, hands clenching in his hair. "No... Just that one. Nothing else matters." Shakily, he stood, with determination in his steely eyes. "That little brat will die for ruining everything."

The door to his office opened a crack. The terrified secretary stuck her head in. "Uh, sir..." she whispered worriedly, noting the blank way he stared at his desk and the paperweight stuck in the wall.

His head snapped up at the sound. "Back to work!" he roared suddenly, angry that one of his workers would see him in such a condition. Making a soft sound of distress, the secretary disappeared.

Breathing hard, Gatou tried to think but it was hard when his heart was beating so fast. After a few moments of recapping to himself, he stalked over to the door and flung it open. "Assemble the A team." he snapped at his tearful secretary.

"T-the A team?" she echoed, shaking lightly.

"What are you, stupid?" he yelled, slamming his fist on the desk. "That's what I said!" When she just looked at him, stiff in her chair, he hit the desk once more. "Do it now! We're on a time limit!" She immediately jumped and reached for the phone, dialing the number to Gatou's emergency clean-up team.

Satisfied that things were finally going his way, Gatou stalked back into the office. He sat down at his desk, grimly looking at his clock. They had until nightfall to find the demon's treasure. He did not want to find out the ways that the Akatsuki members would render him 'obsolete'. He reached under his desk, pulling out a revolver and started loading it.

"Ninjas can't outrun bullets." he muttered to himself, comforted by the weight in his hand. He stuffed some bullets in his pocket and grabbed his coat from where it was hanging off his chair. "If they try anything, I'll blast their freaking heads off."

---

Unaware of any time limits, Naruto and the others moved further along into the cave. Naruto was still in front, being the only one to spot all of the traps before they were set off. Kiba was close behind him, while Shino and Hinata, the latter guiding the former, walked several paces behind him.

"Man, is it me or is it sweltering hot in here?" Kiba exclaimed, having discarded his jacket a long time ago. Akamaru whined between pants, trotting tiredly by his owner's side.

"It's not just you." Shino panted. "Pardon me, Naruto, but I need to pause for a moment." Stopping in his tracks at an intersection of paths, the bug user discarded his trench coat and put it in his backpack. Hinata, too hot to talk, followed suit, pulling off her sweater as well.

Naruto turned around, crossing his arms over his chest. "Wimps." he declared. When he discovered that it really was too hot for even Kiba to start a fight, he frowned, looking into the path in front of them. "Why the hell _is_ it so hot?" He murmured the last bit to himself, frowning lightly. It was getting to be too hot for even him, and he was used to high temperatures, whether it was experience from climbing the Hokage monument in the apex of the summer, or from dealing with the Kyuubi's fiery youki.

He looked back at them, sympathy for them making him offer a solution. "Hey, let's go that direction instead." He felt a cooler breeze coming from the left, which was the direction he was pointing in. Nodding tiredly, Hinata took one step in that direction and promptly fell over a trip wire. Stiffening when they heard the workings of mechanisms in the rocks, they all looked at each other in horror.

Hinata pushed herself up to her knees, sorrowful silver eyes meeting Naruto's shocked eyes. "I'm so sorry!" she cried. As if her words were the trigger, a slab of rock rolled out of the way on the upper portion of the wall, revealing a smooth rock ball.

"Aw hell." Naruto whispered as it began to roll in their direction. His next words were voiced in a yell. "Scatter!"

They moved quickly. Shino blindly moved as close as he could to the wall as Kiba grabbed Akamaru and dove out of the path of the rolling ball of rock. The ball rolled by them harmlessly as Naruto darted in front of it and picked up Hinata. But by the time she was on her feet, they were too far into the path and the rolling rock was far too close. He grabbed her hand instead and they ran down the passageway.

The time seemed to stretch forever as they ran down that corridor, with the object that could end up crushing them to death hot on their heels. Soon the path diverged into a caved-in portion of the man made mine, a fact that he was sure of because of the sudden appearance of support beams and straight paths. It must have been the site where the mining operation ended.

Seeing an opportunity, Naruto pushed Hinata into one of the paths that crossed theirs. She gasped, not being able to catch her footing fast enough to stay on her feet. When she realized what Naruto had done, she was on her feet in a flash. "Naruto-kun!" she cried.

Meanwhile, Naruto saw a dead end some fifty meters away. He had to act fast. With a burst of speed, he gained a better lead on the rolling mass of destruction. Blue energy glowed briefly around his feet before fading.

Taking his chances, he dove for the ground, tucking himself as best as he could in the corner created by the floor and the wall. The ball rolled by him, missing him by mere inches. It kept rolling, soon hitting the dead end with a resounding thud.

Naruto rolled away from the wall, laughing at his abnormal luck. Who would have thought being small would one day save his life? He barely noticed when Hinata ran up to him until her hands went on his shoulders. He was jolted slightly by the pressure and looked up at the genin with questioning eyes.

She was crying. All amusement was yanked from Naruto as he righted himself to kneel in front of her. He cupped her face in his bloodied hands.

"Hinata-" What he was going to say was cut off when Hinata made a distressed noise and dove into his chest. She wrapped her arms around his torso, shaking as she hid her face against his vest. Completely floored, Naruto puzzled over what to do with the crying female in his arms.

"I'm so, so sorry..." she whispered brokenheartedly. "Because of me..." she stifled a sob, "You almost died for the third time." Now understanding what was going on, Naruto wrapped his arms around her, making soft comforting noises. "Because of me..." she whispered again. "Because of me!" Naruto held her as she shook, waiting until most of her tears had abated before speaking.

"Because of you?" he questioned softly. "What happened because of you?"

Sniffling and holding on to Naruto with dear life, she answered. "You almost... died. Three times. Because-" Her voice had become hoarse with tears and it was difficult to continue. But because he asked, she answered. "I was weak and you had to protect me."

Naruto rolled his eyes to himself, shifting in a more comfortable position as he tightened his grip on the sorrowful girl. He kept his voice soft. "I don't need anyone's help to get into dangerous situations, Hinata-chan! Hell, I don't even need to get into them, they come to me." Realizing almost immediately that his instinctive reply might have not been the best, he amended it slightly. "What I mean is... I like protecting my friends. Whether it means injury or worse, I want to stand between my friends and their own dangers. And you, Hinata," he lifted her chin lightly with two fingers, making her meet his eyes. "You are my dearest friend."

Hinata blushed, a few tears trickling down her cheek. Naruto smiled reassuringly at her. "And trust me when I say this: There's no way in hell that I'm gonna die while I still have some unfinished business." he said with a determined grin. And she believed him. Her modesty coming back in a flash once her fears had been evaporated by a single promise, Hinata blushed furiously at his nearness. But, instead of moving away, she wiped at her tears and smiled back at him.

"Like becoming Rokudaime?" she offered shyly. Naruto's grin widened at the reminder of his fondest dream.

"Most especially." He clenched his fist and waved it in a vague direction towards where he hoped the Hokage monument was. "I'll show those old farts what being the Hokage really means!" At his solemn vow, Hinata giggled, hugging him once more. She would never tire of the comfort his nearness gave her.

Naruto looked over her shoulder, seeing the approaching forms of the other two members of Team Eight. Shino was walking carefully while Kiba had an unusually blank look on his face. His hold tightened on Hinata as he wondered with a sinking heart what that look meant.

Kiba had always been extremely daft at noticing Hinata's feelings for Naruto, but such an obvious show of it must have drilled the information in his mind. The dog user, whose eyes had been clouded as he thought to himself, suddenly looked directly into Naruto's eyes. He nodded, still looking unusually serious. Naruto smiled and nodded in return. That was all the conversation needed between them.

"So..." Shino tilted his head slightly. "What now?"

----

Juro leaned tiredly against the rock where Jiraiya had laid him and told him to stay put. _"Just gotta find the kids, then we're out of here."_ The hermit had told him with a faint smile. "_Don't move."_ Juro had no intention of doing anything but that.

He closed his eyes with a smile. Jiraiya was a very kind man, despite being a ninja. There was no way that he would betray him. Where his employer had won him over with money, the older man who had tended to his arm won him over with kindness. And, in Juro's mind, there was nothing more valuable than a bit of kindness.

Running his hand over his arm, which was splinted yet virtually pain free, Juro started feeling the first feelings of hope that he had felt in a long while. Jiraiya would come back, they would leave, and he would see Asami once more.

His eyes clouded over as he imagined the reunion with his beloved wife. First, he'd tell her he was sorry for being such a stubborn fool, and then, he'd tell her that he loved her-

The rocks to the right of him suddenly exploded. Coughing at the sudden clouds of dust and wincing at the small rocks that hit him, Juro crawled away and hid behind a rock in case of a second explosion.

Realizing that the wall now had a sizable hole, Juro watched in growing surprise as a group of men walked through, the figure in the front more recognizable than those behind him.

For a single foolish second, Juro entertained the idea that the man, who wore a snarl and kept reaching inside his coat to grasp something, was there to save them. But the moment of doubtful hope went away when he heard the man speak.

"I want you to blast all the way to the center of this infernal place!" Gatou snarled, banging his cane against the ground. Juro paled when he realized that the people behind the businessman was a group of men with weapons, everywhere from expensive looking katanas to weapons that looked more like farming tools but were a lot sharper.

_This must be the A team._ Juro thought grimly before smiling. _They're no match for ninjas and they'll get their-_ he winced when he suddenly remembered that, because of him, the ninjas had no energy to do their magic. Or whatever it was that those ninjas used to fight their enemies.  
He hid once more behind the rock when one of them looked in his direction, hoping against hope that he hadn't been spotted.

The hired sword, a sour looking middle-aged man with a scar going down his eye, fingered his weapon and took a step in Juro's direction. Seeing the movement, Gatou turned and snapped at the man.

"Start blasting!" he shouted. "I don't have all day!" With a heavy sigh, the man with the sword turned back to the wall at hand and helped his fellow hired swords to set up the gunpowder. They swiftly set it up, lining up the fuse to go into the path that they just came out of. They moved away from the wall and lit it.

Juro winced when, for the second time, the whole earth around him seemed to shake. The men went through the new impromptu entrance and moved on to the next path. They walked to their next blasting place, muttering mutinously.

"I didn't pay you for gossip time! Hurry the hell up!" Gatou's voice was shrill and echoed throughout the caves. He looked at the map in his hand, then pointed to the next spot that should be blasted. It was a quite a bit of distance in front of them.

Gulping nervously, Juro had no doubt in his heart that Gatou would kill him on the site if he was spotted. But he still peeked around the rock, peering at the retreating men. _I have to warn Jiraiya-san!_ He thought desperately. But there was nothing he could do. Any chance he might have had to stop the men was now gone. Going after them while Gatou was in such a temper was just asking to be blown up along with the wall.

The ground shook again with the blast. Juro winced, pressing himself firmly against the wall. He had never been more terrified for himself in his life. If he got up and fled out the entrance that they made to the outside, there was always the chance that he could be spotted by someone and killed. If he stayed in place, the whole cave could crash down around him.

There was no way he could alert Jiraiya of the coming dangers, nor any way to get himself out of danger without putting himself in more danger. Once again, he backed himself in a corner of which there was no escaping, and could only hope for a miracle, for him and his new found friend.

---

It was almost too hot, but they continued, faithfully following Naruto's footsteps. It was hard to tell how much time had passed from when Shino and Kiba had come upon Hinata and Naruto to the present. Their time in the caves had almost seemed to stretch on forever. Even Shino couldn't say if they had been in there for a week or a month.

Naruto paused, halting first the progress of Hinata, who was right behind him, then Kiba and Shino who were walking behind her. The blond genin turned around, a pensive look on his face. "I think-"

"Don't." Kiba quipped. "We're begging you." Though Naruto's lips briefly lifted in amusement, he shook his head.

"No, seriously." Naruto said. He looked at his hand. "I think I have enough chakra to summon."

"And thus," Shino said, picking up on Naruto's train of thought, "Your summon could sense for Jiraiya and be able to tell us where he is."

"Akamaru can follow trails just fine without any damn summon!" Kiba said, annoyance leaking into his voice. "Just use him!"

Hinata looked at him, the look on her face apologetic. "Um... Kiba-kun," she said quietly, quickly gaining his attention. "Akamaru isn't trained to listen to verbal commands."

Naruto nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's right." He closed his eyes, as if in thought. "You have a bond with Akamaru that allows you to pass on ideas to him. You don't need words to talk to him, but you verbalize it anyway as a habit." His eyes opened and his lips twitched in a slight but not unkind smile. "He can't understand what you want him to do until you can reestablish your bond with him with your chakra. Till then, the two of you are just a boy and his dog, not the fighting duo that you two usually are." Kiba looked upset for a moment but didn't disagree.

"Akamaru is very smart." Shino added in the silence that followed, somehow knowing the reason for Kiba's being upset. "But he needs to be taught just like any other dog. I'm afraid the only person to blame for his inability to listen to simple verbal commands is you." Kiba winced, looking down at Akamaru. The small dog looked up at him in return, his tail wagging because he recognized his name in their conversation.

Smiling a little, Kiba knelt down next to his dog, rubbing his ears. "Guess we gotta work on that when we get out of here, huh, Akamaru?" Akamaru, hearing his name again, yipped happily.

Naruto grinned, then turned away from them, hunkering down to the ground... He bit his thumb hard, tasting copper in his mouth, then slammed his palm against the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he called out, watching as seals and kanji spread out from his hand. In a burst of smoke, his summon arrived.

The second after, Naruto became suddenly aware of a severe tightening in his chest. He nearly groaned at the pain the feeling brought, clutching at his open vest with his hand. Something instinctive made him bite down on his bottom lip instead of announcing his pain, just as a wounded animal keeps quiet when it senses that the predator that harmed it is near.

"Yo." Gamakichi waved a webbed limb, hopping closer to Naruto when he realized that there were more people than just the ninja that summoned him. He peered at them almost shyly before looking at the one who summoned him. "Hey, what'cha need me for bro?"

Naruto closed his eyes, forcing himself to speak past the pain. The wounds on his hands pulsed painfully, so he focused on that instead of the horrible feeling of something clenching around his lungs and heart. "I need... you to find Jiraiya and lead us to him." Naruto said quietly, aware that the others were watching him. "Do you think... you can do that?"

"Well, sure! Of course, Naruto!" the frog assured him, patting one webbed limb on Naruto's knee, catching the slight twinge of pain in his voice easily. Being Naruto's number one most accidental summon, he had gotten to know the quirks and personality of his summoner better than any other summon in their realm. But still, he had a question. "But... Why can't you do it?"

The blond genin grimaced, hoping against hope that Kiba would think the summon meant tracking by Akamaru's or his own skills, or even the more basic tracking by sensing out his aura, instead of anything that would led Kiba to wonder why Naruto wasn't in the Inuzuka clan if his senses were so acute. He wouldn't have another member of Team Eight learn about the secret that he hadn't even told his own team. Luckily, Kiba made no comment, nor even seemed to react to the summon's poorly worded question.

Naruto turned back to his summon, his face tightening in pain when pain in his chest increased to just shy of unbearable. "We're having some..." he coughed into his hand, grimacing when it felt wet. He tightened his hand into a fist, hiding his palm. He continued talking as if nothing had happened. "...technical difficulties. To put it simply." The frog squinted at him, wondering at the slight scent of blood. Akamaru whined suddenly, tugging on Kiba's pants with his teeth. Kiba looked down at his dog helplessly.

"Hey-" the frog bounced forward, worry in his huge eyes. Naruto cut him off harshly, his eyes flashing warningly. He did not want anyone to coddle him over his own foolish arrogance. He should have known that something bad was going to happen. Murphy's Law pertained to nearly every aspect of his life, after all.

"Let's go, dammit!" he snapped angrily. Visibly flinching under the weight of his wrath, the genins behind him stared at him as he stomped on forward. Looking back at them, Naruto cringed as he realized how harsh he had sounded. _Great, if they wouldn't hate me for being a monster, then they're gonna hate me for being a total asshole._ He thought wincing as he rubbed the back of his neck, keeping his fist close to his leg.

"On second thought..." he amended quietly, clearing his hoarse throat with a cough and cringing at the taste of blood. He needed to tell Gamakichi to keep his big trap shut about Kyuubi.

"Let's take a quick break." He walked off, tossing a meaningful glance towards the small frog. After a long moment, the summon hopped near him while the others lingered back.

"Please..." Naruto whispered hoarsely to the summon following him. He stopped, dropping to one knee to speak to the summon eye to eye. "Gamakichi... Try to remember why everyone hates me."

The frog nodded twice, sitting himself on the ground. "Ah right, sorry, my bad." It was sad really, he supposed as the summon patted him lightly on the knee, to have him so quickly understand and accept instead of trying to make Naruto feel differently. Sakura or Hinata would have at least tried to convince him that he wasn't hated by everyone...

He cut off that thought, glancing behind him at Team Eight, who still hadn't moved. His eyes connected with Hinata's and, as if those worried eyes had scorched him, he quickly turned away. "I just want to get out of here. There's animosity in the air towards us, I can feel it!" he kept his voice low as he looked back down at the frog. He didn't notice Kiba's sharp look towards him, nor the unnaturally still position his body had taken, opposed to the dog user's typical jumpy nature. "This whole damn mission is stupid. I just wanna get Jiraiya, find an exit, then get the hell out of here." His voice was pleading. "I can't protect them if I can't use my chakra without hurting myself." He showed his blood-coated palm to his summon. "Look! I could barely summon you!"

Gamakichi looked on his summoner with great compassion and awe. "Naruto..." he whispered. And that's what it always came down to, the summon realized to himself. The only thing Naruto truly cared about was his friends. Everyone else could pretty much go to hell, and the summon realized sadly, that he carried that oath to himself as well. His health didn't mean anything unless it had something to do with one of his friends.

Naruto winced, knowing he was a spoiled brat. He was so used to Kyuubi coddling him and healing his wounds before the thought that he was injured even went through to his head. If he died now, everything that he had worked so hard for would go down the drain. Shikamaru didn't know hardly enough to save his village from the downward spiral it was going in. Sarutobi didn't get hardly enough hints from the 'anonymous Anbu' to know how to keep himself alive and how to keep Konoha thriving in the midst of snakes. Sasuke was still an ass and Naruto had the feeling that, no matter what he did or said the genius rookie would do whatever he wanted in order to gain power.

He looked down at his hand with a fierce scowl. He had to be there when Orochimaru showed his ugly mug. He had to be there when the Sound attacked, and lead Tsunade and Jiraiya to Orochimaru before the Sound Four took their positions and sealed everyone out. And he definitely had to be there when Sasuke became infatuated with the power that Orochimaru could give him. And this time, he would not be distracted by Gaara; no, he would take care of the other demon host as fast as possible. He would be there to aid Konoha's defense, and if Sasuke even thought about going to Orochimaru, he would gladly put the boy in a coma.

He laughed sadly, the thought of a coma reminding him of Sakura. She would be so angry with him at first, but she would understand later. She always did. She would understand that it was better to have a Sasuke in a coma or under house arrest than to have a Sasuke as an enemy. As much as Naruto hated the thought of fighting Sasuke for any reason but sport, he hated the thought of Sakura and Sasuke fighting even more. Just the thought was horrible in itself, because he knew and had seen that she was the only one who came close to beating him.

The first time he saw Sakura punch Sasuke, it was both the greatest and most horrifying moment in his entire life. On one hand, it was so satisfying to see Sasuke get knocked off his feet by the girl who had once adored him, and the childish part of him relished the fact that Sasuke was getting his ass kicked by the girl who he believed was the weakest on their team. However, on the other hand, it shattered his dreams of everything going back to normal. He learned that fateful day that nothing was ever going to be normal again.

Naruto sighed, now feeling antsy. He wanted to go home and not only because that was where he was needed, but also because he missed his teammates terribly. The Chuunin Final Exam was in two weeks. Or was it one? He couldn't tell how much time had passed in the caves. They had stopped to sleep occasionally when they were tired, but he knew that the moments of quiet repose were brief.

It didn't matter, he supposed. All that mattered was getting out, and there was no way in hell that he was going to stay in the cave/den/mine (or whatever the heck it was supposed to be) longer than he had to.

Spirits almost instantly restored, Naruto stood, a slight wince going over his face when he realized that the motion didn't quite agree with him. However, he turned around with a faint smile, prepared to endure the slowly easing pain until it was no longer a problem. His halfhearted attempt at arranging a happy look on his face slipped off when he realized that Kiba was giving him a hard stare.

_Not quite a glare!_ He comforted himself as his heart started to painfully beat faster. Why did Kiba have such a disapproving look on his face?

The answer came to him in a flash, so easy that he almost smacked himself. _Of course!_ Working with an animal familiar obviously made the other boy very sensitive to the relationships between animal and their human companion, even if the 'animal' was technically a summon creature. Kiba was angry because Naruto snapped at Gamakichi.

Feeling a little embarrassed (after all, Gamakichi was aware of his short temper and knew why he was so edgy, but they did not), he walked forward with hesitancy. "Uh, sorry." he said, idly rubbing his hands on his shorts. No one should notice the slight stain of blood, he reckoned, since it was still pretty dark. Their only source light was the flashlight that Hinata pulled out of her backpack and the soft red glow of the cave itself.

Weird, he had thought when he first noticed it, and blinked at the red light. Something had about it tugged at his mind, like something he should have taken in account, but when he had felt the idea come forth, his head suddenly felt like it was going to split open from the pain. The thought had abruptly left him, and no matter how hard he tried to recover it, it seemed lost to him forever.

"I'm a little antsy..." Naruto admitted slowly, "And I'm not exactly the best person to be around when I'm antsy..."

Shino shrugged. What did he care? He had been counting down the seconds until Naruto snapped at them. It was unlike the boy he knew from the Academy to be so calm while they all were in definite and possible danger. Yet Naruto had shown extreme restraint with them, and most especially with Kiba, even though the bug user knew that there was a few times when his teammate was just asking to be yelled at.

Hinata smiled, nodding instantly and accepting his answer. Naruto had been so kind to allow them to come with them on his training mission (she ignored the thought that it wasn't his choice to begin with), and even though it had turned out bad, it was still a good experience. If they lived through it, that is.

Kiba, however, took one step forward, bringing him nearly nose to nose with Naruto. Reflexive action almost made Naruto step back, but the look of rebellion and challenge in the other boy's eyes made him stand his ground.

Being shoved into a corner where his pride would not allow him to take a step back and Kiba wouldn't let him take a step forward, Naruto grounded out between clenched teeth, "Gamakichi knows I have a short temper and so should you."

Gamakichi, taking his limb out of Naruto's dropped backpack like he had been touched with a hot iron at the sound of his name, nodded rapidly, pretending that he hadn't been rooting around for a tasty snack. "Yeah, he's bitchy all the time! But he usually doesn't mean what he says..."

Kiba, to Naruto discomfort, did not back away. And with a sinking feeling, Naruto started to realize that Kiba's reasons for being so forceful had almost nothing to do with Gamakichi.

----

He stood over piles of riches and ancient artifacts. Gold and jewels twinkled lightly in the glow of his battered and abused lantern while he could make out jutsu scrolls, large and small, hiding in the shadows of the ancient vases and tapestries. Fine weapons were also visible, everything from ancient yet well tended to styles of kunai to well-crafted katanas.

While looking over these treasures he knew must have been hoarded over the centuries, he felt an emotion bubble up. It expanded and grew as he thought about it until it just burst out-

"Dammit, Kyuubi! You spent so much time creating so many damn traps to keep people out of your den, but you just toss your valuables on the floor?" Annoyance colored Jiraiya's voice, but the only reply was the echo of his words that the walls threw back at him.

Sighing heavily and wiping off his face with a piece of cloth, Jiraiya stretched out his senses, which tried to refuse him but proved to be no match for his stubbornness, trying to locate the whereabouts of his young charges. Tightness in his chest stopped him, however. The pain reminded him that he had used up too much chakra while numbing the nerves in Juro's arm. Chakra wasn't something he had in great amounts at the moment.

"It just figures." he said to himself, rubbing the back of his head. "The second you stop looking for a demon's den, you find yourself in one. Yet, even with the impossible found, you can't even find a few brats." Life was simply too hard, Jiraiya decided. Especially when it decided to bite you in the ass. "And _why_ is it so damn hot?"

Hearing something behind him, Jiraiya turned to look, narrowed eyes focusing on the wall. What he heard wasn't a sound per say, but something that reached his ears and caught his attention. Deciding that the safest way was the best way, Jiraiya jumped on to one of the piles of treasures and slowly but carefully walked to the top. He (making sure that there was no kunai to randomly poke his back first) slid down the other side, immediately moving to peer between two piles at the wall that had bugged him.

The wall exploded a moment later, making Jiraiya silently cheer about how wisdom and experience beat down impulsive youth once more. He watched as a group of men walked through the new hole in the wall. They coughed as the dust floated around, waving their hands in front of their faces in a futile attempt to get the dust out of their mouths and eyes.

"Holy..." one of the men exclaimed when his eyes had cleared. "Would you look at that?" He pointed at the piles of treasure with a shaky hand. The men stared at it for a while before breaking out in cheers.

"Money!" one of them shouted.

"Riches!" another one cheered.

"Hey!" the shortest and least impressive among them shouted angrily. "Get back to work!" The men quickly scowled and mumbled to themselves, reaching for bags tied at their waists. The short man, dressed in a suit (which was unusual mine attire), seemed to be the boss of them all. And, somehow, Jiraiya got the hint that the sour man was his, his student's and Team Eight's mysterious employer as well.

The men wouldn't go against their boss's words, but even the fury of their boss didn't keep them from occasionally slipping a gold piece or two in their pockets.

Jiraiya shrank down when one of them came close to where he was hiding, easing only when the man walked by. He frowned to himself, staring at his hand. He concentrated slowly, easing chakra out gently. He was pleased when his hand started glowing a very faint blue. _I almost have total control over my chakra by now, if I use it slowly..._ His fist clenched. _But I must wait_. He looked up, eyes narrowing at the man in the suit who was angrily looking at his watch. _Anyone who could have put me in this condition in the first place is a foe that needs to be carefully dealt with._ He waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.

---

Kiba's eyes narrowed at the look of apprehension so clearly displayed in the blond's eyes. "That's not the reason why I'm pissed at you." he ground out quietly. It was a fleeting look that passed over Kiba's face, but Naruto caught it and took that step back that his pride had refused him. The look was one of betrayal.

"Kiba-" he started to say, wondering what could have made Kiba feel betrayed. Kiba cut in.

"A team-," he started scathingly and slowly, as if he believed that he was speaking to a child who could not understand the concept that were coming out of his mouth unless they came out slowly. Naruto, remembering himself in midway of another step back, stood his ground. "-works together. A team defends each other. A team is one. A team is not one and a few others that that one is supposed to protect. _That_ is called babysitting." Akamaru yipped, not quite sure why his master smelt so angry, but eager to defend. Kiba took a deep breath and the tight anger on his face disappeared. Naruto, with a twisted feeling of guilt, saw the look of hurt hidden beneath. "Though I may not like you as well as I like Shino and Hinata-chan, you're a part of this team."

Naruto, with mixed feelings of guilt and annoyance, crossed his arms over his chest. He swallowed back the guilt and let the annoyance speak. "I know what a damn team is!" he snapped. "You defend your friends with your life and you value their life over any damn mission!" Over anything else, that was the way of life that he had based his every decision on. Kiba shouldn't lecture him on something that he had known for ten years longer.

"Not to the point of coddling us!" Kiba snapped angrily. Hinata gasped, looking from Kiba to Naruto. She saw the sudden look of open guilt on Naruto's face. _What does Kiba mean?_ She wondered. _Naruto-kun hasn't.._But, she realized even as she struggled to come up with the words to defend him, he _had_ excluded himself from the team. He disguised it as taking over the leadership over them. What he really had done as he had walked ahead of them and steered them away from traps was play them like puppets.

She winced suddenly. It wasn't nearly as bad as she meant it to sound, but in truth, he _had_ excluded himself from the team. He became moody and sullen, never once taking a breath away from hovering over them protectively like a mother hen, with only a few fits of forced cheer. He acted almost as Kurenai did, officially a member of the 'team' but really nothing more than a babysitter. While it didn't really bother her, Kiba had caught on to it and it made him angry. Kiba had always viewed Naruto as a little ninja just barely scraping by, and had only recently acknowledged that Naruto was far stronger than he could have imagined.

While that one truth had annoyed him endlessly, he had been willing to overlook it, as long as Naruto didn't try to act superior. Though Naruto said nothing about being stronger than them verbally, Naruto's actions spoke loud enough. They said 'Shut up and let me protect you'. Kiba would not accept this.

Naruto couldn't breathe. Kiba would never have any idea how much that one sentence had impacted and bothered Naruto. It brought up every single doubt he had against keeping his friends, save Shikamaru, out of the loop. It brought up every second of guilt that Naruto had when outright lying to his friends, or even the times when he skipped around the truth, but most especially when he felt like he was manipulating them. He'd much prefer working together with them than trying to manipulate them into doing what he knew what was better for them.

What was so wrong with the idea of him calmly going up to every one of his friends and telling them all their fates? What was so wrong with all of them banding up together to stop the future he knew was to come?

Kyuubi knew what was wrong with that idea and had told him several times: Humans were highly fragile creatures. Naruto knew the way how humans could be frail physically just with his own experiences, but he hadn't had a grasp on how frail humans could be mentally until he had met Gaara the first time around. Even then he couldn't quite understand how much a single person's mind could be tormented until he had revealed only a slight portion of the future's tale to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru was a reasonable and easy going person. He was such a person at twelve years old and he had been when he was older. Naruto went to him, his superior ever since Shikamaru became a chuunin at twelve, whenever he needed help or company. Shikamaru was always accepting and helpful, and, most importantly, never made anyone feel less of themselves and, because of that he had become Naruto's next closest friend after Sakura.

But the point really is that, no matter the age, Shikamaru had always been the same dependable person that Naruto needed. Never ruffled nor rattled at any sight, he stood strong. But when Naruto gave him the smallest bit of information about the future, the changes he could see come over Shikamaru were instantaneous. Even though the shadow user had time and time again written off his tales as being those that belong in the same books as fairy tales, Naruto could not ignore the long sleepless nights that had become apparent on Shikamaru's face, nor the paranoid jumpiness that came with every sound.

"You're not supposed to fight for us, you moron!" Kiba's anger was inflamed by the guilt he could see in Naruto's face. "You're supposed to fight _with_ us! And you're supposed to tell us when you get hurt so _we_ can do something about it!"

Naruto straightened, with a stubborn glint in his eye. He held himself as still as the pain in his torso would allow him. "Who said I was hurt?"

Kiba's eyes widened at the blond's audacity to lie to his face. Whatever little restraint he held over his anger collapsed as he pulled back his fist and rammed it into Naruto's face. The shorter genin went with the punch but did not slide back like Kiba expected. Hinata gasped in horror, watching as Naruto, his lip bleeding uncontrollably, shook off the punch lightly.

"You hit him!" she whispered, her hands covering her mouth.

Shino sighed. "You know, I think it really doesn't make sense to be concerned about someone's health in one moment, then attempt to knock off their head in the next." he added in lightly.

"Shut up!" Kiba snapped at him, turning back to Naruto. "And you! I heard you talking to your frog thing!" He pointed to himself rather irritably when Naruto continued to look confused. "It's called genetics, asshole! Just 'cause I don't have chakra doesn't mean I can't hear you!"

Naruto grimaced, realizing his mistake. It was true that the genetics of the Inuzuka clan included several dog-like traits, such an excellent sense of smell and good hearing, and, occasionally in one out of every twenty Inuzuka, the inability to see any colors but black, white, or tones of gray.

He knew from past experiences that Kiba's sense of smell without the use of chakra was stunted compared to his mother and his sister (leaving him unable to track anything but the most odorous scents when he refrained from using chakra), but had extremely good hearing to make up for it. The fact that his mom and his sister managed to win out and get a better sense of smell than him had been a sore fact that he had imparted with Naruto during a mission while trailing Orochimaru's seemingly impossible-to-find hideout.

His heart beating too loud in his chest, Naruto went back over his conversation with Gamakichi, hoping against hope that he hadn't alluded to the biggest lie and secret that he had ever kept from his friends. It won out Kyuubi by only a few inches.

"Thing?" Gamakichi echoed, a little put out. "You hurt my feelings..." He was ignored.

Kiba glared down at Naruto, who suddenly had a serene look on his face. The blond genin had just realized that he was going to hell, and there was no way around it. Simply, it was his just punishment for trying to play the puppeteer to his friends, and for lying to him. The thought of an inevitable demise was strangely comforting, at least in the wake of worrying about how much free will could change things.

"We're supposed to look out for one another." Somehow, what meant to be a harsh sentence came out almost as pleading. Kiba realized something himself. Naruto may have acted like a people person in the past, with his loud mouth and all, but he really wasn't used to people at all. He realized that Naruto was used to looking out for himself, used to being by himself. Naturally, since Naruto wasn't a mean person, when forced to work with other people, he would simply protect them as well, not really understanding how the team was supposed to work as a unit. It made sense to Kiba and made his anger abate. "You don't... _have_ to be so... _alone_."

Naruto stared at Kiba, that oddly serene and impassive look on his face never faltering. Kiba squirmed a little. Naruto was easier to deal with when he was acting childish. With such a calm look on his face, it made Kiba feel like the one who was acting silly. But truly, what was wrong with looking out for your team? This was what made him stand his ground even though he felt so annoyed with Naruto that he'd rather hit him again or just ignore him. But Naruto, Kiba decided grimly, had been ignored for far too long.

Naruto finally smiled, a small laugh coming from him. "I'm... a really crappy teammate then." he admitted. His hand wiped the blood off his chin slowly, as if the motion was both familiar and foreign, then came down over his aching chest. "I'm not used to asking for help. Either it's already there, or it's never gonna come."

"Well, you're not really good at anything at all." Kiba said, relenting with a faint smile. "But you could at least trust us..." He paused, a strange look passing over his face. "Like we trust you."  
Naruto pulled his bottom lip into his mouth, wincing at the soreness and the refreshed taste of blood in his mouth. It served him right, he supposed, the slight but annoying pain that would have never shown up had he just been straight with them. Though he could not help thinking about them as children that needed to be coddled and protected, they were still ninjas.

Still, he could not help but swallow harshly and blink back the heat behind his eyes when Kiba told him that he was trusted. Maybe it was not them who were the immature ones that needed to be aided and watched over. Maybe it was him, not them, who really needed to grow up.

At that thought he laughed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly to hide the sudden emotion. "Ah, sorry... I just didn't think it was... important to everyone." After that, he made a rare respectful gesture, slightly nodding his head in the direction of the irate dog user. It may not have been a full out bow, but Kiba understood the apology behind it. Hinata sighed in relief. She had been worried that they would start fighting.

Kiba's defensive stand lessened as his face broke out into a smile. He lightly hit the shorter boy in the shoulder. "Well duh, you idiot." he said. "Now tell us, how did you get yourself hurt?"

"It was when you summoned your creature, was it not?" Shino asked quietly, making Kiba turn to him in surprise. "Something about forcing out your energy to that extent harmed you, yet you did not wish to tell us because you had believed that you could do it."

Naruto grinned. "Shit, you can't see a damn thing, but I still can't get anything past you!" Shino allowed himself a small smile, though most of it was hidden behind his high collar. When Kiba gave him a meaningful look, Naruto rushed to explain what happened. "Well, I used the jutsu, and, as you can see-" he gestured at Gamakichi, who was poking a rapidly angering Akamaru, "It turned it just fine. But..." he paused, clenching a hand over his chest. It didn't hurt as much as it had before, but was still uncomfortable. "Something.. grr.. but dammit, it hurt!"

"Makes sense, I suppose." Shino lifted up his own hand to himself. "I feel as if the repression of my chakra has lessened greatly... I even believe I can call back my bugs soon. But you..." he shook his head lightly. "The force of the repression of your chakra is no doubt much stronger. It might take a little longer for you than the rest of us to fully regain control over your chakra."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"You have more chakra to repress than all of us combined, Naruto-kun." Hinata explained with a soft smile. "Please, be patient. That toxin used against us... it is very weak and will eventually be out of all our systems, even yours." She came up to him, the same gentle smile unhinging him even more than Kiba had. He looked at her, aware that she had taken his hand in hers, yet entirely unwilling to take it back. The erratic and painful beats of his heart slowed down as he calmed with her presence. Her smile widened, though there was no way she could have known the impact that her closeness had on him. "Please, don't do anything more that would harm yourself."

Naruto was helpless to do anything but make that promise, if only to make her happy.

----

Jiraiya sighed in annoyance. He already snagged two or three of Gatou's men, knocking them out and throwing them in the pile of treasures. All he had learned from watching and listening to the short little man in a business suit and his hired thugs was that they were on a time limit, one that the little guy reminded them of often.

He tilted his head, hiding behind a huge antique vase as he waited for one of the men to pass by. Oblivious, the man walked by, his pants and coat looking suspiciously heavy. With a roll of his eyes, Jiraiya slid behind him, using a golden tray as a club which he smashed into the man's head. With a small cry, the man collapsed heavily into unconsciousness.

"Those who seek fortune find only ruin." he said sagely. Then he promptly grinned. "That was great! I should put that in one of my novels!" He was jolted by the sound of another man's voice.

"Hey, did you hear that?" At the sound of the rough voice's inquiry, Jiraiya once again hid behind the treasures, watching as two men walked over. Seeing the man Jiraiya had knocked out, they hurried toward him. One knelt down to check his pulse.

"What an idiot!" the other one said after the first one stood with a shrug. "He must have gotten hit with a vase or something." He nudged the fallen man who groaned softly. "Damn piles are unstable, ya know... Stuff just randomly rolls off." Jiraiya grinned. He had helped some of that rolling.

"Piles of unstable treasure are better than Keichi's fate." the first said soberly. The other man frowned, seeming to remember something horrid.

"Better to have slightly dangerous treasure than to get a hand stuck through your chest, I suppose." he agreed with a shrug. He turned to look at his companion, a little pale around the eyes. "Were you there?" At the shaken head, he sighed. "Be glad that you weren't, 'cause I was."

The first man's eyes widened in horror. "You were there?" he exclaimed. His tone was both parts horrified and fascinated. "What was it...-" His voice failed him as he shrugged helplessly.

"'Like'?" the second one finished with a scowl. "It was terrible! Keichi wouldn't let those guys in 'cause they didn't have any ID, and you know how the boss is about knowing the people close to him..." With a shrug at the eccentric nature of his cruel but well paying boss, he continued.

"And so, he was like 'I ain't letting you in without identification!'. And then, the littler guy, dark hair and really freaky red eyes, laughed and said 'You're in my way' and the other one stuck his hand through Keichi's chest like a hot knife through butter." He shuddered. "There was so much blood everywhere and people were screaming..."

"Damn ninjas." the first said with a grimace. "Even the ones that are supposed to be helping are heartless bastards."

Something about the man's description of the ninja that killed Keichi reminded Jiraiya of his long standing mission that had been postponed only when Sarutobi had called him to Konoha. _Black hair and red eyes..._ he mused to himself, knowing only two who fit the description. And only one of them would have the heart (or rather, lack of heart) to do such a thing. _Uchiha Itachi, member of the Akatsuki_

Suddenly what was supposed to be a simple mission had gotten a lot worse.

---

They ran after the frog, eyes squinting in the pale red glow to keep their eyes on him. Hinata had handed over her flashlight to Naruto, who used it to swiftly scan the ground for traps. Yet the seemingly never-ending set traps became fewer and fewer in between the hotter the temperature seemed to get. And the few that did pop up were set up almost lazily, like their maker had gotten bored during the process of setting them up. They were easy to disarm, in any rate. An accurately thrown kunai set it off easily and what followed was hardly as thought out or as dangerous as a huge rolling rock or vanishing floors.

Soon, Gamakichi screeched to a stop, hopping on top of a rock next to a series of lined up openings that went either more into the heat or went directly away from it. Rubble and dust laid in thick layers the closer they got to the passageways, so much so that the genins found themselves climbing more than walking. Gamakichi turned to them, waving a limb at the genins as they tried to catch up.

"Hey, these are new!" he shouted, hopping from rock to rock. "I say about thirty minutes... Rocks are still hot. Say, is there a rescue party out for you guys or something?" While panting for breath, the genins looked at each other nervously. Akamaru growled at the rocks angrily, as if just the scent of them offended him.

"Not... any that we know of." Kiba said hesitantly. He grabbed some water from his backpack, took a swig of it, then offered some to Akamaru, who eagerly lapped at it.

Shino seemed to recover the fastest, though there was still a flush to his cheeks. "When in doubt, assume the worst." he said quietly.

"That's real nice, Mr. Optimist." Kiba muttered.

"The worst thing would be... more people coming into the mine?" Hinata asked quietly. Her face was red, but for once not because of her embarrassment. She took the longest to catch her breath.

"Hardly." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his neck. "More like they sent a clean-up crew. Seeing the blank look on Hinata and Kiba's faces, he went further. "To _kill_ us." They immediately grimaced.

"Man, that's not fair!" Kiba shouted, punching his fist in his other hand, dropping the bottle distractedly. With a yelp, Akamaru did his best to make sure the water landed upright but some water was still lost in the splash. "Why would they want to go and do that!"

"Just 'cause." Naruto said, now more interested in the new tunnels themselves than the idea that their oh-so-nice employer had made another plot to kill them. He turned to the right, feeling an odd sense of coolness rush over him; contrasting with the heat he felt beating at his back. He squinted in the direction of the cooler air, but could not see an exit. The blasting had, at one point, diverged from a straight line. He sighed, rather liking straight lines. "Ya know.. I think they just blasted their way from outside to the center."

"How would they know where the center is?" Hinata asked, moving to his side. She felt what he did, the fresh air against the heated air. She nudged his side, pointing to some black powder on the ground. He nodded, having noticed it. It was left over gunpowder.

"Simple calculations, I suppose." Shino murmured. "Topography maps would help. But why do you think they wanted to go to the center, Naruto?" Going to the center of a mountain seemed to be rather pointless, but he was not about to question the logic of their would-be rescuers/killers.

Naruto turned to answer, but as soon as he tried to remember the exact train of logic that allowed him to come to that conclusion, his head started to hurt. At first, it was a twinge, then sudden agony. He grabbed his head and gritted his teeth.

"What's wrong?" Hinata whispered; her worry so thick that it was almost a physical thing.

Naruto started to say 'nothing', but took one look at her through a half-opened eye and thought better of it. "A really nasty headache." He forced his arms to go back down at his sides, even though his head continued to throb painfully. He gave her a strained smile. "But such things can be put aside until we find that damn teacher of mine."

She had that look on her face, a tiny frown with deep-set worry. That look told him that she wanted to argue about it. So, to avoid it, he turned his gaze down to his frog.

"Which way to Jiraiya?" he asked. The frog wordlessly pointed in the direction of the heat. "And that's where the guys who blew up the walls are… shit." Naruto sighed. "Could have guessed that. Murphy's Law, ya know."

"Indeed, it seems more likely that our visitors would find Jiraiya-sama before we would." Shino agreed.

Kiba glared at him, then at Naruto. "Come on, what's with the pessimism?" he demanded. "I expected it out of Mr. Doom and Gloom, but not out of you, Naruto." Naruto shrugged with a smile while Shino muttered something inaudible about how he wasn't gloomy.

"Realistic, maybe…" he continued to mutter to himself.

"Hey, I believe in Murphy's Law, but I also believe that I'm gonna kick your-" he cut himself off when he heard the echo of voices. He peeked around the corner and stared down the new tunnel to see where the noise was coming from. He made a signal with his hand, alerting them that the people were coming in their direction.

Following his lead, the other three disappeared, hiding behind rocks or in other tunnels. Kiba dragged Shino by the arm to a tunnel while Hinata squeezed herself between two huge rocks and waited. Naruto started to climb behind a rock when a sudden thought hit him. He grinned to himself, knowing that his plan was awfully upfront and foolish, but he was sick and tired of trying to sneak his way around.

With a wave of Naruto's hand, Gamakichi disappeared in a burst of smoke. The blond genin then turned to where his friends were hiding. "Why go searching when one can be taken?" he said, loud enough for Team Eight to hear. Before they could come up with a way to talk him out of his spontaneous plan, three men armed with swords swung around the corner, stalking dangerously towards Naruto.

The blond genin, hiding a smirk, turned to them in surprise, gasping as they came closer, their shadows looming over Naruto. He jumped back defensively, chuckling silently at the hired swords inadequacy.

There was a slight struggle between the men and the ninja, where the men received a few bruises and where Naruto fell limp after a striking blow to the head. He crumbled to the ground in a heap and one of the men leaned over to pick him up.

"Ha! The boss was right!" One of the others said with a grin. "These ninjas are easy to deal with without their techniques and energy stuff!"

The one who picked up Naruto, however, only frowned. "Yeah, maybe." he said slowly. "But this kid is really young. What kind of person makes a ninja out of a little kid?" He looked up at his companion. "You know how ninjas are... We've must have heard the boss complain about them a hundred times." He swung Naruto until the limp genin hung over his shoulder. "I think that it's cruel." he finished thoughtfully.

"What?" the other one asked with an arched eyebrow. "That a kid is a ninja or what the boss will do to him?"

"Both." said the one laden down with dead weight. "Being a ninja is pretty bad, but being a ninja in the boss's presence is even worse. He hates ninjas, and the kid isn't gonna be saved from that even though he can't be older than twelve. If the boss is in a bad temper…" he trailed off.

"The boss might kill him." the other said grimly. "But, it's not our business, right?" While the one carrying Naruto grumbled in agreement, Naruto lifted his head slightly. He wasn't at all worried about some boss carrying a grudge against all ninjas, nor was he worried that he was being brought straight to that very ninja-hating person. He had slipped out of worse dangers before smelling of roses.

He grinned faintly, eyes catching Kiba's smudged face popping out of one of the passages. "Follow me." he mouthed silently. The dog user nodded grimly, pulling Shino along with him as Hinata pulled herself from the rocks.

Naruto had no intention of staying in the caves any longer than he had to. He planned on getting out as soon as he found his wayward teacher. Not before bringing the idiots and their leader to justice of course. It would kill two birds with one stone if their 'boss' was his employer too, but Naruto knew not to hope for too much.

As soon as he was done with them, he'd find his teacher and leave the cave through the tunnel to the outside that the thugs had so nicely made for him. A simple plan, right?

Naruto should have realized that even the simplest of plans had a tendency to go disastrously awry when he was involved.

* * *

TBC 

Next Chapter:

"I wasn't paid to fight ninjas, I was just paid to step over their dead bodies and pretend I didn't notice." There was a murmured agreement amongst the other men, who had stopped shoveling treasures into bags once they hear their boss screaming.

"Shut up!" Gatou snapped at them, waving a hand dismissively. He couldn't care less about their problems. "A ninja has found us because of these two idiots and you-!" A voice cut strongly into Gatou's tirade, startlingly all who were in the room, workers, Gatou, and their hidden watchers alike.

"A ninja could have found you by the volume of your voice alone, you idiot." Everyone turned to where the voice originated. Lounging like a king on his throne, Naruto sat at the top of one of the piles of treasure. He flipped a solid gold coin between his fingers, staring down in contempt at the ones who stood below him. Most of his contempt was directed at the sweaty man in the middle of them all, looking horribly out of place in a suit.

He leaned forward, a smirk forming on his lips as sharp blue eyes narrowed on Gatou. "And I thought I told you to stay out of Fire Country?" In the absence of a reply, his smirk grew. "Certainly your puny little brain could not have forgotten the lesson I taught you.. Must I reteach it?"

As if the trigger of some horrible memory had snapped his out of his stupor, Gatou reached within his suit and pulled out his gun. He leveled it at Naruto and fired three shots in quick succession, riding the world of his nemesis.

Or not.

* * *

--- In the next two or three weeks, chapter 47 should be out, so be looking for it then! 


	47. Underneath the Underneath A Conspiracy

Much thanks to to my readers and reviewers and, of course, my beta Angel's Hazard.

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter 47- Underneath the Underneath- A Conspiracy

by Foxie

* * *

Sasuke was a genius. He could do anything he set his mind to, whether if it was fighting or the arts, and he would still come out number one.

Well, sometimes he came out as number two. He was highly intelligent, but his intellect paled in comparison to his teammate, who could rattle off the entire list of ninja rules without taking a breath. He liked to say that he spent more of his intelligence on jutsus instead of memorizing, but he privately acknowledged that Sakura was smarter than he'd ever be. There were just certain people who he could never hope to overcome.

Even though he was considered smart by people who knew him,(Person who knew him: "Ah yes, Sasuke.. he's so smart!") or really anyone who had even heard of his name (Fangirl: "OMG! Sasuke-kun is so smart! And cute too!"), he really didn't want to _think_. He wasn't about to say that thinking was for squares, but he found, more recently and frequently than he could have ever hoped or desired, that the more he thought, the more his thoughts drifted over to his other teammate.

Uzumaki Naruto. Even his name sounded silly. Not even worth thinking about his thoughts about the odds of having thoughts about him. But wait, if he was thinking about thinking about the thoughts of the odds of thinking about Naruto, then wouldn't he technically be thinking directly about him by the transitive property-

Gah, no! Uchiha Sasuke would not waste his time thinking (in any way or form) about someone who had left the village without even saying goodbye! Naturally, anger led him to thinking. And thinking led him into remembering, and that made him very irritable.

Preparing for the Chuunin Final Exam had split up the team a little bit. He had very sparingly seen Sakura or Naruto, too busy training on his own or with Kakashi for his upcoming battles. But not all that much time had gone by before Naruto made an effort to see Sasuke. At first, Sasuke was surprised that Naruto had wanted to see him, and, if he wanted to be truthful, a little happy. He had missed the regular Team Seven excursions, even the annoying cat hunts.

Then Naruto had to start taunting him about his progress and they started fighting. Not the playful wrestling that they usually engaged in, but actual taijutsu without even a verbal mention of an official spar.

Naruto ended the fight abruptly with a pleasant smile, made an excuse, and left only after ten or so minutes of fighting. Sasuke couldn't tell if he had won or lost, but had shouted after Naruto that he was being a sore loser by just walking off. His only reply was a laugh. It took Sasuke nearly twenty minutes after for him to realize that Naruto had been gauging his taijutsu skill.

When he did figure it out, he quickly became pissed off, and let Naruto know from the ferocity of his hits the next day during another random fight/spar. He also started to use his sharingan against Naruto, but, instead of whining about unfair odds, Naruto's odd little smile only widened further. And then proceeded to pummel him to the ground with a decisive and firm taijutsu move that Sasuke had seen but had been unable to block.

The next day, Sasuke had performed that same move against Naruto, only to be shown exactly how one could easily counterattack such an attack. And this sort of routine went on for a week or two before Sasuke could finally admit to himself that Naruto's intentions all along had been to aid Sasuke's progress in the taijutsu field, though Sasuke couldn't understand how Naruto knew so much about taijutsu in the first place.

Sasuke's first(and, as he liked to optimistically think, not the last) opponent was Rock Lee, who was referred to as the Hard Working Genius of Taijutsu by Kakashi. Normally such respect for a genin from his teacher would have been surprising and worth noting, but Sasuke was too busy feeling annoyed by the comments his teacher would add afterwards.

_"Yes, that Rock Lee.. tough as nails."_ Kakashi would idly flip a page of his dirty book. "_So, what do you want on your grave? Lilies or roses? I'm partial to daisies, myself..."_

Kakashi didn't believe that Sasuke could beat Lee. Some help he was. Naruto had taught him more taijutsu than Kakashi and Iruka combined. After realizing that rather painful piece of truth, he simply accepted Naruto's help, taking it for it was on the outside and deciding to wonder what it truly meant later on.

But three days had gone by without a visit from Naruto. He had found out from Sakura that he had gone on a mission. If the fact that Naruto left without saying goodbye was annoying, then the fact that Naruto went on a mission without them infuriated him. They were a team, weren't they? They did everything together!

Of course, this had nothing to do with the fact that he missed Naruto. Right? Who would miss Naruto? He was too loud, annoying.. strong, and cheerful. He knew exactly what to say to make people feel better, but also had the annoying habit of saying the most negative things about himself. Sasuke listened for the unique call of his name from his best friend everyday, wanting to turn around and see the blond genin run at him with that stupid grin of his... oh damn did Sasuke feel lonely without Naruto.

No! He wasn't lonely! As an avenger, he was supposed to be alone! _And that idiot isn't my friend, let alone my **best **friend. He is.. only an annoying acquaintance!_ He tried to push all the touchy feely thoughts out of his head, wondering why he was so weak at fending them off.

As much as Sasuke tried to deny it, he had become very accustomed to Naruto and Sakura's presence. He was used to turning around and seeing one or more of them there, waiting for him. When just one of them was gone, he became very upset, like a spoiled child that lost his favorite toy. Or like a lonely child with a bloody past that worried too much for his friends' lives to let them out of his sight for too long.

Either way, he ignored the voice in his head that insisted that most of his hurt(labeling his emotion as anger was dramatizing it and annoyance was downplaying it) was stemmed from the fact that he wasn't anywhere near Naruto to protect him if need be. He focused solely on the bitter feeling of loneliness, and thought that Naruto was a jerk for not telling him where he was going.

If Sasuke had known beforehand, he could have pulled some strings to go along with him. Sakura would be safe in Konoha but Naruto was out romping in the world(gods know where) like a helpless babe in the woods. Or a sacrificial lamb to the beasts.

Naruto was _so_ inconsiderate.

He ranted this train of thought to Sakura, but he doubted that she had heard even a word of it. She looked dead tired and nodded at random intervals. After fuming for a moment, Sasuke forgave her. Her training must have been difficult on her, considering the way that her head almost sunk into her food twice. That Tsunade lady was a real task master but Sakura was too stubborn to back down from her recent ambition to be a medic nin.

They were sitting at Ichiraku, absently twirling ramen around in their bowls. Neither of them loved ramen, but having Naruto as a teammate had considerably changed their tastes, seeing as he would only buy them meals if it consisted of ramen. Though both preferred other foods, neither of them would turn down a free meal.

Sasuke looked out of the corner of his eye at Sakura. She was barely sitting on her stool and her eyes were vacantly staring at a knot in the wood of the stand. He was all too aware that she was about three seconds away from sliding off her stool and falling on the ground. A twinge of guilt made him cringe, but he pushed it down roughly. He was not so weak as to give into his conscience.

"Hmm… Sasuke-kun?" Sakura murmured suddenly, shifting slightly in her seat to correct the slide that her body was going into. She reached into one of her pockets, pulled out some money for the ramen, and placed it next to her half empty bowl. Sasuke tried to ignore the fact that she was leaning on him more than she was sitting upright on the seat. His conscience twinged again, delivering an uppercut to his pride as she turned to him, tired green eyes searching into his.

"What?" he asked, a little unnerved. She was practically in his lap, but Sasuke didn't have the heart to dump her on the ground when she was obviously so tired. There was also the fact that he had grabbed her in a temper and started ranting at her while she was stumbling in the direction of her house, most likely in the direction of much needed sleep. Guilt was a leading factor, naturally, but the fact that she was his friend made it possible for his conscience to elbow his pride out of the way. Anyone else and they would have been shoved heartlessly off without even a twinge of conscience.

She leaned forward, coming nose to nose with him. Sasuke gulped at the sudden stiffness in his throat. He wondered if maybe pushing her away would be as damaging to his conscience as he had originally thought because she was making him nervous. He was an Uchiha. Panic didn't look good on him. But even that thought couldn't keep him from backing away a fraction of an inch.

Sakura took a deep breath and then stared at him sharply. Her lips formed a scowl that Sasuke had rarely seen directed at him. "Get a life." she said flatly. With that, she braced her hands on his shoulders, slid off her stool, and then, after finding an awkward footing on the ground, started to stumble home again.

Sasuke's head met the counter with a thud. _Stupid._ He thought to himself disgustedly for more than a few reasons. He couldn't help but agree with her though. She was a lot smarter than him. Which reminded him about thinking and that reminded him about Naruto. He hit his head on the counter again. The Ichiraku chef shot him a sympathetic look that was missed over as Sasuke's gaze was directed down.

He frowned at the tabletop, a ridiculous notion coming to mind. The voice sounded suspiciously like Naruto. _Where does one get this 'life', I wonder, and how much does it cost? _It was, like most things that came out of Naruto's mouth, utter nonsense. But it only made him miss his best friend even more.

----

Gatou paced the room irritably as the ground beneath him shook for the fifth time in the last hour. He paid no mind to it, nor the consequences or the explanation for the earth quakes. He also barely glanced at the piles of treasure. Though the piles of treasure were awe inspiring, he found more interest in his watch, or, rather, the time that was quickly passing by. "Forty-five minutes!" he bellowed, his voice echoing throughout the room and into the passageways that led right into it. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and hurriedly mopped his sweating forehead. He didn't know that mines could run so hot. "Hurry it up! Grab as much as you can, then we'll leave and return at a later date!"

One man paused for a moment, turning to look at Gatou. "Uh, boss… I thought you said that we were going to take everything back so you and your… um…_ partners_ could split it?" he hesitated on the missing nins.

Gatou shook his head, giving the taller man an incredulous look. "What? And lose that much money?" he laughed at him, shaking his head at the other man's utter lack of logic. "That's not good business sense! No, we'll take some back, say that's all we could find, and then those banes on my existence will leave and I'll have the rest!" He laughed, as if finding something uproariously hilarious in the fact that he was going to pull the wool over the ninjas' eyes. The men just frowned, looking at each other apprehensively as they wondered how well that their boss's plan would work against ninjas known for being able to see through even the cleverest of deceptions. Gatou's humor faded when he saw that all of them had stopped to listen in. "Get back to work!"

Two men rapidly moved into the room. One of them dropped an unconscious boy to the ground while the other hailed for his boss's attention. "We found a ninja, I think!" At the man's voice and words, Gatou jumped, beady eyes looking to the left and the right suspiciously. His hand patted the front of his suit several times, as if to reassure himself.

"Well?" he asked impatiently, when a cursory glance of the surroundings didn't reveal a ninja's presence. "Where is the devil?" The man that had dropped Naruto on the ground turned around to show Gatou to him, but found himself gaping rather stupidly at the empty spot that should have been occupied with a genin.

"Oh... shit." he mumbled.

The other hired hand shot him a concerned look. "What's wrong?" he asked, then trailed off blankly as he put two and two together. He silently echoed the first man's words.

Gatou was not as quiet. "You led a ninja right to us!" he bellowed angrily, shaking his fist at the two taller men. They cowered under the impressive volume of his lungs. "And now he's probably out there somewhere, plotting to take my life as we speak!"

"Hey, what about us?" one of the other workers complained. "I wasn't paid to fight ninjas, I was just paid to step over their dead bodies and pretend I didn't notice." There was a murmured agreement amongst the other men, who had stopped shoveling treasures into bags once they hear their boss screaming.

"Shut up!" Gatou snapped at them, waving a hand dismissively. He couldn't care less about their problems. "A ninja has found us because of these two idiots and you-!" A voice cut strongly into Gatou's tirade, startling all who were in the room: workers, Gatou, and their hidden watchers alike.

"A ninja could have found you by the volume of your voice alone, you idiot." Everyone turned to where the voice originated. Lounging like a king on his throne, Naruto sat at the top of one of the piles of treasure. He flipped a solid gold coin between his fingers, staring down in contempt at the ones who stood below him. Most of his contempt was directed at the sweaty man in the middle of them all, looking horribly out of place in a suit.

He leaned forward, a smirk forming on his lips as sharp blue eyes narrowed on Gatou. "And I thought I told you to stay out of Fire Country?" In the absence of a reply, his smirk grew. "Certainly your puny little brain could not have forgotten the lesson I taught you... Must I reteach it?"

As if the trigger of some horrible memory had snapped his out of his stupor, Gatou reached within his suit and pulled out his gun. He leveled it at Naruto and fired three shots in quick succession, riding the world of his nemesis.

Or not. Naruto didn't even blink as the metal slugs zipped by him and shattered vases, went through scrolls, or ricocheted off metal. "Haven't we played this game before?" he arched an eyebrow. "I won the last time, you know, and your aim hasn't gotten much better." He spoke quietly and somberly, but as time passed, it couldn't be denied that Naruto started to seem almost pleased(but at the same time horribly angry) with the situation in front of him. Perhaps an old enemy was much preferable than a new one to him.

Though it tore at him to think that his earlier decisions regarding Water Country and Gatou might have ended up killing more people than the first time around, he swallowed his self pity and accepted it. There was no way he could have known and besides, with the new situation, Naruto could properly deal out the just punishment for all of Gatou's wicked deeds.

His voice rang out again. "Your toys are nothing when compared to a power of a ninja. In this case, at least, tradition will always win over modernization." Naruto tried to ignore the cry of 'hell yeah!' that reached his ears, knowing that it was his sensei who would have agreed. Jiraiya always privately griped in his older years about how the old and the practiced were better than the new and the inexperienced. The hermit made it sound like there was a private war between the youth and the elderly. Naruto, even as he too got older(not that twenty-two was very old to begin with), could not understand the older man's logic while in the midst of a real war.

One of Gatou's men grabbed his arm when the mad businessman attempted to shoot at Naruto again while the others looked around, wondering who had shouted 'hell yeah!'. "You can't do that!" the man exclaimed, gripping the Gatou's arm hard. "He's just a kid!"

With a snarl, Gatou ripped his arm from the other man's grasp. "That _thing_ is no child!" he pointed a shaky finger at Naruto, who calmly observed the commotion, the emotions wiped clean off his face. "That thing is a _monster_!"

Naruto's eyes gleamed dangerously, glaring down at the small man. "There are far worse monsters in the world than I." he snarled slowly, getting up from his makeshift seat. The ground shook once more, as if reacting to his temper, sending treasure rolling off the mounds and men to try and stay on their feet.

With each step Naruto took down the pile of treasures, he remembered the decaying men lying in the pit than almost took his life. He remembered the blood on the walls and the yellowing bones of the other men that failed to get past the other traps. Just the thought of all of them dying because of the greed of another made his anger grow to dangerous proportions. "And I'm looking right at one of them." With his lowly growled statement, something inside of him shifted with awareness, red eyes snapping open at the sudden surge of overwhelming but familiar emotions of hate and anger. It shook itself off, rising slowly to its feet as it wondered what had overtaken him.

Naruto didn't acknowledge the burning feeling in his veins, or the slow easing of all the aches and pains in his body. All he could think about was how the sweating little man in front of him had ruined countless lives, families, and homes. _And he's not even Orochimaru!_

As the anger in him grew and grew at a steady rate that carried him towards the man who was responsible for so much pain, Gatou's men realized that they needed to protect their meal ticket. Some grabbed the closest item to them (an antique sword, an old vase, even a solid gold candle stick) while others were smarter and grabbed the weapons that they had carried in. Laden down with the gold and jewels they had stuffed in their pockets, they slowly advanced on a descending Naruto, no match for a ninja's superior speed when they had so much extra weight on them.

Gatou scrambled back behind his men with a smirk, putting his gun away, deciding that he might need the bullets for more threatening targets. The chakra repressent should still have an effect on Naruto. He was positive that the men could kill the boy without any trouble at all.

Before the men could even think about touching Naruto, however, a blur came in from the right and impacted heavily with one of the men. With a grunt, the man skidded away, holding his arm in pain. Some gold and jewels spilled out of his pocket, causing him to gasp and quickly try to gather it back up.

Kiba slid to a stop, rotating his shoulder with a feral grin. Akamaru ran up to him, growling at the men, surprisingly ferocious for such a small dog. Kiba merely smirked at the surprised men, then sent a look up at Naruto. "Got your back, blondie." he shouted, shooting the genin a thumbs up.

One of the men raised his sword over his head, about to take a swing at Kiba. A fist in his gut halted his movements. He gasped in pain, dropping his sword and backing away from the ninja that dealt the blow, a rather pleased Shino. Not that his face showed it, but his contentment was visible in the relaxed way he stood and moved. The reason for the bug user's enjoyment was most likely attributed to the fact that he was covered in a swarm of bugs, who had hurried back to him when they had felt the flick of his chakra.

A swift kick to the back of the head downed another man. Hinata slid in between her two teammates after delivering the blow. As a unit, the genins stood back to back, watchful eyes gauging their enemies.

The rest of the men, angry at the kids in front of them, moved to surround them when their formation was halted by a sudden crash of a vase hitting someone's head. Before they could think to do anything, more vases and scrolls starting coming out of nowhere, aimed accurately towards the hired hands.

"Ghosts!" Kiba said foolishly, paranoia making him pale. He apparently hadn't learned from the first time.

"No!" Hinata corrected; her eyes paler with the activation of her blood limit. "Jiraiya-sama!" And she was right. Sitting high on one of the piles of treasures, Jiraiya idly threw whatever was within reach. When he saw that the genins' attention was on him, he waved jauntily.

"Get down here and help!" Kiba shouted up to him, annoyed by his inaction.

"And waste the energy on such undeserving foes? I think not!" Jiraiya had the gall to sound offended. "What took you brats so long to find me anyhow?"

Naruto was reassured at the sudden appearance of his teacher. As incompetent as the hermit often seemed to be, the genin could think of no better person to trust his friends with. He looked around, having a good view of the surroundings since he was still about twenty feet above everyone else, and found his enemy slinking off.

Gatou, at the sight of the sudden tackle of one of hugest men by a kid barely his own height, had made a distressed sound and ran for the exit. Naruto frowned seriously, then jumped on top of a katana sheath. Forcing chakra out of his feet (and completely missing over the fact it took a lot less force to get out chakra this time), he attached his feet to it and slid down the rest of the pile at an angle.

About five feet away from the ground, he used a half-buried vase as a ramp and jumped. While in the air, he moved one foot from the sheath to the hilt of the sword and attached it with his chakra, and then, while twisting, he pulled the sword out of the sheath while detaching his foot from the sheath, and used his momentum and a sharp twist to hurl the unsheathed blade at the scrambling Gatou.

The katana embedded itself in the wall in front of Gatou, only a few inches away from his nose. With a squeak, he backed away from it hastily, falling to his rear and scuttling back like a crab.

Naruto landed on the ground midst treasures that he had loosened on his way down. He made a movement towards Gatou with dark intent when a sudden tightened feeling around his mind made him drop down to a knee. The same mind numbing pain that had been dealt to him when he had tried to make sense of the caves appeared once again.

He cringed, expecting the feeling of having one's brain ripped out then put back in without expert care, but there was nothing of that sort. Flashes of images and memories zipped through his mind, little bits of information that he had missed over, sarcastic anecdotes, and the overwhelming pressure of having too much information given to him at a time.

And then it stopped. He took a moment, just staring at the ground. He knew it all now! Why the caves glowed red, why there was traps, why there was treasure (_No, not treasures, souvenirs!_ He thought), why the caves grew hotter and hotter the farther they went in...

**Must you _always_ be babysat?** A rumbling voice spoke up in his mind, sounding very irritated. **It should have been glaringly obvious.** There was a heavy sniff of disdain from the demon before he added in another comment, almost as if it was an afterthought. **Idiot.**

"And just where the hell have you been, oh great sadistic one?" Naruto mumbled, pushing himself back up. He moved slowly over to Gatou, who was digging about his suit again.

**Hey, don't blame my absence on me!** Kyuubi said defensively. **You're the idiot who got that gas stuff in your body.** With a mental shift that had Naruto wincing in discomfort, the demon sighed contently and settled in, explaining the situation further as he readjusted the connections of energy that allowed them to speak with one another. **Your chakra was repressed and that damn seal- Both of them, actually! Well, anyway, all the pent up energy behind the seal on your hand, mine, yours, or otherwise, shoved me back behind that seal that the other annoying little blond put on me. All that energy coming at me, I guess, put me into some dormant state.**

_Heh, so you finally got your beauty sleep_. Naruto quipped, feeling his spirits rise with the return of the demon to his mind. It felt oddly like a ninja would feel when he knew that a friendly ninja stood right by his side.

**Hate to break it to you, kid, but you're not that hot looking yourself.** Naruto grinned sharply, surprising Gatou into a panic when the man looked over at who was walking towards him. He mistook it for sadistic thoughts regarding himself. Something that could end up being a lot worse than almost being a meal for a crocodile.

**It was really for your own protection.** Kyuubi added almost thoughtlessly. **Youki is very dangerous to humans without a certain level of tolerance and Naruto, your chakra is what helps you tolerate it. When it was pushed down, I was pushed back so I wouldn't hurt you.**

_So your youki wouldn't hurt me._ Naruto corrected absently, eyes narrowing at the quivering man in front of him as he remembered what had put him in such a temper before. Kyuubi frowned a little at his correction, trying to remember why he should have been annoyed with the thought that Naruto didn't believe that he was capable of consciously hurting his precious host, but then turned his attention to Gatou as well.

**You know, it was your anger and hate that awoke me and rekindled your chakra back to its normal state. **The demon commented lightly. Kyuubi loved the powerful feelings of anger and hatred, most especially when it was Naruto feeling it. Something about his emotions made Kyuubi feel so alive.. but no matter how much he relished and rejoiced in it, he couldn't deny that mixing Naruto and hatred was too twisted and wrong for even his own tastes.

**You should have killed him when you had the chance.** He mentioned. **_Before your anger had the chance to build up to such an extreme level_**, he added silently to himself.

_I could kill him now._ Naruto said fiercely, watching with slowly reddening eyes as Gatou once again tremblingly pulled out his gun.

**Do you really want his blood on your hands?** Kyuubi asked, feeling like the biggest hypocrite. However, instead of cooling down Naruto's rage, the demon was surprised to feel it escalate, as if the answer to that question had been a strong 'yes!'. A warning bell went off in his mind as he felt his host go under a maddening veil of blood lust.

Gatou fired off his last three shots, reaching for more bullets in his suit as he did. One of them zipped past Naruto's left shoulder while another grazed so close to his arm that the fabric of his shirt was torn. The last bullet was right on target, its destination to be buried deep within Naruto's heart.

His eyes gleaming red while the faint signs of a monstrous transformation started to appear on his face, Naruto neatly picked the bullet out of the air in a blinding movement of his hand. Ruthlessly, he placed the slug on his palm and flicked it back at Gatou with so much force that it ripped a hole through the man's shoulder.

Kyuubi was startled when a distinct wave of pleasure went through Naruto's hazed mind at the sight of the man screaming in pain. He had to stop this at once! If Naruto allowed the anger to control him, he would lose himself in the very basic instincts that the blond had admitted to hating. Kyuubi was all for a little bloodshed here and there, but there were other ways to get what he wanted without making his host go nuts and kill everyone, including his own friends.

**Let me rephrase that, kid!** He said desperately, aiming for a low blow. **Do you want the little Hyuuga girl to see you acting no better than me!** Kyuubi's words cut through Naruto's mind the way that no demand or insult could. Naruto paused, red eyes glazing over. **Do you want to kill, and keep killing?** Naruto looked at Gatou and snarled. He definitely wanted to kill him. There was no mistake about that.

The sudden appearance of youki must have had a bad reaction on Naruto's control, Kyuubi mused. It allowed him to linger on his anger and pain, even feeding it until it was too strong to resist until it brought forth the mindless beast that Naruto both hated and feared. **Once you taste his blood, you will long for more. Let me tell you, fear and blood of different people make no difference to a mindless monster. Do you want Hinata's blood on your hands? **The soft noise that came out of Naruto's voice was neither a snarl nor a growl. It was actually somewhere between a whine and a voiced disagreement.

Naruto felt disgusted with himself as the youki slowly receded from his inner coils. Pain.. he had caused it.. and enjoyed it? The idea was hard to wrap his mind around but he acknowledged it as a truth. He clenched his head as his eyes shifted almost immediately from a slitted red to the familiar blue.

He had almost gone nuts with blood lust. He had almost lost control to the mindless beast within. But even worse, with his utter lack of control, he had put Jiraiya and Hinata and the others in danger. What kind of hero was he supposed to be anyway?

Kyuubi sighed in relief. Self-pity was better than blood lust. **Besides, I think you have a bigger problem on your hands. **Kyuubi went on to explain...

---

"Ha!" Kiba cried out victoriously. Shino smirked and Hinata smiled shyly, hiding behind him. The other men just looked at them, both parts rebellious and respectful. Three kids(and an old loon tossing things from way up high) had beaten the best(but the cheapest) fighters around. They were worthy of respect.

"So.. how long do ya think we have to live?" asked the man who had carried Naruto in to the guy sitting next to him. The other man, accessorized with a big lump on his head from a vase, shrugged almost carelessly. He most likely had a concussion, but really, after getting hit with something so big, who wouldn't.

Kiba overheard. "What the hell do you mean by that?" he said, not unkindly but not very nicely either. "We aren't gonna kill you. You aren't worth the-ow!" The elbow in his ribs cut off his boast.

"Just because you won doesn't mean that you have to inflate your ego." Shino murmured almost silently. Kiba scowled.

"D-don't worry…" Hinata said quietly from behind Shino. "Once we get out of here, I'm sure Jiraiya-sama will let you leave."

"Who's Jiraiya?" one of them asked. Shino wordlessly pointed at Jiraiya, who had announced with much glee that 'the stupid fox' had a stash of dirty magazines. Every once in a while, they'd hear a giggle or two from twenty feet up.

"Him?" three of them said in unison, as if they couldn't believe it. Shino sighed, agreeing with them.

"They let that sort of person near children?" another said with a shake of his head. Kiba shrugged disinterestedly.

"Eh… he's… a good ninja…" Hinata struggled to defend Jiraiya but was fighting a losing battle when even she had doubts in him. "I... think?" Her confusion had everything to do with the fact that she hadn't seen the older man do anything throughout the entire mission except survive the traps enough to get the treasure room. And, since the rest of them had survived it too, that wasn't that big of an accomplishment.

"Ho ho!" Jiraiya, stuffing rolled up magazines in his shirt, jumped down with grace that a man his age shouldn't have. "Of course I am! I'm the great Jiraiya-sama! The greatest Frog Hermit and erotica novelist to ever grace Konoha!"

"Only Frog Hermit and erotica novelist." Kiba whispered to Hinata, who struggled to keep a straight face. "And, trust me, we don't need any more." Shino looked amused. Jiraiya heard and glared at the dog user.

"So…" the man who had carried in Naruto arched an eyebrow. "That makes you... a super pervert?" Kiba and Hinata lost it and started laughing. Even Shino chuckled a little. Jiraiya pouted for a moment before he realized something very important.

"Yes, actually! The greatest one yet!" he stated proudly. "And a hell of a lot better looking than most perverts my age, thank you very much."

"He.. has no shame." Kiba wheezed out between gasps.

"That could either be something very good or very bad." Shino said quietly. Suddenly, he turned to the left, sensing something that they could not yet sense. Kiba and Hinata stopped laughing, turning in the same direction.

Before either of them could make sense of what Shino was looking at, Jiraiya turned, his hands on his hips. "Ah, so the hero got his villain, eh?"

Suddenly, Naruto appeared around a curve of one of the piles of treasures. He dragged something along the floor, his face very serious. In the dark red glow of the den, no one could clearly see what he was dragging when he was so far away.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata called out happily. Naruto forced a small smile to her before he looked back at Jiraiya.

"Sensei, we've got a problem." he said quietly. Jiraiya immediately stopped grinning at the tone of his student. The look on his face transformed so rapidly that the others were surprised. Since when did Jiraiya have a serious side?

"Hm.. Like master, like apprentice." Shino murmured to his bugs.

Naruto walked several more steps forward and then, with a slight lunge and maneuver of his arm, hurled his burden forward at the group of defeated men. His burden flew forward with a squeak and slid across the ground to stop just before the first man. It immediately curled into itself, hissing softly in pain.

"You don't look so good, boss." the man with the concussion said dreamily. Gatou only hissed, an insult failing to form properly because the pain in his shoulder was so intense.  
Naruto ignored them, looking only at Jiraiya. "We must leave, immediately. We are in danger here and that danger increases the longer we linger."

"Ha.. ha.. ha!" Gatou laughed shakily, pushing himself to his knees even as one hand clenched on his open wound. "You afraid of the dark, monster?"

Without remorse, Naruto kicked Gatou in the shoulder, making the man cry out in pain. "I didn't ask for your input, lowlife." he said dangerously. "It would do you well if you keep your mouth shut or I'll lose my temper again and I'll stick my foot in it." Kiba and Hinata looked at him in surprise, having never seen such a level of venom spewed from Naruto's mouth. There was no reaction from Jiraiya or Shino.

"The danger is?" the hermit prompted him, distracting Naruto away from Gatou. The boy frowned, facing his sensei fully.

"Well, knowing you and your information gathering skills, I suppose you already know that this was once Kyuubi's den." Naruto paused while Jiraiya nodded solemnly as Kiba gaped in surprise. When the dog user tried to say something, Hinata covered his mouth with her hand, more interested in what Naruto was going to say. "Kyuubi likes fire, you know. And heat. And it's really hot in here. I can tell you that it's completely natural and not influenced by any youki." he considered what he said before shrugging lightly. "Well, maybe a little but it was hot to begin with."

Jiraiya could think of only one reason why an area inside of a mountain could be so hot naturally. If he hadn't been so flushed from the heat, he would have paled. "And... it's... dormant, right?"

Naruto let out a breath, tilting his head to the side. "Was." he finally said, sending a glare down at the whimpering Gatou. "That is, until someone had the great idea of blasting his greedy ass all the way through the mine. That's why there've been so many damn earthquakes." He turned back to Jiraiya, his expression softening at the rare look of utter shock on his favorite hermit. It wasn't often that Naruto could find something that would make Jiraiya surprised. "We've gotta get out of here, and fast."

"Wait, hold up!" Kiba said, jumping between the two solemn ninjas. "What the hell are you two talking about?"

Shino was helping some of the men up and to their feet while Hinata politely requested that they take all the gold out of their clothing. They wouldn't have listened to her ordinarily, even with the threat of having too much weight on them if they needed to run, but Shino loomed behind her like a dark and ominous shadow, his bugs crawling every which way. They grudgingly dropped their bags of stolen treasure.

"All of it." Shino said sharply. After a moment's hesitation, they reached into their clothing and dropped that treasure too.

Naruto looked at Kiba after his outburst, sighing softly. He bit his lip, trying to think of a way to tell him without causing too much hysteria. When, after almost a minute, he couldn't find a way to soften the blow, he stated it bluntly. "We're right on top of an active volcano."

---

Of course, after delivering that sort of crippling information, even the hired thugs were quite cooperative with the ninjas, as the ninjas promised them a way out while their boss would try and coerce them to kill their saviors for some money.

"Come on, boss!" one said with a sigh. "What good is money if you're dead?" Gatou spouted (and screamed) some more insults and threats, coupled with some very creative cursing that had Hinata blushing. Noticing this, Naruto gagged Gatou and continued on dragging the tiny little man by his leg.

When they all noticed the way that Naruto was contented to 'help' Gatou out, Jiraiya stopped them from asking why he was being so unusually cruel. The trip back to the outside was going to be quick and hopefully painless (providing that the volcano didn't decide to explode), but for Gatou it would be a thousand times worse. He would feel every rock and hole that they would have to go over and, even worse, Naruto would only allow Hinata to provide the barest of medical treatment through the hole in his shoulder.

Hinata knew why. She had seen the tortured look on Naruto's face when he had encountered the dead bodies of those who had been wandering the cave(or den, as Naruto insisted it was) before them and had died trying. To get out or to get treasure, nobody could be quite sure but they all knew that Gatou had something to do with it. She knew that Naruto felt guilty about it all for some reason, even though she knew it wasn't his fault at all.

She couldn't exactly condone his behavior towards Gatou, but knowing that Naruto knew that Gatou was the one who had ordered or forced those other men to their deaths, she wasn't about to tell him to stop either. Kiba however needed to be jabbed and glared at by Shino in order to stay silent. She took it upon herself to quietly explain the situation to him. She was not surprised when, after learning all the facts, Kiba's complaints stopped and he switched his glaring from Naruto to the man that was being dragged behind him.

The large party of males (with one tiny female walking near the back) made their way back out of the den through the set of tunnels only recently made. Occasionally they had to stop and look around, making sure they were going through the right tunnel instead of just accidentally going through an old one.

Akamaru and Kiba were the best help with this but sometimes the smell of gunpowder agitated their noses so much that they had to stop, leaving the task of finding out which tunnel was the correct one to go through to the others.

The men made a confusion of everything, arguing which way was which and declaring that the others had a bad sense of direction. It was almost amusing how quickly they turned on Gatou to help the ninjas but their help was more annoying than helpful. It was Shino and Hinata that figured out which way to go when Kiba could not, hunting out the small particles of unburnt gunpowder with their respective blood limits.

Meanwhile, Jiraiya peeked in his magazines and snickered while Naruto kept an eye out for traps. He completely ignored Gatou, who was unceremoniously dragged and left where ever Naruto stopped and stayed there as Naruto looked around.

After what seemed like an hour, Kiba excitedly jumped up in the air, punching his fist. "Yes, we're back in the mine!" Akamaru ran around him in circles, barking happily.

Indeed they were. The ceilings were now much lower and the light that shined their way came from lanterns instead of oddly glowing walls. Hinata tripped twice over a set of metal tracks and Kiba cursed darkly when, using one of the beams that supported the mine as a place to lean against, he got a painful splinter.

Shino sighed. "We were lost when we were in the mines too." he reminded the excitable boy as he walked past him. Kiba scowled at him.

"Do you always have to ruin it, kill joy?" he asked unnecessarily. If Shino had been a more talkative boy, he would have said yes but since he wasn't, he ignored Kiba in favor of looking around for the next tunnel.

Naruto eased slightly when they were in the mine, knowing that there would be no accidents now that weren't of the _accidental_ kind instead of a thought out kind. Kyuubi was disappointed that no more deaths were to occur. The demon was quite ticked off that they were, as he put it, 'skipping through his den like little girls in a field of daisies'. He had been quite proud of his traps and thought that he had warded off enough humans while he was alive to make them stay away from his den for centuries, but he had apparently misjudged the depth of a human's greed.

_And how the hell did anyone know that you have treasures in your den anyway?_ Naruto asked, more than a little curious. He had been itching to look at some of those scrolls and weapons. The other treasures, mere trinkets, gold, and other such valuables, held no interest for him.

**I made it no secret that I took from the ones that I killed. **Kyuubi said lightly. **Whatever they valued, I took when they lost. Their jewels, their gold, their scrolls, their women.. **Naruto rolled his eyes.** Okay, I'll admit it, I wasn't too interested in their women. Weak little things always screamed and cried. So I just left them wherever they passed out.**

_So what, you were an honorable thief who didn't hurt women?_ Naruto said with a sour tone, clearly not believing him.

**Make no mistake, if they got in my way, they were dead, whether they were male or female.** Kyuubi said shortly. **And I didn't steal. I took! **

Naruto didn't want to think too much about Kyuubi's dark deeds of the past, not when the man lying nearly unconscious five feet away from him had done deeds that would have equaled Kyuubi's reign of terror, had they been repeated and multiplied by centuries. Besides, Kyuubi had and still had his punishment. But Gatou was still free.

_Not for long._ Naruto thought, his spirits rising. After Team Gai and Team Seven had returned to Konoha, with Haku and Zabuza only steps behind, Naruto had taken the time to go over to the post office to get a messenger bird. He sent the contract he had made with Gatou, one that had the tiny man promising to never get involved with the economy of either Wave or Fire Country as long as he lived, to the Fire Lord. A week later, the Fire Lord sent a letter back, confirming that he had received it.

All he had to do was bring Gatou to the Fire Lord's attention and present evidence proving that he had clearly defied the contract. Contracts were made to be broken, Naruto knew, but Gatou didn't know that a contract made with a Konoha shinobi was like making a contract with the Fire Lord himself.

The Fire Lord would bend over backwards to please Konoha, desiring for them to continue to aid his army for free whenever the need arose. If a Konoha contract was broken, the punishment for the one who broke it was severe, but this only held if who broke it was an outsider. Since Gatou was an outsider, he would receive the full punishment, even if he had somehow become a citizen of the Fire Country without raising any alarms.

_He must have a fake name._ Naruto mused, distracted by Shino and Kiba. During one of the last earthquakes, a huge piece of the ceiling had come free and fallen in one of the passages that they needed to go through. Kiba was stretching his arms and cracking his neck, apparently getting ready to lift the rock up and out of the way with Shino. A sharply jabbed comment made Kiba glare at the stoic boy before he loudly declared that he could lift more of the rock than the other boy. Naruto smiled sadly at the reminder of their constant rivalry.

When he had noticed it, he had been much older and the sight had reminded him painfully of the rivalry between him and Sasuke. The only difference between it was that Kiba and Shino were closer friends than Naruto and Sasuke were and weren't divided by the rift created by the need of revenge. He turned around, more from a need to hide his emotions than from actual dislike of the two genins messing with each other, and immediately froze, staring at a point on the ground.

Hinata laughed quietly at the antics of her teammates, then looked around. Jiraiya was talking to one of the men, who answered oddly and swayed often. She thought it was cruel because the hermit thought it was funny. She looked over at Naruto, who stood with his back to her. She sighed quietly, just looking at his outline lit up by the dim glow of the lanterns hung up on the supporting beams. His hair stood out brilliantly while the rest of him seemed invisible. It took her a second to realize that his shoulders were stiff and his chakra was steadily rising with some powerful emotion.

Hinata immediately frowned, taking a step forward, her hand already reaching out to him when she was yanked back harshly. Her gasp of surprise was loud enough to grab everyone's attention.

"Hinata!" Kiba called out, immediately pulling himself away from his task. Shino copied his movements while the men who had entertained themselves by watching the two youngsters turned with his cry. Jiraiya looked serious, his dark eyes narrowing. All three ninjas stood in distinctively fighting poses while even the men reached for their weapons almost uncertainly.

Naruto's reaction was the most dangerous. He turned around slowly, his eyes gleaming in the dark. But, as Hinata realized with a sudden gulp, they weren't blue, they were a stunning red. With the light to his back, all she could see were those angry animal eyes that were so familiar yet so hauntingly foreign.

"One move and I'll kill the little bitch!" The coolness at her neck was something sharp but handled awkwardly by a hand that wasn't used to weapons. She recognized the voice and immediately put a face to it. It was Gatou the scheming businessman.

Instead of feeling fear, she felt an oddly familiar feeling of being in an awkward situation. Wasn't she supposed to feel more fear for the boy in front of her than the man behind her? It was almost like she believed that Naruto could and was willing to do more harm than Gatou was ever capable of doing. She suddenly realized when the weapon against her throat shook and the slitted eyes in front of her gleamed brighter, that was exactly it.

Gatou could kill her, maybe, but by the time he got to Naruto, he would be ripped to shreds. And Naruto wouldn't hold back either, if she was dead. He had already made it perfectly clear that he held his friends' lives well above his own. If she died, Gatou wouldn't just die, he'd be murdered in cold blood.

Her life was valuable to her, she realized, but what she worried about most was the aftermath of her death. Naruto would feel so guilty and blame himself for everything. Just thinking about Naruto wallowing in his guilt, a thousand times worse than the guilt of not being there for the men who had died in the den, made her want to cry inside.

Naruto, guilty? That thought itself was almost as horrible as drowning kittens. No, she would not be responsible for it! She would not stand for it! Hinata needed to change the direction of the situation so Naruto wouldn't kill Gatou for her and feel guilt for a situation that he had no control over. She knew it was just like him to blame himself for the misfortunes of others.

Hinata had Naruto pegged perfectly. Even as he glared at Gatou and fought back the growl rising in his chest, all he could think was that he had failed Hinata. He had gotten distracted and Gatou had escaped from him. Now she was standing captive, the very sword that Naruto had thrown at Gatou held at her throat.

**Hey, how did he sneak that past us?** Kyuubi mused, then winced. He decided that he really didn't want to know.

Gatou looked at the men in front of him, shifting himself and Hinata every once in a while to make sure she stood between him and all his enemies. A stray glance made him focus on his watch and, when he saw what time it was, he let out a slight gasp.

"You, all of you!" he shouted, shaking as he realized there was only five minutes until the deadline with the Akatsuki. "Go back to the den and get as much treasure as you can carry. Now!"

"But.." one of the men gestured between Naruto and the den. "This little guy said that it's a volcano!"

"So?" Gatou snarled.

Almost impatiently, the man continued. "If we go back there, we could die if the damn thing explodes!"

At the idea that his treasure would be lost to the volcano, Gatou's anger grew. "If you don't go back there, she-," Hinata was jerked with emphasis and she let out a gasp, "-will die!"

"If she dies, you die." The simple declaration, no, a firm _promise_ from the three genins that Hinata held closest to her heart was snapped out in unison. Shino and Kiba had joined Naruto's side and neither looked friendly. Kiba had let out the snarl that Naruto had been struggling to hold back when Gatou looked over at them. Shino stood quietly but the aura around him was as menacing as the cloud of bugs that angrily swarmed around him.

"And trust me, it won't be a quick death." Kiba promised, his lip curling back and revealing a sharp canine. "I'll beat youto the ground."The scent of blood from his right made his anger grow even more.

"And when he's done with you and you're barely conscious, my bugs will slowly devour you until you are gone." Shino said softly, his tone dangerous. He too reacted from the blood from his right. His bugs identified it as Naruto's.

Blood trickled from Naruto's fists as his nails grew longer and dug in deeper. "But nothing will be worse that what I will have in store for you." No one would have believed it was Naruto who was speaking. His voice was so low and dark, completely unlike anyone would have ever heard from him before. "It will be hard, but I'll find a way to find your soul in the afterlife. And then I shall rip it to pieces." Something warm made its way up his throat and he suddenly felt himself speaking against his will. "And nothing in the world brings more agony than the pain of having someone mess with your soul."

Gatou swallowed in fear. The boys in front of him promised pain, death, and the utter destruction of his soul if harm came to their friend. Yet the Akatsuki would kill him if he didn't bring back some treasure and the only way to do it was use the little girl in front of him. What to do?

Kiba took a menacing step forward, his dog snarling and growling. Gatou pointed the sword at them. "Tell that mutt to be quiet!" he demanded. He needed to think. He had to come up with a plan to get away and keep his life. What was the best option, to go quietly with Konoha ninjas or run to Akatsuki? Either way, neither side was happy with him. How was he going to get himself out of the mess he was in?

Hinata decided for him. When the sharp blade was away from her throat, she waited for a moment before she tipped her body slightly forward and then slammed the back of her head against the man's face. She registered his cry of pain as she tried to work over the throbbing pain of her own. Clenching the back of her head in her hands, she saw the arm that held the blade was flung out and, without second thought, pounced on it.

Noticing that she was fighting him for control of his only weapon, he tried to catch her with his other hand but such an attack was easily noticeable by a Hyuuga. She ducked underneath the arm she had latched on to, twisted around, then grasped his wrist and twisted it hard. He dropped the sword and it was a simple feat for her to twist his arm behind his back as she moved behind him while sticking her foot out in front of him and pushing forward. Kurenai had always remarked that Hinata was extremely flexible.

The man went down with a thud. Hinata picked up the sword and steadily moved away from him. Then she looked at her teammates and Naruto, all three of which were standing frozen in place. Even Shino's bugs looked like they had stopped in midair to stare at her. Kiba just stared at her with his mouth open while Naruto looked at her in surprise, red eyes not nearly as fear inducing when they looked so astonished. The rest of the men in the room, save for the one who was moaning at the floor, stared at her.

Hinata toed the ground, feeling so embarrassed. "Um.. N-never mess with a Konoha ninja?" she finished uncertainly, her whole face red. There was an awkward silence for a moment before Naruto and Kiba started laughing. Shino rubbed his temples with a sigh.

Both of the laughing genins lunged towards her, Naruto swiftly hugging her while Kiba leaned an arm on her shoulder. Both of the boys grinned at each other.

"Hinata is so cute when she's being all fierce." Naruto announced.

"Yeah, it's so funny!" Kiba agreed. "Like an angry little kitten. Hiss!" They started laughing again while Hinata only blushed darker. There was no trace of the anger that had made them so fearsome just two minutes before, save for the fading red light in Naruto's eyes.

"Where can I get me one of those?" the man with the concussion said dreamily. Jiraiya laughed heartily.

"Um.." Hinata offered the sword forward to whoever would take it, the sharp side pointing away from her while the point faced down. Kiba blinked at it, never having been close to a sword that wasn't swung at his head, while Naruto immediately took the handle. Had they been paying more attention, they would have noticed the ease in which he handled it, holding the hilt in one hand as he rested the flat part of the blade in his other palm.

"Too bad there's no sheath." Shino observed quietly. "But you could get a lot of money for it. At least in Konoha." It wasn't an elegant sword with beautiful craftsmanship, but it was well balanced and the blade was of a good quality. It wouldn't go for much with people who bought for vanity, but it would sell well for people who bought for necessity.

"Hey, we came in for metal, we came out with metal." Kiba said with a stretch of his arms. "We did a good deed." Shino shook his head at Kiba's logic.

Hinata, however, noticed the far off look on Naruto's face as he looked down at the sword. "Well…" she said softly, gaining Naruto's attention, "Why don't you keep it?"

Kiba laughed at the idea. "Come on, and waste it on him? He'd swing it around with the elegance of a caveman wielding a club." Instead of working up a temper, as Kiba was aiming for, Naruto laughed as well and agreed.

"You could learn." Shino said, tossing in an unlikely support of Naruto. "And then you could be one of the few ninjas to use a sword. It could be your own…" he trailed off, shrugging when a lack of the right words halted him.

"Trademark?" Hinata offered. Shino nodded.

"I could probably find someone to teach you." Kiba said unexpectedly. "The Inuzuka clan is huge. There's probably someone who knows a bit about swordplay.."

Naruto considered it and them equally. He slowly let go of the blade, letting the sword follow gravity's pull until it was hanging horizontally once more by his one hand. "Perhaps later." he said evasively. He had too much covering up and meddling to do than to start something new. He had laughed when Kiba had made the caveman comment because Kiba had said the same thing before in his future when Naruto had handled a katana for the first time. But Naruto had stubbornly refused to put it down. It had been Kakashi's, one of the few things that reminded him of the good old days.

He had learned the way to hold a katana and how to keep it from cutting you when you weren't paying attention, but no one had enough time to teach anyone anything during the war, so, in typical Naruto fashion, he made up his own way how to use it, like how he had the Shunshin Jutsu. It wasn't perfect and it didn't always work, but it worked more than half the time so it was good enough for him.

Flashing Kiba and Hinata a bright smile, he knelt down to the ground and opened his back pack. Pulling out his previously discarded vest, abandoned when it had become way too hot for even his tastes, he wrapped the blade in it, glad that both the material was quite thick and the blade was dull from disuse. He stuck it in his backpack so that only the hilt of the blade stuck out.

With a groan, Gatou pushed himself to his knees. That brat! He fumed. She had no right to attack him! He could see her. She had her back to him. If he could just stand, he could wrap his hands around her tiny throat and squeeze until the bone snapped. He started to push himself up more when a loud smack registered in his ears and a throbbing ache made itself known in the back of his head. He fell down, completely unconscious.

At the sudden sound, all of the ninjas turned to see Gatou fall, the weapon used against him a hand sized rock grasped awkwardly in someone's left hand. Seeing that he had their attention, Gatou's final attacker saluted them with hand that held the rock. He had slipped through the opening that Kiba and Shino had made before Hinata was attacked.

"I would wave with my other hand." he said with a shy smile. "But my arm is kinda broken right now so you'll have to excuse me."

"Juro!" Kiba called out in surprise. "What the hell, I thought you left us here for dead!"

"Why would I do that?" the older man said with a wider smile. "I still have so many ghost stories to tell you, Kiba-kun!" Kiba blushed while the others laughed at his expense. It seemed that he would never live that down.

---

Despite Juro's initial cheerfulness, he quickly sobered and apologized profusely to the younger ninjas. It got to the point where it was almost annoying.

"Hey, you managed to trick a ninja!" Kiba said in a last ditch attempt to make the tall man stop feeling guilty. "Without genjutsu or anything! You gotta be proud of that!"

The injured man remained unconvinced by this, either not understanding how someone could feel pride in trickery or feeling too horrible about the whole situation to even contemplate it.

Juro, however, proved to be very beneficial when dealing with the other ten or so men hired by Gatou. He knew none of them by face and all of them were of a higher rank but he had the advantage of being in a similar situation. With little prompting, he managed to pull out personal information about each of them while they were moving out of the cave. The similarities between them all disturbed Naruto.

All of them were unemployed persons who had been cast off into an uncertain future when their jobs of choice had either went bad under the pressures of new technologies edging them out or bankruptcy. Eventually, when they had failed to find jobs and were literally starving, or when it escalated to the point where their families begged on the streets, Gatou came, taking them away from their families with relatively well paying jobs that the men could earn money from and send back home.

Juro had voiced how it seemed eerily similar to his own situation but Naruto saw a different parallel. He remembered that in Wave Country, Gatou had employed nearly the same tactic, offering jobs to able bodied young men and sending them away. Thus, after he had gotten rid of the biggest obstacle in his path(the young men who would have viewed the condition that Wave Country was rapidly falling into and would have rebelled violently), he quickly took over and broke the spirits of the people of Wave Country.

Their spirits had been lifted slightly when Inari's dad, the relatively foreign man that Tsunami had married, had showed them what their young men would have been quite insistent on, but fell even deeper than before when he was murdered for all to see, leaving the only path to fix Wave Country in the hands of his son Inari.

A few questions later revealed something even more disturbing. All of the men, including Juro, lived in Wind Country. It was an easily brushed off piece of information that could be labeled as simply coincidence, but Naruto knew that Wind Country was sparsely populated because of the region. It was rare to see two or more citizens of Wind Country together that weren't related. Most of the population was either nomadic tribes that wandered the desert or ninjas in Suna. The rest lived in small miserable towns along the Fire Country-Wind Country border line.

What was the chance that Gatou happened to pick all of his personal clean up crew from one country whose population wasn't even half of Konoha alone? Was he trying to take over Wind Country the same way that he was trying to take over Wave Country?

As soon as that thought went through his mind, he immediately shook his head. Wind Country had Suna! Even if Gatou did take away as many of the able bodied man he could, he still would have the more difficult problem of wrestling away the control of the Wind Country away from the Wind Lord because, even though the Kazekage and the Wind Lord hated each other, the Kazekage was too prideful of a man to allow his country to be taken over by a simple business man.

But the Kazekage, he slowly remembered, the real one at least, was probably already dead and Orochimaru was in his place. He nearly hit himself as he realized that Orochimaru had most likely encouraged Gatou to take over so that Wind Country would be very weak. Naruto seethed when he realized that, by showing a little mercy and letting Gatou live, he had inadvertently given Orochimaru another weapon.

In his future, he remembered that Wind Country had been the forth country to fall under Orochimaru's forces and that it had only lasted so long against him because Suna and Konoha had been strong allies. After Wind Country fell, all the Suna refugees had retreated to Konoha, most never daring to go back in their home country again. Only Gaara and a few other ninjas daily fought and sabotaged the Sound Nation's occupation.

And in the end, Gaara had been the only one to survive that; and, by the time that Naruto made his daring leap into the past, he was the only living Suna ninja that they knew about, the lone Kazekage of a dead people.

Was Orochimaru already making his moves? Despite knowing that the snake was evil and cared very little about human life, Naruto knew that he had little desire for world conquest. All he wanted to do was crush Konoha. Once that was done, even Tsunade predicted that he would leave the fallen governments to collapse deeper into chaos and retreat to continue his journey of learning every jutsu in the world.

"Are you okay, Naruto?" Naruto was jolted out of his thoughts when a sudden voice called out right next to him. He looked over at the man who had caught up with his brisk pace and tried to smile as the dark eyes looked over him in concern. Jiraiya was always concerned when Naruto seemed less bright or happier than usual. Was it really so surprising that Naruto could have serious moments?

"Nah. Just thinking about this entire situation makes my head spin." he told Jiraiya quietly. The heavy hand falling on his shoulder nearly made him flinch.

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here soon." Jiraiya said optimistically. He shot his new student a thumbs up and an easy grin. "And the earthquakes have died down too! The volcano probably won't erupt."

"Unless something goes horribly wrong." Shino added in quietly, coming up near Naruto's right. Naruto nodded gloomily in response. Jiraiya and Kiba rolled their eyes.

"Everyone!" Hinata called out, her eyes pale with her blood limit. She was much farther ahead than they were and was looking through the wall and a bunch of rocks that had collapsed over an entrance.

"What is it, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked, making it there first. The other ninjas were not a step behind him but the workers and Juro, who had taken it upon himself to carry Gatou, took a little longer to catch up.

"I can.. see the outside." With this announcement, all the men cheered. "But there's this collapsed hole and another before three more open holes till we can get out."

"Damn earthquakes." Kiba grumbled. He cracked his knuckles and stretched out his arms. "Well Naruto? You gonna help me?" Naruto nodded, mimicking the other boy's motions before moving over to one side of one of the larger rocks while Kiba moved to the other. Hinata and Shino worked to move the smaller ones.

"You know Kiba.." Shino offered up almost absently, "I'm surprised at you." When Kiba looked over at him, his face slightly strained from lifting up so much weight and also from being confused, Shino only smiled. "I thought you would have been impatient and just Gatsuuga'ed your way through."

Kiba glared at him, carefully moving the rock away from the newer entrance with Naruto. "Come on, Shino, that's just stupid." he said grumpily. "Why would you think that I'd go and do that?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Juro asked, a little curious. "If this Gatsuuga thing could get us out quicker, than why is it bad to use it?"

"Because, Juro," Jiraiya moved to explain to the middle aged man with a faint smile, "This mountain can't take too much stress or we might accidentally make the volcano erupt. We're trying to avoid that and that's why they're doing it the old fashioned way."

"Care to help?" Naruto growled at him as he and Kiba put the massive rock down. Jiraiya waved his hands in front of his, a gesture of harmlessness.

"Oh, no no no.." he said, mockingly gaping in horror. "Would you have with poor old man lift rocks when he has back problems?" Kiba and Naruto shared a disgusted look with each other. Sure, Jiraiya was fifty some years old but he walked straighter and with more spring to his step than most non-ninja middle aged people. Just the thought of the more than healthy man going so low as to pull the 'too old' care to get out of lifting things pissed them off.

"We're through!" Hinata announced, pushing some of the rocks a little out of the way so that there was a gap big enough for even Jiraiya to get through.

And though it was a tight squeeze, all of them managed to get through and the four genins quickly started on the next one, moving rocks and pushing them aside so they could finally rid themselves of this place

Gatou awoke with a groan. Startled by the sudden sound from his previously silent burden, Juro put him down quickly, shooting a concerned look over at Jiraiya. The older man got the message and moved towards the groggy businessman. Juro moved out of his way. Jiraiya's face went suddenly impassive and severe when regarding Gatou, reminding Juro vividly of how the hermit had looked when he had first come upon him in the mine.

Gatou, seeing the unfamiliar figure in front of him, once again tried to wiggle out of trouble, immediately offering up a massive sum of money if Jiraiya got him out of the bad situation he was in. Jiraiya stonily hunkered down until the two were about eye level. A little nervous that the hermit didn't even react, Gatou raised the price twice, only to receive that chilling stare in return.

Finally, Jiraiya spoke. "I don't think you understand the situation you're in." he said slowly, eyes narrowing. He himself hadn't understood until Naruto had clued him in, surprising him with the unusual amount of insight that Naruto had in politics and the Fire Lord. Jiraiya would have never though that Naruto would have thought far enough ahead to make a contract with someone and send it to the right person. "You broke a contract with a ninja, a Konoha ninja even. That's punishable by death. The second that we caught you, you lost all the money that you have invested in Fire Country. After we get out of here, you're going straight to the Fire Lord so he can decide your sentence." Gatou stared at him in shock. There was no way that a ninja, especially a ninja like that brat that he failed to kill, could have such sway with a powerful lord like the Fire Lord.

"I-impossible.." he whispered. The hermit was just making up that so he could get him scared, right? Make him all docile and terrified so that he'd give up everything that he worked so hard to achieve, just how Naruto had done so many months ago. Things were going so well, even with the Akatsuki's involvement! He was only a few steps away from taking over Wind Country. After that, with the help that the Kazekage promised him if he funded their ninjas, he would wage war on Fire Country.

The Oto and Suna secret alliance had made an attack on Konoha possible in just a week's time. And then, after Konoha was weakened and the Hokage was killed, more troops would take out the border towns, the forts, and the rest of Konoha itself before moving onto the capital city. All with the supplies that he would buy himself! It was the perfect plan! What had gone wrong?

Jiraiya's eyes gentled at the sight of Gatou in such stress. "However, we could lighten your sentence if you would just tell us about Akatsuki." he said, only aware of their involvement. If he had known about Orochimaru, he would have sent Gatou straight to Ibiki.

There was nothing Gatou could do! That man was smart. By announcing his sudden lack of money, the men who were already reluctant to aid him because of their near death experiences would now not help him at all, no matter how much money he offered them. _Clever man.. Akatsuki he said._ _Those wicked men, inhumane and.. _he suddenly remembered their threats. They were going to kill him! He had to go back for some more treasure!

"I-I'll tell you…" Gatou said in a shaky voice, trying to stall for some time. Leaning forward, he reached into one of his pockets, reaching not for his gun but for something of even more destructive force. Jiraiya didn't react because he didn't even known that Gatou had a gun in the first place but in the corner of his eye, he noticed that Naruto had straightened and froze, staring at them.

"I tell you something indeed..." he said again, the scared voice of before disappearing when he felt the smooth metal remote under his fingers. He looked up, a smirk wide on his face. "If you don't go back there and get me my damn treasure, you'll face complete and utter destruction of your hopes of ever getting out of this place."

---  
TBC

Next Chapter:  
_"I-I'll g-get you your t-treasure!" Gatou stammered, pressing his back against the carriage door in his attempts to get away from the man sitting next to him. He would have pushed himself out and ran for his life but his hands were tied to one of the seats. He would have promised the man anything, even sold his soul to him, if he would just spare his life. It mattered not that there was no longer any treasure for him to get. _

Itachi didn't even look at him. He continued to sit sedately in his seat, his arms crossed in front of his chest as his painted nails tapped a rhythm against his bicep. "I do not believe that you fully understand the situation." he said softly, unaware that he was echoing another's words. The irony was not lost on Gatou.

"I.. um.. I.." Gatou couldn't string together the words to form a sentence. "O-Oro.."

"I care not about that fool and his business." Itachi said almost sharply. He turned his head, his red eyes glowing. "But I will get my treasure." Gatou relaxed, thinking that Itachi was going to give him a second chance. "The only treasure that I care about.. you have seen it. It is wrapped up in a very odd package." Gatou frowned, trying to think about which of the many treasures he had seen that Itachi would have wanted. Golden trinkets, weapons, scrolls.. he couldn't think of one that was wrapped up in an odd package.

"The package.. this you have seen." Itachi continued. He turned more fully to look at Gatou. He leaned forward ominously. "This package has blond hair, blue eyes, and a mean temper." As Gatou gaped at him, realizing exactly what, or rather who, he meant, Itachi's eyes narrowed. "That is the only treasure I care to gain. And I don't need your help to gain it." With a blinding movement and a sickening squelch, Gatou was no more.

Beta note: Yay! We get to see Sasuke-teme again! - He's so funny when he's flustered.

Hope the wait wasn't too bad for everyone. If you have any questions or comments don't be afraid to send them my way as well as to Foxie-san.


	48. The Somethings and the Someones

Ah, the better version! We can all rejoice, and thank my spiffy beta, Angel's Hazard, who's going to be on vacation for a while. Hopefully, by the time my beta gets back, I'll have the next chapter done. : )

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter 48: The Somethings and the Someones

by Foxie

----

The remote was simple in design and had a shiny red button. In Naruto's experience, shiny red buttons were highly dangerous. Naruto snatched the remote out of the businessman's hand without even thinking. Gatou blinked, looking out his empty outstretched hand with all the manner of a goldfish, blinking blankly to himself at the turn of events.

Naruto turned away from him with an angry huff, slipping the remote in his left pocket. "Pull one more weapon out of nowhere, Gatou," he said threateningly, "And I'll shove it so far up your-"

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata exclaimed, her face burning a bright red. Naruto looked at her, making a soft sound of annoyance, but didn't continue with his obviously graphic threat.

"Naruto may have a point." Shino murmured, stepping towards Gatou. "Should he pull something else out, it could prove to be quite disadvantageous to us in the long run." He stretched out his hands. Scurrying around the curve of his wrist and out through the opening of his sleeve, Shino's bugs crawled towards the businessman. Gatou was horrified at the sight and tried to plaster himself against the rock at his back, away from the incoming army of bugs.

Naruto turned away, distractedly watching the men(and Kiba) heave a rock out of the way of one of the passageways. Juro, who also watched but at a much closer position, turned and smiled at Naruto. "I think we're almost out!" the man, waving his good arm. Naruto forced a smile and a nod, not daring to look back at Gatou and Shino's bugs.

There was something about the way that Shino's attack worked that Naruto had always found agonizing to watch. It wasn't that the bugs disgusted him or that he was creeped out by the way they suddenly appeared out of Shino. It was the bugs' slow crawl to their victim that always creeped him out. Something about the drawn out attack, looking your enemy in the eye(s), and knowing that they would consume and/or kill you eventually... Naruto shivered.

_The same thing with Gaara's sand,_ he thought with a grimace. Remembering the slow advance of the bloodthirsty sand made him cringe. _Hit me over the head with a boulder, stick a knife through my gut, or break my neck, if you so desire, but please end it quickly!_ The wait itself would kill him.

A nudge at his elbow broke him out of his thoughts. His attention was immediately captured by the parcel that Shino pushed towards him. He took it from the stoic genin gingerly. "His wallet?" Naruto questioned, narrowing his eyes at the leathery thing. He much preferred his froggy wallet. "Why-"

Shino shook his head, pointing to the wallet. "It's not the wallet itself that is interesting. It's what's inside it that intrigues me." he said quietly before turning away. He moved to aid Kiba in securing Gatou's binds, satisfied to keep him that way now that he knew that the businessman was unarmed.

Naruto watched them for a moment before looking back at the wallet hanging between his fingers. He flipped it open idly, his attention, like anyone else, immediately zooming in on the cash he could see barely sticking out. The blond glared at it disdainfully. _Blood money._ he thought darkly, pulling out and tossing it to Jiraiya. The hermit promptly began dividing it amongst the men, who crowed in delight at the sudden flow of cash and eagerly pounced on it. Juro, he noticed, didn't take his share.

Naruto, digging through the wallet again, pulled out a series of cards, finally seeing what Shino was talking about. _Head CEO of Akatoshi Corps?_ he wondered to himself, flipping the identification card through his fingers. It had a glossy picture of Gatou with a smirk on his face.

Somewhere behind him, Gatou started struggling desperately, making the men sigh in annoyance. Naruto stared down at the card, a realization dawning on him. _Wait a second.. his name isn't Akatoshi Shiro._ Two of the men walked up to Gatou, helping Shino restrain him by grabbing Gatou's shoulders and feet while Naruto stared down at the card in his hands, something akin to excitement making his hands shake.

Finally, something was going right! Justice would be served! And not a ninja's version of justice either. Gatou would go down as a criminal and be handled accordingly by the Fire Lord. Naruto didn't have to kill Gatou. He grinned down at the card, happy that Gatou would get what he deserved without Naruto's hands being stained with his blood. Or without his darker nature breaking free and ruining everything.

Right in his hands was proof that Gatou had misrepresented himself to Fire Country, proof that he had honed in on their country and had taken over a business under a false name, proof that-

There was a quick succession of events, most of which Naruto had his back to. Gatou had twisted around and bit one of the men in the arm. Said man backed up a few paces, grunting at the pain and the one holding Gatou's feet suddenly found his grip slipping. Gatou's foot lashed out reflexively, striking Juro's broken arm. The man cried out sharply, the sudden pain bringing him to his knees. Startled at the sound, another man turned around quickly and managed to trip over Juro. He waved his arms around frantically before he grabbed the back of another man's shirt, pulling him down with him as well.

Naruto hadn't been far away from them and ended up being pushed to the ground as the last man fell. With an 'oof', Naruto hit the ground as well, the wallet falling while the incriminating card stayed in his hands.

"Whoops." the guy who had tripped over Juro said sheepishly. "Sorry little guy."

"What about me?" the man who had knocked Naruto down grumbled, pushing himself off of Naruto with his hands. "Clumsy asshole..."

Naruto had gone very still. When he had fallen, he had felt something give in his pocket. The ground had shook, reminiscent of the earlier tremors that had put them on the edge. The only thing he could think of that he had in his pocket was...

He paled, shoving the man off of him as he stood. He reached into his pocket, yanking the remote out, the look on his face darkening as he realized that the button had been pushed. Naruto held it out as the ground shook again, startled eyes meeting Jiraiya's. The air was tense as everyone started to understand what had happened. Even the tied Gatou stared.

The loud noise of moving rock suddenly put everyone in a frenzy. Wherever or whatever the remote had done or set off had started up the volcano again. The men quickly stood up, shooting darting glances every which way.

"We have to get out of here!" Jiraiya said urgently. Team Eight had never seen him so serious. He turned his head to Hinata. "How far are we from the outside and which way do we have to go?" Hinata's eyes began to glow with her blood limit.

She tilted her head left and right, her eyes focused on something beyond them. Her trembling hands gave away her tension. "A-ah, it's that way…" she pointed to the right. "And.. it's um.."

"How far?" Jiraiya snapped out. He could sense the pressure of lava underneath the earth. It was a subtle feeling that steadily grew and grew. They needed to get out of there, and fast. Hinata seemed to wilt, curling into herself.

Naruto, feeling shame for letting this happen in the first place, took a step forward. "Does it matter?" he said rudely. He whipped his head to the side, fixing Kiba with a hard stare. The other boy flinched. "Kiba, get us the hell out of here!"

The boy stared at Naruto before nodding with a determined smirk. "Akamaru!" he immediately began to make the hand seals and then, where before there was a boy and his dog, there were now two extremely feral looking Kibas. "Right! Let's show them how it's done! Gatsuuga!"

As the two whirlwinds of fangs and claws ripped through the rock as easily as a hot knife through butter, Jiraiya turned back to the rest of the people. "You fall behind, you stay behind!" he warned as he chased after Kiba, the rest of the men following suit, not daring to question the older man. Shino followed, staying towards the back of the group.

Juro paused for a moment, his face still pale with pain. He leaned over and awkwardly maneuvered Gatou over his good shoulder and stumbled after the rest. Naruto and Hinata followed him, barely a step behind.

Hinata looked over her shoulder as they ran, seeing a rock fall from the ceiling and hit the ground where their group had assembled. _We're in so much trouble, and I.._ She could hear the sounds of breaking and shattering rocks as Kiba got them closer and closer to the outside.

In front of her, Shino jumped into the air and kicked a rock out of the air, keeping it from hitting the group. Jiraiya did the same, knocking a huge rock into a wall, a rock so big that it would have crushed half of their group. Next to her, Naruto frowned, forming seals with his hands as he saw someone ahead trip and fall, being left behind by the group. The newly arrived kage bunshins neatly plucked the startled man off the ground without a pause in their run. 

_We're in so much trouble and I can't do a thing. Everyone's trying so hard... and the one thing that they ask me! I couldn't do it!_ Her vision kept on wavering and messing up when she had looked for the outside. She had seen it but she couldn't tell how far away it was. It was like her eyes couldn't focus. _Lack of control!_ Her eyes began to well with tears.

"Hey." a hand fell on her shoulder. She looked over at its owner, not knowing if it was the real thing or a kage bunshin. Another thing that she utterly failed at. The hand squeezed her shoulder and the owner of it, Naruto, smiled at her. "Try again."

Naruto was always so forgiving; but would even he be disgusted with her if he knew that she couldn't even tell if he was real? She closed her eyes, knowing that he hated to see her cry.

"You know, even tough guys fail at stuff." he said suddenly, his hand slipping from her shoulder. "But the most important thing is to get up and try again. Only then will someone really succeed."

Hinata peeked at him through her eyelashes. Such Naruto logic. _He's right._ She thought, rubbing at the corners of her eyes. _He always is. **Byakugan**!_ Her eyes glowed with her blood limit once more.

Her vision suddenly shot forward, zooming past a grim Jiraiya and panting Kibas, who had stopped for a moment, and beyond that. Rock walls and beams and then there was sudden brightness. The outside. It seemed like such an alien and wonderful thing, especially after being stuck in the den for several days.

Before she could figure out the distance, her vision wavered again, retreated back until all she could see were rock walls. _No! Control! Focus! _She thought desperately. _Naruto-kun asked you to!_ She focused as much of her chakra as she dared into her eyes and her vision strengthened once more, allowing her to see the outside. She was able to calculate the distance. _Yes! _She grinned brightly.

"Not… not very far!" she said with excitement, ending her blood limit with a blink. Naruto glanced at her through the corner of his eye, smiling a little. "Only about… seventy yards!" His smile grew, his eyes curving with it.

"Great job, Hinata-chan!" he said warmly. Hinata, red from the praise and from the running, ducked her head shyly.

They had to slow down when the group in front of them stopped completely. They edged through the group, finding the Kibas panting heavily, bracing his hands on his knees. The ground shook again, knocking rocks from the walls and ceiling.

"Last wall." Hinata reported quietly. "Then we go down a path and the entrance is there. But it's covered with rocks so we'll need to get through that too."

_That must be what Gatou meant by 'destroying your hopes of ever getting out'_. Jiraiya mused. _He destroyed the entrance to the mine._ He didn't pin the blame on Naruto, knowing full well that Naruto was beating himself up about it.

Kiba and Akamaru, energized by the revelation that they were so close to the outside, drew themselves up once more and leapt upon the wall. It fell under their combined efforts. The Kibas stumbled to a stop, one of their bodies shimmering as if the bunshin jutsu that made them identical was fading.

However, the other Kiba's forehead tensed in concentration and the bunshin jutsu strengthened. They stood as one and tiredly ran towards the last obstacle, lagging behind Jiraiya considerably, who now had the lead. Naruto shot the exhausted boys a concerned look.

_They've must have ripped through four or so rock walls by now,_ Naruto thought with a frown. _Gatsuuga and keeping up a bunshin jutsu? They must be really tired. They don't usually do that much unless they've taken a soldier pill._ Naruto knew that Kiba, when he had looked over the contents of his bag, realized that he had misplaced his precious soldier pills. He had complained for a full minute before Shino finally told him to shut up.

The soft tap of their shoes (or, in Naruto's case, feet) against the ground sounded vaguely like a ticking clock. The ground shook under them dangerously, reminding them of the danger they were running from.

_Excess carbon dioxide, ash, lava, the initial explosions, disasters that could come from the effected landscape..._ Shino went over the possible dangers of being caught near the volcano if it erupted. It didn't look good for them. Even though they were ninjas, they had the same weaknesses as every other human when faced with a natural disaster. _Even if it's a human__-initiated disaster._ Shino upped his speed, seeing the caved-in entrance ahead of him. _Nature is a cruel mistress._

Everyone stopped in front of the entrance. Juro wasn't the only one who was red in the face. Kiba had dropped the jutsu on Akamaru, barely having enough energy to breathe, let alone keep up a jutsu. He braced himself on his knees, panting heavily. Akamaru let out a soft whine and toppled over, his tongue hanging out.

"We're almost there!" one of the men said, turning to Kiba impatiently. "Hurry it up!" He sounded almost hysterical. It was a feeling that they all could sympathize with.

Kiba shot him a withering glare through his sweat soaked bangs. "I'd like to see... you... do what I- gah…" the boy sunk to his knees. Hinata rushed to his side, putting her hand on his shaking shoulder.

Shino took a step forward. "Kiba has used most of his chakra. We would only put his life, as well as our own, in danger if we continue to demand his help." The ground shook again, reminding them that the outside was barely ten yards away and they were caged in by a layer of rocks.

Kiba struggled to stand, waving aside Hinata's flustered pleas for him to rest. "I'll... get us through this... dammit." he panted. He leaned forward, picking up his dog and tucking him under one arm. Akamaru only made a slight whine in protest.

Jiraiya stood back, watching them silently. He knew how they could get out. And, no doubt, it would be a much more effective and efficient way than Kiba's, mostly because Jiraiya was a legendary ninja and the boy was just genin.

But he had always hated when Sarutobi, then later Orochimaru, dictated every move and every step of an operation for him to follow, leaving no room for creativity. So he stood back for the time being, just as he had for most of the mission, letting the genins decide what to do on their own. After all, he could always back them up if things went bad.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye, seeing his student right next to him, silent and in nearly the same stance as he was. Naruto looked all too serious with his arms crossed over his chest, his face seemingly stuck in a frown. Jiraiya wondered why he wasn't joining in the argument. After all, the boy seemed to like that sort of thing.

"The best solution right now would be to move the rock manually." Shino said patiently.

"Um, Shino-kun." Hinata moved nervously. "If we did that, wouldn't the entrance cave in more?"

"Yeah!" Kiba said, agreeing with his teammate.

Shino let out a sigh. "I didn't say it was a perfect plan. I said it was merely the best solution we have right now."

"Yeah well I'd rather use up all my chakra that get squashed by a rock!" Kiba exclaimed, stomping his foot.

"If you do that, you'll die." Shino said sharply, his shoulders tensing up.

"And if you keep on arguing like this, we're all gonna die!" one of the men called out, eyes darting around when another earthquake rolled underneath their feet, loosening rocks and making them have to double check their balance.

"Shut up!" they snapped out in unison, eyes focused on each other.

"Look, I can _do_ this." Kiba said, gaining control over his temper quickly. It was one of the many things he had learned from Team Eight. Getting all flustered and hotheaded never helped anyone. "I can get us out of here and fast too." Kiba wanted to get out of the mountain just as much as everyone else, but _he_ had to be the one to do it. Naruto had asked him for help.

Naruto never asked for much. Kiba wouldn't say that he was Naruto's friend, or that he even liked the blond genin all that much, but Naruto was a good comrade, even if he had the tendency to push them around or shield them from the dangers of the world.

Naruto was weird and different from the guy he had pictured him to be in his mind, a loud idiot. He was strong, smart, and, above all, strangely secluded from the rest of them. Here Kiba had thought, because of how loud he remembered Naruto could be, that the boy was highly social.  
This mission, with all of its twists and turns, had suddenly forced him to have a realization.

Naruto wasn't social. He wasn't a glory hog. He wasn't even dumb. What he was, Kiba realized, was so damn lonely that he hardly knew how to deal with other people. Kiba felt so stupid when he realized that he had Naruto pegged wrong and wanted to help him out as an apology for thinking that he was an idiot. Only Naruto never asked nor seemed to want any help at all.

But Naruto had listened! He had realized the truth of Kiba's argument and, instead of doing everything by himself, had reached out and asked for help. Naruto asked Kiba to help him! Kiba couldn't exactly put into words how that made him feel but it almost made him want to strut around proudly with his chest stuck out.

But Kiba couldn't get them through the last obstacle without doing serious damage to himself. He felt like a failure. If he did not get them to the outside, Naruto would know that relying on others was a total waste of time and would never ask again. Kiba couldn't stand the thought of it.

"Kiba!" Shino said, his voice ringing out. "If you do this-" Kiba stared down the rocks with determination and walked past Shino. Faint wisps of chakra wrapped around his body as he gently put Akamaru in Hinata's arms. He wasn't going to force the dog to do more than he already had. Shino, more than a little agitated, turned to the only other person he knew could stop Kiba.

Naruto got the hint. He took long strides up to the dog user and stopped his advance on the entrance with an idle hand that landed almost weightlessly on the taller boy's shoulder. Kiba looked around, a little confused. The chakra he had been building up faded.

Now that he knew he had Kiba's attention, Naruto switched his gaze to Shino. "You're both wrong." he said simply. "Kiba's plan means that he could lose consciousness or die, Shino's plan means that everyone could die under falling rocks." he paused, shifting his gaze back to Kiba. "Both of your plans suck."

Before Kiba, who made a rude noise, could say anything, Shino spoke up. "Then what do you suggest?" At first glance, the almost boredly worded question seemed mocking but then again, this was Shino. Anyone who knew him well could hear the curiosity in his tone.

Naruto grinned widely. "I got a jutsu." he said in a sing song voice. He took a few steps away from Kiba, walking towards the entrance. He spun on his heel, facing them all proudly with his arms crossed over his chest. "Gatsuuga worked well because it put so much force on the rock that it didn't shove it away, it drilled right through it, creating a somewhat stable passage that was strengthened a little by the excess chakra that Kiba threw out. His plan was a good plan, save for the part where he'd be stupid enough to exhaust all of his chakra."

"But-" Kiba started to say. Naruto turned to him, holding a finger over his lips.

"Don't be such a hypocrite, Kiba!" the blond scolded. "Isn't this what a team is supposed to do? Work together instead of letting one sap do all the work?" Kiba opened his mouth to reply, but then thought for a moment about what Naruto said. The boy blushed when he realized that he had been going against everything he had preached to the blond about an hour and a half before.

"Right!" Naruto cried out, punching his fist in the air. None who knew him well had ever seen him look so cheerful. Only Shino could have guessed correctly that the source of it was resting in his pocket, a fairly innocent card that was one step in the direction of dealing with an annoying enemy. "Keep close behind me!"

He spun around again, facing the entrance once more just as the ground shuddered again. The large group assembled behind him heard a loud groaning noise of weakening rock and looked around anxiously, expecting falling rocks at any moment. Naruto slid in a lower stance, sticking his arm out to the side. Bright blue energy immediately began swirling around his hand, centering on his palm.

Jiraiya watched his student's antics with increased interest. _So he had the same idea as I did._ He thought, scratching the back of his head. _When applied a certain way, it could have almost the same effects as Gatsuuga, ripping through the rock as well as layering on enough excess chakra to hold it for a few seconds even if the rock isn't that sturdy._ All in all, it was a good idea and he patted himself in the back for thinking it up in the first place, even though Naruto had been the one to put it in action.

The one thing that completely captured his attention was not the plan itself, but the medium in which Naruto was going to carry it out. More specifically, the glowing orb in his right hand. The rasengan, one of Jiraiya's favorite techniques, formerly the late Yondaime's jutsu.  
Jiraiya had taught the Yondaime look-alike the technique, a lesson that he could have sworn that the blond was intensely bored with. And Naruto had struggled with it for a few days, making history by learning the technique in under a week.

On one hand, Jiraiya was proud that Naruto had worked hard those few days to learn how to perform the technique. It pleased him greatly to see someone his age so dedicated. But on the other hand, Jiraiya had doubts if Naruto had worked at all during those days. Every time that Jiraiya came along to see how he was, he was sitting down on the ground, shooting an intense glare at a balloon balanced on his palm, moving water inside of it making a splashing noise as chakra tossed it around.

Yet, every time he was just out of range of Naruto, the steady flow of chakra dissipated quickly. Then, without warning, a suddenly quick gathering and releasing of a large amount of chakra would hit Jiraiya's senses and he'd run back, only to see Naruto still sitting on the ground, looking at the balloon. Though everything looked fine on the surface, Jiraiya did not miss over a huge hole in the side of a tree, nor the bits of bark standing out in heavy contrast against Naruto's hair.

Sometimes, when no chakra bursts came from Naruto's direction, Jiraiya even wondered if the boy in front of him was a kage bunshin. To test this theory, he had walked over and smacked the boy in the back of the head. Instead of bursting into a cloud of smoke, the boy cried out in pain, the balloon bursting suddenly in his hand with an increase in chakra flow. He turned around and started ranting at Jiraiya, shouting something about concentration and flow, something that Jiraiya, who was embarrassed, cut off, making up an excuse and saying that Naruto was gathering energy wrong.

Jiraiya was sure that something was... _off_ about Naruto. But not in the way that he feared that Naruto would defect from the village to go pursuit power. No, the boy had an almost blind loyalty to Konoha, as well as the curious lack of desire to gain any power. Of course, with a demon sealed in his stomach, Naruto had access to an almost unlimited energy source, if the demon was willing to share. But Naruto was odd and that made Jiraiya worried. Naruto reminded him, not for the last time, of the Yondaime, who was just as odd.

Odd people tended to get themselves killed, after all.

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed as the orb condensed and glowed with a bright light, spinning rapidly in Naruto's palm. The Yondaime never told him about his plan to seal Kyuubi, just as Naruto had carefully concealed his advancement into a one-handed rasengan. Every time Naruto had showed him the technique, the blond summoned a clone and they both concentrated hard on creating the orb. They had a concentration so intense that it _had_ to be fake. The hermit played with the idea that Naruto had known how to do it one-handed the entire time.

Jiraiya covered his eyes with a muffled chuckle, wondering if weirdness was inherited. Naruto and Yondaime both were strange, even for ninjas. And Naruto had proved time and time again that he was the oddest of the lot. _For such a seemingly open person, he keeps his mouth shut pretty tight._ Jiraiya thought with a frown. _He keeps things from people for no apparent motive or incentive... what I wouldn't give to know what's going on in his head._

**Oh, Stupid...** A voice called out in a deceptively light voice. Naruto cringed; the only thing keeping him from covering his ears was the rasengan in his hand. Although it would have certainly quieted the voice in his head, it would effectively killed him as a unfortunate side effect. 

_We can't have that happen..._ he thought privately to himself.

The voice was soft but the words were sharp. **What are you doing? What about my souvenirs?** Kyuubi demanded, youki flicking idly at Naruto's chakra. It had the equivalent effect on Naruto of a hard poke between the shoulder blades.

_Stop acting like a damn tourist._ Naruto replied with more calm than he felt. Kyuubi was more energetic now. If the demon felt like forcing his host's body back to the innermost chambers of the den to go protect his precious 'souvenirs', Naruto wasn't sure if he'd be able to push him back. The seal on his stomach had severely weakened from years and years of exchanging chakra back and forth by the time he was twenty-two.

The seal on his current twelve year old stomach had nearly been ripped to _shreds_ from the kinjutsu that had forced his and Kyuubi's souls to bond with the old versions of themselves. The weakened seal combined with Naruto's own distaste with caging Kyuubi would prove to be very little resistance if Kyuubi wanted to take over.

Almost as if he could hear these thoughts, Kyuubi pulled back.** I suppose I can always start a new collection...** Naruto sighed in relief before what the demon said had really sunk in.

_Hey, wait a minute... _he said, a scowl forming. The answering laugh was almost as harsh as one of Kyuubi's barks.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Naruto said, looking behind him. They looked like they were ready five minutes ago. Naruto flushed slightly, embarrassed that they had caught him daydreaming. He turned back forward. "Alright, keep up with me! _Rasengan_!"

The form and the angle of the attack was perfect. The rock fell apart as the powerful attack ripped through, blowing larger fragments of it and dust outside. And the sudden glow of the sun was beautiful to the men and the ninjas, like the first glimpse of water by a dehydrated traveler trying to make his way through the desert.

The green earth contrasted with the great blue sky up above them brightly, making everyone sigh unconsciously in relief. The speed in which they raced outside no longer was connected to the disasters of nature behind them but they became laced with the desire to be in the beauty of nature in front of them. The last person bolted out of the entrance before it finally collapsed, marking an end to a difficult chapter in their lives.

The first words to come out of the appreciative noises and wide grins were almost appropriately crude. "Shit, it's bright." Kiba said, looking up. He squinted at the sun with eyes not used to such light. "Is it noon?"

Naruto, who had been looking up as Kiba had, suddenly turned, his eyes following a cloud of smoke and ash to see that it was coming from the mountain. "You guys, we aren't out of trouble yet."

Jiraiya followed his gaze, a concerned frown forming on his face. He looked at the workers. "Where's the closest town or village? We need to warn them."

Juro stepped up to the challenge. He dropped Gatou on the grass and pointed north. "Just a little under two miles that way." He jerked his head back at the lump behind him that spewed muffled curses. "It's his center of operation."

"Two of us will hurry to the town." Shino said quietly. "The rest of us will follow at a slower pace."

"I'll go." Jiraiya volunteered, turning to leave.

"Me too." Naruto piped up, hurrying after him. He flashed them a grin and a wave. "Don't be too long!" The rest of them watched as the two ninjas leapt into the trees in a blurred flash and then completely disappeared from view.

Shino leaned over, grabbing Gatou by the back of his dirty suit and flung him over his shoulder. "Let us hurry." he said.

"Will Naruto-kun and Jiraiya-sama be alright?" Hinata asked worriedly, shifting from one foot to another.

"They shouldn't have any problems, Hinata." Kiba said encouragingly. "The only ninjas that they would have to worry about are our friends from Konoha and maybe a ninja from Suna, if they're unlucky enough to run into one." He looked back at the men, twelve including Gatou. "Come on, let's go!"

"I never want to see another mountain again." one of them moaned.

"Then let's all go back to the desert." Juro said tiredly, his face twisting in a grimace when the ninjas started running after Jiraiya and Naruto. He couldn't understand how they could pull up energy from nowhere to run after full grown men like him were already tired. Nonetheless, he sent a dark glare at the smoking mountain behind him and jogged after the children, joining his fellow workers as he did so.

"I hate ninjas." said a slightly overweight man near the back, panting heavily. "This is just like boot camp."

"I hate volcanoes." another one whined.

"I hate _you_." the one next to the whiner snapped.

Juro rolled his eyes. Some people were so childish. "Shut up, all of you."

---

Jiraiya was only one step ahead of Naruto as they sped through the trees. They leapt from branch to branch, chakra glowing around their feet as they moved quickly among the green leaves.

"Hey, smoke." Naruto called out, pointing just ahead. In the gaps between the trees, a tendril of smoke rose high into the sky. The smoke was much lighter and thinner than the smoke coming from the volcano. "Do you think it's a fire or something?"

"Most likely from a home." Jiraiya acknowledged. "Chimney, maybe."

As they grew closer, they saw that his guess was right. After running up a steep incline, they were suddenly startled by the appearance of a semi large village nestled between a cliff and a sea of trees.

Very few people were milling about but all were very startled when two ninjas suddenly came out of nowhere. They watched the two strangers with paralyzed curiosity and jumped when Naruto suddenly broke the frozen silence.

"Hey, where's your leader?" he asked, turning to the closest one. "Or... your mayor or something."

After a moment, a girl stepped forward. She was about ten years older than Naruto and had a pinched defiant look on her face. She held the basket of food in her hand like a weapon. "Why d'ya wanna know?" she said rudely. "Short stuff." she added, almost as an afterthought. Naruto scowled at her.

"We have something of grave importance to discuss with the head of your village." Jiraiya said, stepping forward. "It's a matter of life and death."

"I'll say." the girl snapped. She was neither cute nor ugly, Naruto mused, but she had an openly honest face that was clouded over by an anguish of some kind. The girl sighed. "Our village leader... _disappeared_ a month ago." The way that she emphasized the word made it clear that she didn't believe it. "The only leader here is-" her face twisted into a scowl and she jerked her shoulder off in the direction of a tall building surrounded by a wall and several guards, "Akatoshi Shiro."

Jiraiya frowned when the girl spat out his name harshly and the others eavesdropping in shivered. "Well, do you know where Akatoshi-san is?"

Before the girl could answer, Naruto shook his head. "Nah, they don't." he turned to Jiraiya, his eyebrows arching. "But we do." Naruto reached into his pocket, his hand closing around the identification card. He smirked, pulled it out, and tossed it at Jiraiya.

Still a little confused, Jiraiya caught the card between two of his fingers. He glanced at it, his face impassive. "Ah, I see. Very well." he said without feeling. He turned his attention to the girl. "You need to organize an evacuation. The mine- I dare say that you know of it- turned out to be a volcano. And because of some difficulties, we're worried that it might erupt."

The villagers look startled. "Ah…" the revelation seemed to have taken all the fire out the girl. "Um... Okay." She stood there, biting her lip for a moment before she suddenly whirled around to face the other villagers. "Alright! You heard them! Gather your families and items that you really need and get ready to leave." When the villagers had switched their confused stares from them to her, the look on her face soured. "Move it!"

"Yipes." Naruto mumbled. "She's loud."

"Hypocrite." Jiraiya said out of the corner of his mouth, unconsciously straightening when the girl turned back to him. _She's too much like Tsunade_, he grumbled to himself.

"Now, tell me why we're doing this, ninja." she asked sharply.

"You're doing it 'cause you don't wanna die." Naruto replied. She looked down at him, a frown tugging at her lips. "Your village is at higher elevation than the base of the mountain so you're mostly protected from lava flow, and you happen to be far enough away so that the explosion won't faze you, save for a few minor earthquakes here and there." the girl frowned, knowing that there had been quite a few quakes in the last twelve hours. Jiraiya looked down at Naruto, a little surprised at how well he had assessed the situation.

Naruto continued, crossing his arms over his chest. "But you have one major problem: The ash. If the winds change and the ash starts blowing in your direction instead of the opposite way, like it is now, you are totally screwed 'cause, not only will it be difficult to breathe but you will also have to deal with famine once the plants die and the animals that ate them start dying as well." he paused for a moment, letting the information sink in. "So, you know, this is for your best interest. Of course, you could always refuse. Not our problem. We're just messengers."

"Cocky kid." the girl said, her voice a little softer. "Fine. I'll bite. What the hell made the mine want to erupt anyway?"

"Akatoshi Shiro." Jiraiya said with a half smile.

"Figures." the girl hissed. She looked between them, a tense look on her face. "Alright, I'll believe you. In return for your information, I'll share a bit of my own…"

---

When Team Eight and the rest of the men finally made it to the village, they were surprised to find it almost completely vacated, save for two very annoyed ninjas. Hinata, after a closer look, redefined their expressions.

It wasn't annoyance. It was very tightly controlled anger.

Being ninjas, they were able to mask their emotions very well but Naruto, as Hinata had found out, though very good at masking his pain and sorrow, couldn't completely block out the anger he'd feel at the pain of others. Jiraiya seemed to be much the same.

"Hey." the hermit said, looking at the men over Team Eight's heads. "You guys can split. Go home and visit your families."

The men looked at each other uneasily. "Er…" one man said, trying to figure out a way to politely word what he wanted to say to the ninja.

"You aren't gonna kill us?" another blurted out. He was roughly elbowed by a nervous man next to him. Jiraiya looked at them and laughed.

"I see no gain in killing people over such silly things. So you were hired by the same guy as us, yet you had a slightly different job? Why the hell should that bother me?" he laughed again, wiping at the corner of his eye. "Ah, that was funny." Suddenly, the smile on the older man's face vanished as he looked at Gatou. "However, my mercy does not extend to him."

Terrified by the sudden chilly tone in the mostly nice ninja they had been traveling with, the men hastily said goodbye and took off their own ways. Only Juro stayed, preoccupied with helping the girl before packing up some extra food for the refugees. However, with his broken arm, he was hindering more than helping, but the girl smiled at his attempts. They seemed to know each other. 

Jiraiya took Gatou from Shino and threw the tiny man roughly over his shoulder. "I'm gonna take this thing to the capital. And then I'm gonna come back and find some evidence to bring before the Fire Lord." While the other ninjas nodded, Naruto looked faintly distressed.

"But-" he said, taking a step forward. Jiraiya grinned at him.

"Hey, you have that thing in a few days! If you go with me, you'll only miss it and that would be a damn shame." he shook his head lightly, "Nope, not having that at all. That grumpy Uchiha brat would probably castrate me-" he turned to Hinata and Shino, "And your parents would probably help!" While Hinata blushed at the reminder of the exam, Shino made a noise, neither confirming Jiraiya's fears nor easing them.

Juro walked over, smiling at Jiraiya and extended his hand. Jiraiya took it in return, squeezed it in return, and teased the man about his wife. The younger man blushed and mumbled something about going home. Then the man waved at the genins and took off for another town, a trip made much easier because the girl from before had lent him a horse.

While Jiraiya waved the man off, Naruto watched his teacher with a sense of despair. "But... you _have_ to be there." Naruto whispered quietly, his hands clenching. Whether or not Jiraiya came to the final exam could mean the difference between a war and a brief struggle. Jiraiya, thinking that the boy had just wanted him to be there to watch him fight, only ruffled his hair affectionately.

"We'll see. I might make it for the last bit if I hurry." he told his gloomy student. "Well, I'm off-" Jiraiya was cut off when a young man walked up to him.

"Sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear." the man said. He had dark eyes and dark hair and something about him made Naruto tense, even though he couldn't come up with a plausible excuse why. "I'm a messenger from the Fire Lord." he said as an explanation that they didn't really need. His attire was a big enough clue as is. "It seems like this is a bad man and you need to find some evidence so you may have an audience with the lord?" When Jiraiya nodded, the man smiled. With a sudden jolt, Naruto remembered Sai and his all too fake smiles. He hadn't thought about the dark haired ninja in a long time.

The messenger continued. "Well, as a Konoha ninja, you must be well aware of this but the longer that man lingers in the capital as only a captive, the more likely that an unscrupulous vassal or someone of the sort would aid his release." he said helpfully, looking annoyed that someone would dare do something like that.

Jiraiya frowned. "Yes, it is true that most captives tend to _magically _disappear unless they have a swift trial..." Though the government was mostly sound, there was always someone with too much power that screwed everything up.

The man clapped his hands. "Precisely. Now I owe Konoha a favor since they've helped out my little brother so much, so why don't I take this man up ahead towards the capital while you gather information?" he said. "I have a carriage. And you'll be able to catch up with us once you have the necessary information, since you're a ninja. That way, you won't have to do two trips."

"That sounds like a good idea." Shino offered. "This way, you'd be able to find the evidence, Gatou will get to the capital, and this man will have repaid his debts." While the hermit nodded at the boy's words, the young man waved his hand at a carriage. A man sat in front, his face covered by a hat and his body obscured by a dark cloak. He twitched the reins on the horses and the carriage rolled over to the ninjas and the young man.

The young man turned back to Jiraiya with that not-quite-a-smile. "And you will also get to watch your student in the Chuunin Exam." he said, shifting his gaze to look down at Naruto.

Naruto blinked up at the polite man, wondering why he had the desire to jump him and rip his throat out. He, with a wince, touched his stomach, wondering if it was a backlash of his mind's attempted revert to his more demonic side when he had wanted _so much_ to kill Gatou.

**Hey, who doesn't. **Kyuubi piped up. **Even I wouldn't say no to biting off a foot or two.**

_But you're a demon_. Naruto replied, as if it explained everything._ You think differently than I do. I'm not supposed to **want** to kill. It's just a part of my job description._

Kyuubi couldn't help but agree. **I suppose that's why life for a demon is easier than life for a human. Though what job are you referring to? Ninja? Hokage? Anbu? Hero? Or time traveler?**

_All of the above, I guess._ He mumbled back. _It's a tough job._

**Heh. **Kyuubi snickered rudely. **That's the essence of the difference between us. The bane of a demon like myself is the abundance of annoying pests I must kill in order to be comfortable. The bane of a hero is the aftermath of the death of one enemy.**

_What?_ Naruto was confused. The death of a villain usually meant that peace was inevitable, right? _What the hell do you mean by that, fox?_

Naruto could practicality feel Kyuubi's wide grin. **To me, the world is huge, populated by a bunch of weaklings to be squashed, which is terribly inconvenient. To you, the world as small as your greatest enemy, this, for a hero type, is either a highly intelligent villain or a ridiculously strong one. This tends to amuse me, since, every time one great villain falls, you hero types act surprised when you see that it only led to the rise of an even more powerful villain. **

This hit Naruto like a punch to the gut. He had never looked beyond Orochimaru, the Sound, and the Akatsuki. Nothing else had alerted his radar. Those were the only enemies he worried about. But what Kyuubi said was true. Once he had figured out a way to kill Orochimaru, once he had knocked off the Akatsuki for good, who was going to get bold and step up the plate to be the biggest villain on the block?

In Konoha's history, there were many examples of people who were supposed to be good going bad in times of peace. Orochimaru, for one. He had been taught by Sarutobi but, in between the secret wars of the ninjas, he had allowed his thirst for knowledge and ambitions grow stronger and stronger until he didn't care about who was hurt in the process. Sasuke was another painful reminder of how a mostly good person could go completely bad with the right pushing.

Naruto swallowed. He would do everything and anything to make sure that Sasuke didn't go to Orochimaru again, even if that meant hunting down Itachi and killing him. Sure, Sasuke would be pissed, but he'd eventually get over it, right? No villain, no avenger, no running away. It sounded great.

**Actually, you would replace Itachi as the villain in his life.** Kyuubi remarked. **He would become upset that you had taken his revenge away from him and he'd end up twisting the entire situation until he believes that the only way he could 'beat' that weasel would be to kill you.** The demon seemed to enjoy pointing out Naruto's mistakes.

Naruto sighed, feeling an overwhelming desire to drop to his knees and hit his head on the ground. _There's just no easy way to it, is there?_

His question was not answered. It might have been because Kyuubi felt the question needed no answer or that Kyuubi didn't know the answer himself.

---

That white-haired asshole had firmly secured him in the carriage, even mockingly asking if he felt comfortable there, completely ignoring how no civilized man could feel comfortable in a dirty suit and ropes, especially not when they had a hole in their shoulder. It was ninjas like him who made Gatou's stomach turn. Him, and that damn blond brat too.

It was a little disturbing to see how quickly his plans had fallen down all around him at the slightest interference of that kid. Hell, he was just bitchy about the mines! He had no idea what other things Gatou had stored up his sleeve.

Behind hauled around roughly like a doll gave Gatou some time to think and regroup. Not all was lost. Actually, going to the capital would be the best thing for him right now. The Akatsuki and Kazekage wouldn't dare attack him right underneath the nose of the Fire Lord and his Girl Scout ninjas, the leaf ninjas.

The stupid girl with white eyes did something to his shoulder. It no longer bled but it still hurt every time the carriage rolled over a rock. He hated her too. How dare she attack him? She didn't know her place...

The carriage rolled over a large rock, jerking Gatou back against the seat. He hissed in pain when his shoulder made contact with it. He cursed darkly, kicking the partition that kept him separated from the young man who had decided to help the ninjas and the other one that held the reins.

The dark-haired man looked back at Gatou through the small window on the partition. He said something to the other man, then disappeared to the left. A moment later, one of the carriage doors was opening and the man was swinging inside.

He sat next to Gatou, who recoiled with a sneer, and closed the door behind him firmly. "Comfortable?" he asked politely. Gatou sniffed and looked away. That fool of a messenger was beneath him. "Good." the other man said, his voice much colder. "I would imagine that you're in a very tough situation, Gatou-san." Gatou was about to make a rude suggestion before the words froze in his throat. Something about that young man's voice suddenly sounded so familiar… He turned slightly, looking and expecting to see the young man, only to be startled by the sight of another.

The man sat calmly in his seat, his arms crossed over his chest. He idly pulled his hat off, revealing dark hair. He, as he put the hat on his lap, smoothed down his dark cloak that had red blotches of clouds that had previously reminded Gatou of blood. Then, the man turned to him, his red eyes jumping out at Gatou.

Gatou leaned away, managing a small smile. "Er... hi." he stuttered. "I-imagine meeting you here, Itachi-san."

Itachi nodded. "Indeed." he said dryly. "I normally don't travel in carriages." he shrugged lightly, looking out at the passing scenery with boredom. "It.. how you say.. _clashes_ with my character." Gatou laughed nervously.

Itachi said nothing for the longest time, making Gatou edgier and edgier by the minute. Then, finally with a heavy sigh, Itachi pulled his gaze away from the window and looked over at Gatou. The younger man's garnet gaze made Gatou freeze.

"You failed me, Gatou-san." Itachi said calmly. "You allowed your own greed consume you. You depended on too many strong friends when you were pathetically weak." Gatou swallowed, realizing that Itachi knew about the Kazekage and the Oto leader's agreement with him. They had helped him to his feet when he had struggled, all for the financial help that Gatou promised them. Damn ninjas. "And, worst of all, I have a strong suspicion that you tried to destroy my treasure." The look in those horrible red eyes darkened.

"N-never!" Gatou said, drawing back. "It was that damn kid and his friends! It's all their fault that all the treasure is probably melted by now!" Itachi merely arched an eyebrow. Gatou wondered why the younger man looked so unconcerned about the state of his treasure.

"No, my treasure got out of that den well enough." he said slowly. "Without your help, of course." Itachi leaned forward, a small frown marring his face. "Why is it you insignificant people always stand in my way and hinder my path?" Gatou leaned back, feeling the vibrations of the moving carriage at his back.

He could see Itachi's hand. The one thing he had learned about the man was it was never good to see his hands. It usually meant something very bad was going to happen. He shoved himself against the carriage door, his brief relief at the door opening quickly extinguished when he realized that it couldn't open any more than a tiny crack. For some reason, a massive sword wrapped in bandages refused to let the door move. 

"I-I'll g-get you your t-treasure!" Gatou stammered, pressing his back against the carriage door in his attempts to get away from the man sitting next to him. He would have pushed himself out, shoving all his strength at the damn sword, and ran for his life but his hands were tied to one of the seats. Not to mention that his energy seemed to be sapped away from him at an alarming rate. If the situation had been different, Gatou would have thought that he was just tired, but the rapid way he lost all strength in his body could have only been because of those damn ninjas.

He stopped pressing back against the door, too exhausted to do anything but stare at the younger man through hooded eyes, breathing heavily. Gatou would have promised the man anything, even sold his soul to him, if he would just spare his life. It mattered not that there was no longer any treasure for him to get.

Itachi didn't even look at him. He continued to sit sedately in his seat, his arms crossed in front of his chest as his painted nails tapped a rhythm against his bicep. "I do not believe that you fully understand the situation you're in." he said softly, unaware that he was echoing another's words. The irony was not lost on Gatou.

"I... um... I..." Gatou couldn't string together the words to form a sentence. "O-Oro…"

"I care not about that fool and his business." Itachi said almost sharply. He turned his head, his red eyes glowing. "But I will get my treasure." Gatou relaxed, thinking that Itachi was going to give him a second chance. "The only treasure that I care about... you have seen it. It is wrapped up in a very odd package." Gatou frowned, trying to think about which of the many treasures he had seen that Itachi would have wanted. Golden trinkets, weapons, scrolls... he couldn't think of one that was wrapped up in an odd package. Actually, he couldn't think of _any_ treasure that had been wrapped up.

"The package... This you have seen." Itachi continued. He turned more fully to look at Gatou. He leaned forward ominously. "This package has blond hair, blue eyes, and a mean temper." As Gatou gaped at him, realizing exactly what, or rather who, he meant, Itachi's eyes narrowed. "That is the only treasure I care to gain. And I don't need your help to gain it." With a blinding movement and a sickening squelch, Gatou was no more.

Itachi pulled back a little, yanking his hand from Gatou's chest cavity, no remorse showing on his face. The only emotion he seemed to show towards the entire situation was faint annoyance that the blood had gotten on his cloak.

He looked back at the corpse for a moment, his eyes flicking over the frozen look on Gatou's face. He leaned forward to the window that separated him and the person steering the carriage. "Kisame. We're leaving." he said shortly. "Ditch the carriage."

---

Jiraiya ran towards the capital, loosely keeping to the well-worn road as he kept a firm grip on the thick folder underneath his arm.

Gatou's office had revealed nothing out of the ordinary until Jiraiya ran across a tense looking secretary who was hurriedly tossing her personal items in her purse. She was one of the last people still in the village and was very startled by Jiraiya's appearance.

He explained what he was doing though, hoping that the anti-Gatou sentiment that he could feel from all the villagers lingered in her too. His hopes were answered because the tiny and soft spoken woman suddenly adopted a rather frightful stare as she marched into Gatou's office and ripped a painting off of the wall. Behind the painting, naturally, had been a safe. Jiraiya could have hit himself for looking that over but he just thanked the woman and she left. 

Finding the combo to the safe was even easier: Gatou carved in the wood underneath his drawer. A few turns and clicks later, Jiraiya had his arms full of Akatoshi Corps' confidential papers. And boy did they prove that Gatou had a lot of skeletons in his closet. Contracts, business exchanges, human trafficking receipts(which was quite illegal in Fire Country), as well as a fully detailed set of documents that Jiraiya stuffed in the front of his shirt.

He had known at the mention of Oto, Suna, and Konoha that the conflict with Gatou was quickly escalating into Konoha's problem. Unfortunately, he was unable to find anything in writing that linked Gatou and the Akatsuki. But what he did have was enough to get Gatou into a lot of trouble.

_Hasn't this guy ever heard to not put anything that you don't want your enemy to know in writing?_ Jiraiya thought with a sigh. Some times he wondered why some people were so irrational. But Gatou's mistake was his fortune, he guessed. It was the many paper trails and evidence in writing that would allow the Fire Lord to punish Gatou to the full extent of the law.

And a lot of the documents he had gathered up coincided quite nicely with the story that the angry village girl had related to them before. Perhaps, if he had enough time later, he could bring her up to the capital for an oral testimony.

Flashback

_"Whatever you think you know, trust me, you don't know jack shit." the girl had begun rudely. Naruto and Jiraiya exchanged a look. "So, before that **thing** came, Akatoshi Corps was just a simple mining company that only mined in the mountains a little north of here. The vein of ore dried up or something and the company went bankrupt. But it wasn't such a big deal, not here. Fath- I mean, Akatoshi-san..." her slip didn't go by unnoticed. "He was a good man and everyone here liked him. Even when things went bad, the others were really supportive, like a big family or something."_

"So what happened then?" Naruto piped up, a concerned look passing over his face as he crossed his arms over his chest.

The girl sneered. "Shiro came along." she spat out like a curse. "Akatoshi-san had a daughter in which he had given everything to in his inheritance. She wasn't exactly beautiful or what a man would look for in a wife so she wasn't married. She was thirty by the time that Shiro came along. It barely took the little creep a month to woo her. In two months, they were married and everything was signed over to Shiro. He took on their family name, their business, even brought it up and out of the slump it had fallen into. Five days after their marriage, the daughter disappeared. Twelve days after that, Akatoshi-san disappeared as well."

Jiraiya and Naruto exchanged another look. They knew very well what that meant. Gatou had killed an old man and a lonely woman to get a company. It wasn't actually a very uncommon practice but it was definitely something they could get the little bastard for in the Fire Lord's court.

"And things... just changed after that. Shiro fired all the local employees, hired a bunch of foreigners, bringing in some of the worst crowds of people that this village has ever seen. And the village itself suffered. Before, Akatoshi Corps had enforced the laws in this village. Now, it only exploits them and ignores when the people plea for help. Twenty people have gone missing in the last two months. But is Shiro doing anything?" she shook her head angrily. "Of course not. He's basking it all up like a fat cat in the sun." She mumbled a few choice words underneath her breath. "And the worst thing is that the villagers are terrified of _him. They won't do a damn thing to stop him and that is half the problem. No one is going to stop him and... He'll just continue unchecked until someone does get the guts to shove a fist through his face." The girl stared sullenly down at the ground, her face tense. Jiraiya was going over in his mind some possible phrases that comfort her when Naruto spoke up._

"Akatoshi-san, the older one, he was your dad, wasn't he?" the boy asked. The way he phrased it didn't sound very much like a question though. It seemed more like a declaration of fact.

The girl flushed red. "How did you.. I mean.. who did you-" she cut off, shaking her head. She covered her face with her hand, sighing heavily.

"Duh." Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "We're ninjas. Underneath the underneath and all that crap."

The girl made a sound. It took the hermit a second to realize it was a muffled laugh. "Hm..." the girl said, one dark eyes narrowing at Naruto through the space of her fingers. "Yeah. I'm the daughter of Akatoshi-san... or, Father, rather. But I wasn't conceived with the woman he was married to at the time so I couldn't inherit his company, so he targeted my older sister. Rotten sonofa-" she cut herself off, looking down at Naruto. She seemed to just remember that he was a child.   
_  
The smile that showed up on her face was bittersweet. She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a well worn photo. Jiraiya leaned forward to look out of respect and not out of any real curiosity._

Akatoshi looked like an average villager. He had a pickax propped on his shoulder and stood with a group of men who looked nearly exactly like him. He wasn't quite smiling but he didn't look mad either. The only thing abnormal about the situation was Naruto's reaction to the picture. Very fine trembles went through his arms before his hands fisted tightly at his side.

The girl looked down fondly at the picture, slipping it back into her pocket. "He was a good man." the look on her face hardened. "And that Shiro deserves to die for what he did to him and so many others." Jiraiya was surprised when Naruto growled out his agreement.

End Flashback

After the girl had left to quickly gather her things, Naruto had told him about the trap he had fallen into in the den, the first of many. He explained what he had seen at the bottom of the hole besides some dangerous spikes. He had recognized the face in the picture as the corpse he had stepped on in the bottom of the hole.

Akatoshi had been forced into the mine to look for Kyuubi's treasure and had died in that lonely hole, most likely worrying about his children the entire time.

Jiraiya tried to stay neutral and impassive but he was never the type to be able to pull that off all the way. An intense anger built up in his chest at the thought of Gatou. Only Naruto's obvious enthusiasm at the idea of letting the Fire Lord decide his punishment stopped him from doing anything rash.

He glanced at the folder under his arm, the weight a firm reminder to hurry. He needed to catch up with the carriage. He thought about Sarutobi's request for him to accompany the aging Hokage to the final exam and frowned grimly.

Why would his teacher want him to sit there? It's not like the man to get lonely. Besides, he had the Kazekage up there with him as well, if he felt chatty. _So many damn questions and no damn answers!_ He figured it wouldn't be such a big deal if he wasn't there, even though something inside of him cringed at the idea of not being able to do what his teacher had asked (not ordered!) of him.

Up ahead, he could see a vague form that looked like the carriage that the messenger was in. As he grew closer and the outlines of the simple device grew sharper, he suddenly realized that there was something wrong.

It was on fire. From the looks of it, it had been just recently set. He rushed over to it, yanking open the slowly cracking door. With a thud, a body slid halfway out and hit the ground. Blood coated the ground and sightless eyes sought out Jiraiya.

"Shit." the hermit muttered, his eyes clouded over as he looked down at the body. "Gatou…" Something had hit his chest so hard that the sternum had shattered and crushed the heart underneath. He, after a moment of quick thinking, grabbed the man's limp arm and dragged him away from the fire.

The wood crackled and burned in the background as Jiraiya leaned over to see if Gatou's attackers had left a clue on him. He didn't see the bodies of the young man who had offered his aid or the other who steered the carriage so he had to assume that they were the killers.

"Dammit, how could I have missed over that…" Jiraiya knew why. He just hadn't cared. He didn't do a background check or made sure that the man was really who he said he was. He barely gave them a second glance. 

Why? Because somewhere in the back of his mind, Jiraiya thought that if Gatou got killed along the way to the capital, it wouldn't be such a bad thing at all. He gave the papers he had gathered a dark look. They were completely useless.

Only the information that he had gathered about Gatou's connection to Oto and Suna had any worth now. But he had a bigger problem on his hands that just the actions of a few tiny villages. What was he going to tell Naruto?

_Obviously the person who killed Gatou was a ninja. He mused, looking over body once more. But who would have been angry enough to_- Jiraiya's thoughts suddenly grounded to a halt. Inside of the den, he had overheard a bunch of workers exchanging gossip about two men that Gatou had partnered up with. The two men's description had sounded very much like Uchiha Itachi and Kisame but that had only been a guess.

From what he had gathered from the conversation, the two were annoyed with Gatou. Annoyed enough to kill? Even though that Jiraiya knew the probability of Akatsuki working with a businessman were slim to none, even though Jiraiya knew that nothing could be a hundred percent true unless supported by evidence, even though he had trailed Akatsuki for years and they had never revealed themselves to him.

_Nah, can't be them._ Jiraiya thought, shaking his head. _Gatou is small fry, they wouldn't mess with him._ As Jiraiya halfway convinced himself that Akatsuki hadn't killed Gatou, he suddenly recalled with great clarity the last words he had exchanged with the messenger.

"_And you will also get to watch your student in the Chuunin Exam_." the young man had added. Jiraiya stiffened as he realized a great amount of things in a short span of time._ I never said anything about the Chuunin Exam. And I never said that Naruto was my student._ The young man had ignored Team Eight and had looked at Naruto with odd intensity, almost as if they had met before._ Shit._

Jiraiya stood quickly, no longer thinking about Gatou. It wasn't his problem; one of the villagers would find him sooner and later and take care of things. He turned and started running in the direction of Konoha, hoping he run into a group of genins along the way.

He didn't give a rat's ass what the Akatsuki did to a corrupt businessman. He did, however, find much alarm at the thought of the Akatsuki being so close. One did not closely follow the comings and goings of a group without knowing at least their basic goals. And Jiraiya knew all too well what value the Akatsuki would find in a Konoha genin. Or, rather, what value they would find in a tiny blond with a loud mouth and a hot temper to rival his inner demon's seemingly limitless youki.

He ran faster. He had to get to Naruto before the Akatsuki did!

---

Naruto stared darkly into the fire, his arms leaning on his crossed legs. He leaned so close to the fire that it almost seemed like he was a part of it, his eyes reflecting the red glow while his face look vaguely orange.

Hinata, who was barely half awake, watched him from her sleeping bag. She shifted in her bag as quietly as she could but Naruto still heard and looked over at her.

The tense look on his face quickly abated. "Hinata-chan." he said softly, trying to insert a scolding tone to his voice but failing. "You should be asleep." Now that she knew that he was aware that she was awake, she pushed off all pretenses that she was asleep and sat up. She rubbed at her eyes tiredly.

They had parted with Jiraiya many hours before, after the man had ordered them to head back to Konoha on their own. Such a trip was easy; they weren't very far away from the village, only about a day and a half at their speed. If they went even faster and didn't stop to sleep, they could have been home in half of a day.

Or so Shino pointed out. Naruto and Kiba had quickly disagreed, their reasons why very different.

"_Come on, Shino!"_ Kiba had said, sighing at his stoic friend. "_Do you really want to enter Konoha all tired from running like hell? Especially with all those foreign guys in town... Some of them are as scary as hell."_ he shivered in memory of the few that had made a lasting impression. Naruto would not have been surprised to hear that Gaara was one of them. "_They might jump us! And we look like a bunch of fools if we lost on our own territory."_ While Shino reluctantly agreed, Naruto thought on his own reasons why they should travel back slow.

He didn't think it was particularly selfish or vain. He just wanted Jiraiya to come back. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that the time when Jiraiya would come back had absolutely nothing to do how slow they traveled, but he still couldn't help himself.

"Um.. Naruto-kun." she spoke slowly, not from nervousness but from exhaustion. "It's my turn to watch-" her speech was paused by an impressive yawn that pushed its way through.

"It's fine." Naruto assured her. "I'm not tired but you look dead on your feet." He winced, the careless wording bringing back bad memories.

Hinata missed over the look on his face and instead tightened her hands on her sleeping bag. She gave him a look that Naruto might have very loosely labeled a glare if he wasn't talking about Hinata. "You need sleep." she argued. It might have been more impressive argument had she been more awake.

Naruto frowned, rubbing the back of his head. He felt entirely too antsy to sleep. Something in the back of his mind (not Kyuubi, this time at least) kept on bugging him. There was something wrong with their situation. There was something he had looked over. And until he had figured out exactly what that 'something' was, he couldn't even think about sleeping.

"Hinata-chan," he began quietly, leaning towards her. "I'm going to scout around. You get some more sleep, okay?" he crossed his fingers behind his back. "I'll wake you up after."

Hinata looked up at him, then back at her crumpled sleeping bag with longing. She looked back up at him, her eyes narrowed. Naruto could feel her defenses crumbling. "And you'll really wake me up?" she asked finally. She was already lying back down.

Naruto nodded. "Of course." he said soothingly. She didn't address exactly when she wanted to be awoken so Naruto figured, with a soft smile as he watched her eyes close, that she wouldn't be so mad at him if he woke her up in the morning and she realized that Naruto hadn't woke her up for her shift.

He stood, stretching out his sore muscles. Naruto's eyes flickered over Team Eight, unconsciously making sure they were alright. Hinata was curled up in her sleeping bag, her hands fisted in the material while Shino lay completely and perfectly still on his back on top of his unopened sleeping bag. Somehow, Kiba's sleeping bag had ended up about ten feet away from Kiba himself. The boy was sprawled on his stomach on the ground and Akamaru was nestled on his lower back. Fortunately the ground was covered with thick grass so Naruto doubted that the boy felt much discomfort from his position.

_Maybe a walk around wouldn't be such a bad thing after all._ Naruto mused, performing quick seals. In moments, three other blond genins were there. Without a word, each took a corner of the makeshift campsite and sat down heavily, wary eyes looking out into the darkness.

Satisfied with the arrangements, Naruto stretched a little more and started ambling randomly in the woods around, taking note of the type of plants and animal abundant. He wasn't exactly sure how far they were from Konoha, being bad with all types of maps, but having a basic idea of what kind of wildlife was around would give him an general idea where he was.

_Besides, I think Shino would hit me if I asked him again how many minutes we're from home._ Naruto laughed lightly, shaking his head. _Boy, Naruto... you sure are useless sometimes._

**No kidding.** Kyuubi rumbled. He started to say something but then a viscous growl ripped from his throat. **Brat, you aren't alone.**

Naruto had sensed it before Kyuubi had revealed it. It was the same sort of wrongness that he had felt before, only multiplied by a thousand. He reached for his kunai, his bare feet digging into the ground as he looked around the suddenly unfriendly trees and shadows. For a second, Naruto was almost positive that the bright moon had flashed a deep red.

After a moment of standing defensively but seeing nothing and feeling nothing but that weird feeling of that there was something that he had neglected and it had just come back to bite him in the ass, Naruto shouted out into the darkness. "You! Show yourself!" It wasn't exactly the best thing to yell out at an unknown enemy but Naruto wasn't exactly the type to beat around the bush.

After another long moment, a long shadow in the clump of trees in front of him began to move towards him. Naruto tightened his grip on his kunai but did not move. The shadow slowly glided amongst the shadows until it had reached a small patch of ground brightened by the glow of the moon.

Like a fist had suddenly tightened over his heart and squeezed, Naruto knew what that evil something that had lingered at the back of his mind was. "Uchiha Itachi." he breathed quietly, going limp for a moment.

How could he be so stupid? He only thought of Itachi as simply a force that would corrupt Sasuke and ruin Naruto's plan to save Konoha. He had completely forgotten that Itachi was a human. And, as humans often were, completely unpredictable.

Naruto had never seen Itachi as a threat to Sasuke. He only saw Itachi as the reason why Sasuke had left Team Seven. He only saw Itachi as a vague threat to himself and Kyuubi. But, seeing Itachi here and now, at the exact time and place where Naruto had believed that the Akatsuki member would _not_ be (_shouldn't have been!_), Naruto realized how much of a fool he had been.

Itachi wasn't easily avoided. Itachi couldn't be brushed off or hidden from, just as Sasuke's thirst for revenge would never go away. Naruto wanted to shake his fist at the stoic man in front of him, shouting that he wasn't supposed to be there. But such careless outbursts would only lead to more trouble in the long run. He tightened his grip on his kunai and waited.

Itachi arched an eyebrow, his face almost hidden in shadow. The moon was at his back and only his eyes glowed in the darkness his face was thrown in. "You know of me?" he asked, but it was questioned so blankly that it might have been a statement and nothing would have been different. "That makes things a little easier then. You know who you're dealing with so you won't do something foolish and inconvenient in the long run." He walked over to a tree carelessly, his eyes focusing on a red flower that bloomed out of the darkness.

Naruto, watching him warily, remembered a time when he wanted to walk like Itachi. It was before he fully understood what Itachi had done, how it affected Sasuke, and really before he understood the pain of having someone close to his heart heartlessly killed. Something about the missing nin's walk was threatening, a sort of dangerous glide that seemed both casual and defensive. He now revolted at the thought of being remotely like the red-eyed man.

Itachi usually wasn't the one to engage in pointless chatter so Naruto was surprised when Itachi looked up at him again, continuing the conversation. "Do you know why I am here?" he asked softly, pointing at him casually. From at that angle, he almost looked like Sasuke, only Sasuke's eyes had never been that cold and uncaring.

Naruto swallowed. Why was it suddenly so hard to think? "Kyuubi." he rasped out, his eyes narrowing. "You want him."

Itachi blinked, the only sign of his surprise. "In the long run... yes. You are very well informed." he admitted. "But now, my purpose is simple. I wish to warn you to not move against me, Naruto-kun."

A frown tugged at Naruto's mouth as some half forgotten memory tugged at his mind. "Don't call me... that." he mumbled, wondering why it felt so right and familiar to say that. Naruto was quiet for a moment, trying to fit information into a mind half frozen in confusion and shock and perhaps something else. "Why…" he never finished.

Itachi turned away. "When I do come for Kyuubi, do not resist. It is futile and, in all honesty, rather dull." he slid on his hat, making Naruto blankly wonder why he had never noticed it in the man's hands. "It would be better for you if you do not bore me with your petty struggling, Naruto-kun."

Something about being docile jump-started his brain. He suddenly snapped up his kunai in front of his chest. "Screw you!" he shouted immediately. "And don't call me Naruto-kun!" Itachi glanced over his shoulder, confusion making him look more like Sasuke than ever before. That enraged Naruto even more. "I'm not gonna be a good little boy and you're not gonna get Kyuubi!"

"Odd..." Itachi murmured, fully facing the irate boy. The sight of the impassive sharingan eyes threw Naruto into action. He ran at the man, hurling the kunai at him quickly. Itachi caught it between his fingers and prepared for Naruto's charge.

With a roar of anger, Naruto threw everything behind his first punch. Itachi quickly dodged it by leaning to the side. Naruto swiftly turned around, launching himself at the dark-haired man again. Itachi jumped out of the way, then blocked the next kick with his arm. This continued for several moments where Naruto angrily attacked Itachi and the man either blocked or dodged.

"Naruto-kun, you are far too attached to your anger." Itachi murmured as he slipped behind the panting boy. He grabbed the thin neck barely protected by the high collar of the boy's dark vest before yanking him back. "Do you think it is wise to attack an S-class missing nin?"

The boy looked back at him from the odd angle and suddenly grinned. "Do you think it is wise to judge a guy by his rank,_ Itachi-chan_?" he taunted with that oddly feral grin. Itachi's eyes narrowed but before he could do anything, the blond disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"A kage bunshin." Itachi murmured. "So you swiped that scroll? Interesting…" Naruto jumped out of the tree, hurling kunai at the red eyed man. Itachi just jumped out of the way, his eyes narrowing when a kunai clipped the end of his cloak. He landed lightly on the ground, then jumped backwards to land on a branch of a tree

Naruto hid amongst the trees, feeling oddly nervous even though he was back in his element. Being one of the few Anbu left in Konoha after the war, he had become accustomed to stalking his prey with terrifying stealthiness and quick executions.

_Nothing but walking corpses._ That's the only opinion Naruto had on the Sound forces and Akatsuki. They were merely there to be knocked down. It wasn't really killing if he thought about it like that.

He knew what had taken his confidence away from something that he had been so good at. A flash of a memory, flashing red eyes and a face he knew all too well. "_You took away my reason for living! You selfish bastard!"_ Naruto felt sick as he remembered Sasuke's anger when Naruto had killed Itachi and how Sasuke had ended up killing himself afterwards.

Naruto probably couldn't face Itachi, not the way he was now. He was too weak and he needed more training. He had tons of chakra, good chakra control, and almost unbeatable stamina, but that meant nothing if his body could only sustain a small fraction of this power.

But the thing that won Itachi their fight the most was Naruto's lack of desire to kill him. It wasn't that Naruto was against killing Itachi. Naruto would have loved to kill Itachi again, to destroy the force that had turned Sasuke against Team Seven's path from the beginning. But the consequences from doing that were too high of a price to pay. Naruto would rather die than have Sasuke killed again.

Naruto took a deep breath and peeked around the trunk of the tree. While he had been thinking, Itachi had disappeared from sight. _Great._ He thought grimly. _Now it will be impossible to find him._

**He'll either find you or find your little friends. **Kyuubi added in unhelpfully.** Either way, I would imagine that the little weasel has you trapped pretty good, brat.  
**  
With a curse, he hurried back to the camp, startling the kage bunshin sentries. They shot him confused looks. "Itachi." he said simply. Their gazes hardening, the three blonds jumped up, forming a tighter circle around the oblivious and slumbering Team Eight.

Naruto glanced around, seeing nothing but knowing that Itachi was out there somewhere. When he had beaten and killed Itachi, he had completely ignored the fact that there was no way in hell he could have beaten him. All he had felt was a sort of glee that the man was no longer around to hurt his friends but even that had been chased out of his mind after Sasuke had shown up.

Itachi was an ANBU. Itachi had killed an entire clan in the span of a single night without attracting any attention from anyone else. Itachi had that cursed sharingan technique. So how was Naruto able to defeat him when he was fifteen and barely chuunin?

A sudden sick feeling in his stomach arose as he realized that he hadn't been stronger than Itachi at all. The bastard had let Naruto kill him! Naruto remembered the dead look in Itachi's eyes when he had goaded him into attacking so long ago in that nameless village. He knew that look all too well. He had seen it on Sasuke afterwards. It spelled out quite simply that they had given up on life. Both of them decided suicide by Naruto.

Naruto gritted in his teeth in frustration. One thing that he had always been able to say was that he had defeated Itachi in a fair fight and that always led him to feel confident against any Sound nin that Orochimaru could throw at him. Because he had defeated Itachi, Itachi no longer became a relevant problem in Naruto's eyes. It was Orochimaru that Naruto had focused on and he realized his mistake now that he had run into Itachi.

For a moment, Naruto considered fighting Itachi with his all. Not just unleashing all of his chakra from the seal but also allowing Kyuubi's youki to completely surge from his body and transform him for the first time in this body.

But what if he lost? Who would save Konoha from Orochimaru? Who would save Sasuke from himself? Naruto swallowed, feeling fear for the first time in a long while.

He stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. He came up with a loose plan to get Itachi away from Konoha and Team Eight for the time being. If there was one good thing that Naruto could say about Itachi, it was that the missing nin was almost polite.

He had the tendency to act perfectly civil until he killed you. Or until you pissed him off. Itachi was smart and often backed out of pointless battles. According to Itachi, Naruto's resistance was futile so if he just stopped resisting, maybe the guy would go away? Naruto crossed his fingers, hoping he hadn't pissed the man off too much with his 'Itachi-chan' comment.

"Okay, Itachi." Naruto said, knowing that he was somewhere near. "I got your warning. Can you just _go_ now?"

Leaning against a tree nearby, Itachi considered it. He had come to see the demon host out of a strong sense of curiosity, wondering what was it about the blond that made him capable of handling the mighty Kyuubi. The question hadn't been answered, not that he expected it to be in the first place, but Itachi found himself surprised by Naruto anyway.

He narrowed his eyes. He hadn't expected a fight at all. In fact, while warning Naruto, he had employed a mild genjutsu that had the vague effect of hypnosis. And what did the blond do? He threw it off in moments then blindly attacked him, and even managed to trick him with a kage bunshin. How rude.

_Truly... you are very interesting, Naruto-kun._ Itachi lingered for a little longer and then, deciding that his message had been passed on and there was nothing else that needed to be done, he left, leaving no clue of his presence.

Feeling the oppressive aura leave, Naruto sighed in relief, dropping to his knees. The clones disappeared in a burst of smoke. Naruto braced his hands on the ground, his breathing very shallow. He was in way over his head. Orochimaru was only a part of the problem, as Itachi had very neatly pointed out.

With a shaking hand, Naruto covered his eyes. _Well,_ he thought wryly. _There's no way in hell I'm gonna go to sleep now._

---

At dawn, things moved rather rapidly. As Naruto predicted, Hinata was peeved that he didn't wake her up for her time to watch but didn't push the subject when Naruto didn't bother to explain himself. She could sense his bad mood from a mile away. It couldn't have been any clearer even if he had taken a marker and wrote 'I'm in a bad mood' on his forehead.

Jiraiya showed up about five minutes before they finished breakfast. They were surprised to see him so soon but they greeted him enthusiastically, pushing some food towards him. Jiraiya gratefully gobbled it down.

"So, what happened?" Kiba asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Akamaru was licking the last of his breakfast from his plate.

Jiraiya wiped his mouth and looked over his hand at Naruto. The blond narrowed his eyes at the look in his eyes. The hermit put down his plate then lifted the cup of tea to his lips. "Gatou's dead." he said quietly, taking a sip. There was a shocked response from Hinata and Kiba but when they pressed to know the exact details, Jiraiya shook his head.

A little disappointed, Kiba pulled back. "Well... good riddance." he said finally. "After all that guy did."

"You don't even know the half of it." Naruto said flatly. He stood quickly. "Come on, I want to get home before noon." Team Eight was confused but had learned over the last few days that no one (save for Hinata if she pushed hard enough) could make him talk if he didn't want to. And no one wanted to even attempt at it, not when he was in such a bad mood.

While they gathered up all of their belongings, Naruto slipped away to talk to Jiraiya. The old man was sitting on the ground, resting after his mad dash to catch up to Team Eight and Naruto. He looked up when Naruto's shadow was thrown over him.

"Okay old man…" Naruto said with a frown. "What the hell is wrong?"

Jiraiya managed an irritated smile. "I'm your sensei, show me some respect." When Naruto rolled his eyes, Jiraiya scowled. Naruto looked around to make sure that Team Eight wasn't around, then sat down in front of Jiraiya.

He leaned forward, bracing his hands against his knees. "Akatsuki killed Gatou, didn't they?" he asked. The half amused look on Jiraiya's face fell. He grimly nodded.

"Naruto." he said, all serious now. He had a concerned look on his face. "There are a few things I have to warn you about. You and Akatsuki, you see… you're connected. They-"

"Want Kyuubi." Naruto said flatly. "I know. You're a few hours too late to warn me about that." _Or a decade really._ He mused quietly. _Depending on which way you looked at it_. "Itachi came by."

Naruto almost felt sorry for Jiraiya. From the look on his face, he had to wonder if the old man could take so much shock in one day. "And what did he do?" Jiraiya growled. Naruto didn't look hurt or injured but his total change in demeanor was a clear sign that the visit had affected him.

Naruto gave him an annoyed look. "Oh, we sat down and had some tea, caught up with gossip. You know, the sort of thing the average person does when they see a mass murderer has come by for a friendly chat." His voice was thick was sarcasm.

"That's not funny." Jiraiya said, his frown deepening.

"I didn't mean it to be." Naruto said just as darkly. He stood up quickly.

"Naruto!" the blond's motion to leave was halted by the man's sharp command. He turned around, looking down at Jiraiya. The man had a very serious look on his face. Naruto had a bad feeling that he wasn't going to like what Jiraiya was about to say. "You will be watched over all times and supervised by ANBU forces or myself. You will not go outside of Konoha, nor will you have prolonged contact with foreign ninjas. Do I make myself clear?"

Naruto suppressed the first three negative responses that came to mind, knowing that Jiraiya would find them offensive. He pinched the bridge of his nose of a moment before he looked over at Jiraiya. "Screw you." he said flatly, giving up trying to be civil. "When you, or any ANBU of Konoha really, beats an Akatsuki member fair and square, come back and talk to me. Otherwise you're just wasting valuable resources."

"Naruto, I'm only trying to keep you safe!" Jiraiya said, quickly standing. Team Eight finally overheard their conversation and looked up. "If they get you-"

Naruto whipped around so fast that Jiraiya pulled back. "When are you lousy people gonna get it into your thick skulls that I don't give a rat's ass about-!" he bellowed, but then cut himself off with a rough shake of his head. "Look," he said in a much softer voice, "I worry more about Sasuke than myself right now so if you feel better posting the damn ANBU on me, fine, go ahead. I don't give a damn."

The walk back to Konoha was very tense. Jiraiya was careful to walk twenty feet ahead of the small clump of genins, as if he expected Naruto to give him a firm kick in the rear. Even Akamaru kept quiet, sensing everyone else's bad moods. Team Eight was very confused about the conversation they had overheard.

Actually, to be more accurate, only Kiba was confused, having no idea how Kyuubi, Naruto, and the Akatsuki all fit in together. Shino knew about the Kyuubi and put two and two together to figure out that Akatsuki wanted Naruto for him, though the reason why anyone would want a demon escaped his understanding. 

Hinata had guessed at the presence of Kyuubi in Naruto before and that, coupled with the mention of the infamous Akatsuki, was enough to make her worry about Naruto and agree that Naruto needed some bodyguards. Hinata, naturally, since she had agreed with Jiraiya on that aspect, now felt lousy because Naruto apparently didn't want anyone protecting him. She felt like she had betrayed him by wanting him to be safe.

They were about thirty minutes away from Konoha when Naruto fell into step with her. He nudged her shoulder with his and shot her a smile. Hinata blinked and watched as the blond stuck his tongue out childishly at Jiraiya's back. Hinata smothered a giggle.

Sensing that the tension had eased a bit, Kiba squeezed in between Naruto and Hinata, wrapping an arm around both of their shoulders. He had an evil look on his face. "So…" he drawled, smirking at Hinata, then at Naruto. "How do you feel about the first upcoming match of the Chuunin Final Exam?" Hinata turned a bright red.

"Kiba-kun!" she whispered, looking extremely embarrassed. Naruto only blinked in confusion.

"I suppose it will be... interesting?" he said, looking over at Hinata to see if she thought that his wording was okay. The girl wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Idiot." Shino said quietly. He walked on Naruto's right, his hands shoved in his pockets. "He doesn't know."

Naruto started to react to the word 'idiot' before he realized that Shino was talking to Kiba, not him. "I don't know what?" he asked instead. Kiba and Hinata gave him a look.

"You seriously don't know?" they both said at the same time, Hinata being considerably more horrified than Kiba. Naruto started to get annoyed.

"Hence the reason why I asked." he said dryly. Kiba started to laugh uproariously while Hinata only stuttered incoherently. Whatever confidence she had gained in the last few weeks since the preliminaries seemed to have been completely shattered. Naruto glared at Kiba before he shrugged it off. It probably wasn't that important.

Kiba jumped in front of him, that annoyingly superior grin on his face growing as Naruto was forced to stop. He poked his finger into Naruto's chest. "I'll tell you what it is…" he said in a singsong voice. "If you do me a favor."

"Psh." Naruto sidestepped him. "I ain't doing you any damn favors, mutt boy." Kiba scowled at him then ran after to catch up.

"Fine then!" Kiba said, ignoring the desperate way that Hinata elbowed him to stop. It was too damn funny to pass up. "It'll serve you right to be standing there all confused when the time comes!" Naruto considered the possibility that the final exam had changed from a one on one battle to something else and considered it slim to none. A lot of things had changed because of his meddling but he seriously doubted that the exam had changed much in its application.

"Well.. whatever floats your boat." he replied dispassionately.

"Buoyancy." Shino automatically replied. Kiba and Naruto shot him a confused look.

"What?" Kiba asked, looking at his teammate like he had grown another head. Shino coughed into his hand.

"Buoyancy floats your boat." he said blandly. An oddly tense silence followed after Shino's statement. Then Naruto started to laugh, quickly accompanied by Kiba.

"Man, you are such a dork!" Kiba said, shaking his head. Even Hinata giggled and Shino smiled briefly, although he wasn't sure why they thought what he said was funny. But the slightly annoyed feeling of being laughed at faded when Naruto grinned at him.

"Shino, don't ever change." he said with that bright smile. Shino tilted his head, understanding that it was a compliment of some kind. He knew it was impossible not to change (after all, they were in the middle of a period of growth in their young lives), but he found himself nodding anyway.

"Look!" Hinata suddenly said, pointing at a set of large gates in the distance. "Home!"

Kiba whooped and started running towards Konoha, Akamaru chasing his heels. After a quiet laugh, Hinata followed him. Shino only picked up his speed slightly, muttering something about Kiba's sprint 'defeating the purpose of their rest'.

Once Team Eight had passed Jiraiya, Naruto swallowed and fell into step with his sensei. For a moment, they simply walked, watching the retreating backs of Team Eight. "Sorry." Naruto mumbled.

Jiraiya was quiet but he looked over at Naruto, a fond look on his face. He placed a hand on the blond's wild hair. Naruto looked up at the touch. "Nah, no need to. I understand. I'd be pissed off too, if I was in your position." he said. "I'm just glad that nothing bad happened when I was gone."

"But…" Naruto trailed off, looking again. "You're still gonna follow through, eh?"

"Yup." Jiraiya said quietly. "Sorry kid."

Naruto was silent up until they were almost to the gates. "Can I... have a request though?" he asked almost uncertainly. Jiraiya nodded, his eyes narrowing. "Can you... um... tell me who the ANBU are when they have to baby-sit me?"

Jiraiya was surprised by the request. He had almost expected something juvenile or silly. "Why?" he asked, highly suspicious.

Naruto froze. _Think Naruto! What would be a good excuse for why I want to know who the ANBU are?_ The real reason was to make sure he wasn't hooked up with someone who was sympathetic to Orochimaru's cause, if one could really word it like that, or someone who eventually turned over to Orochimaru's side. _What a pain in the ass that would be if an ANBU or two suddenly and mysteriously died while they're supposed to be with me._

Naruto had little to no tolerance for the Sound nins. He almost ripped off Kabuto's face the first time he had seen him. It was truly a pity that he hadn't run into the traitor in the forest of death. He would have gladly traded the life that he had taken of that lower leveled and poor disguised Sound nin (who tried to pretend to be a rain nin) for his.

But he couldn't tell Jiraiya that! If he even hinted at the sort of trouble that Naruto fully expected to be in with the Sound in just a few days time, Jiraiya would probably pull him from the exam. And toss him into a sealed room with no exits. Guarded by the very traitorous ANBU that Naruto was worried about at the moment. _And Orochimaru will come in and we'd have a cup of tea and we'd talk about his lack of a love life..._ Naruto thought darkly. _Come on, what would be a good excuse?  
_  
**I'm rather fond of the 'oh, look at me, I'm the poor abused Kyuubi child and I'm oh so afraid that someone will try and hurt me because of it.'** Kyuubi remarked. Naruto snapped his fingers. That was perfect!

_Kyuubi, you are a genius!_ He praised.

Kyuubi flicked one of his tails rather smugly.** I know.**

---

TBC..

Preview of the next chapter:

_Without even giving him a proper greeting, Sakura yanked him off his stool and pulled him outside, ignoring his protests. Iruka, when Naruto pleaded for assistance, only saluted him with his chopsticks and a smile.  
The flaps on the stand fell and Naruto was suddenly jerked to the side. "Say something to him!" Sakura growled in his ear. It took a moment for Naruto to realize that 'him', the owner of the muted chakra that had been accompanying Sakura outside of the stand, was Sasuke. Naruto blinked owlishly at the expressionless boy. "He's been a pain in the ass the whole time you were gone!" With that, she shoved him forward.   
Sasuke looked him up and down, his face carefully indifferent. Naruto wondered why he hadn't recognized his chakra and promptly realized that it was because he had been expecting to feel the evil taint of Orochimaru's chakra. He couldn't help but feel a little smug about that, since it had been because of his actions that Sasuke's chakra remained pure, but under that unreadable gaze, even that small sense of pride wilted.  
"Uh.." Naruto looked at Sakura. She made encouraging sounds, gesturing for him to say something. Naruto, scratching the back of his head, looked back at Sasuke. "I'm back from my mission." he stated the obvious, clueless as to what he was supposed to say.  
"Oh.." Sasuke said softly. There was a pause in which Sasuke looked at him with that same annoyingly emotionless face. "..You were gone?" To Naruto's surprise and his growing annoyance, Sasuke looked away, a bored expression passing over his face. The next sentence set Naruto's temper off like nothing else could. "I didn't even notice."  
Sakura had to physically haul Naruto back when the blond started to lunge at Sasuke. "You prick!" he yelled, shaking his fist at the now smirking boy.  
"Really, Sasuke-kun.." Sakura said, surprised at how much force it took to hold Naruto back. She would have figured that her training with Tsunade would have at least made her a little stronger but it seemed like she still wasn't stronger than Naruto. "That's.. not exactly how friends are supposed to act.."  
"Yeah!" Naruto said loudly, stomping his foot for emphasis. "What she said!"_


	49. And the Ball Begins to Roll

Alright, I blame the Sasuke-Naruto reunion in this chapter entirely on my frustration at the apathetic Sasuke, the obviously brain dead Naruto, and the oh-lookie-it's-Sasuke-kun-I'm-gonna-stare-as-he-kills-my-captain-and-teammates Sakura of around chapter 308-ish. I mean, what kind of reunion was that? Sasuke! Show more emotion! That's your best friend, you moron! Naruto! Get off the damn floor and say something intelligent besides the boy's name! And Sakura! What the hell are you doing? Kick the crap out of him already! -hides in corner and sulks-  
Oh, and this, like my last chapter, is unedited. So, forgive any spelling mistakes or horrendous grammar or general errors. Now why couldn't someone tell me that Anbu was ANBU before? 49 chapters in and this is the first time I hear about it..

----  
For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Forty-nine: And the Ball Begins to Roll

by Foxie

----

Only four days until the finale of the Chuunin Exam and Konoha's finest (and some of the worst, admittedly) ninjas were still running around, making sure that everything was perfect. The final exam was more than just entertainment. It was also a massive political gathering of lords and nobles from all throughout Fire Country as well as some pretty influential people who were not of royal blood.

The fact that the Kazekage was going to see the exam as well was a matter of pride to the ninjas of Konoha. They, to word it very simply, wanted to show off. They were proud of Konoha and wanted to show everyone else that it was truly the best of the hidden villages, even out of the top five.

So when Team Eight, Naruto, and Jiraiya walked through the gates, they almost instantly lost track of each other in the crowds of people. Paranoid about how many people were suddenly in Konoha, Naruto jumped out of the crowd with a push of chakra and landed on a roof. He happened to land next to Shino, who had the very same idea.

"Why the hell are all these people here?" Naruto said, raising his voice so it could be heard over the loud conversations of the crowd below. He didn't remember it being as crowded the last time around. But, then again, he had been training most of the time and was distracted by that as well as thoughts of fighting Neji. Fighting Neji obviously didn't even reach the top hundred of Naruto's worries at the moment. He didn't even think it was qualified to go on the list in the first place. Neji was small fry compared to Orochimaru.

"I would imagine it's for the Exam finale." Shino said blandly. Naruto glanced over at the tense genin and wondered if it was as hard for him to be surrounded by so many rowdy people as it was for Naruto, who worried about whether the people around were just civilians or Sound nins in disguise. Shino never did seem to like crowds. Or people. Or anything really. Naruto grinned. He liked Shino. _Smart guy_.

"Hey." he called out quietly, waving his arm to catch the stoic genin's attention. Shino looked over at him, an eyebrow arched. Naruto stuck his hand out towards him. "You know, if we don't see each other before the exam, I just wanted to say.." he paused, looking down at the crowd. It was very possible that they wouldn't see each other for a while, not when there was so many people milling about. He looked back up at Shino. "Good luck with your match."

Shino looked at the hand proffered to him with little to no expression on his face, then took it in his own. "Yes." he said, a bare hint of a smile appearing. "You as well, Naruto."

---

Sasuke stared critically down at his sandals. Part of the material had been ripped off, a mild consequence of his heavy training for the last few weeks, leaving more foot showing than he was comfortable with. His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out if it was bad enough to have to buy a whole new pair or if he could just grin and bear it. Or.. brood and bear it.

He glared down at the small patch of a pale foot that showed through the cut of the material. Was buying a whole new pair worth it? Would any one of his opponents in the exam even notice? Thinking of his first opponent, he immediately shook his head. Rock Lee had no clothing sense at all. But then again, neither did Sasuke. No one really expected that the only Uchiha that really counted (as Naruto had come to call him) would be so vain about his shoes.

_It's so.. _his thoughts trailed off when he couldn't find a word to define the disgust he felt for not wearing proper shoes. It wasn't just disgusting(who knows what you're stepping in), it was also improper, shameful.. His expression relaxed. _That's the word. It's shameful. I'm not a savage. I'm an Uchiha._

Of course, for someone who should be training to kill his older brother, worrying about a tiny and unnoticeable rip on his sandal was more more than a little silly. But Kakashi had told him not to train and Sasuke wouldn't put it past the man to check up on him frequently. So he was stuck and had nothing to do.

And Sasuke was extremely bored. Once he had moved past his fixation with his sandals, he would move on to critically examining his nails, then to fretting over the length of his hair before wondering if his left arm was a tiny bit longer than his right arm. Which was, naturally, unacceptable because he was an Uchiha and thus had to be perfect.

_I bet Itachi's arms are the same length_. He made a face, dusting some dirt off of his black shorts, one of the few he owned and had pulled from the back of his closet for the Chuunin Exam. When he was made chuunin over everyone else, he wanted to look like it. He didn't want to look like a genin.

_I bet chuunins don't fuss over sandals._ A nasty voice in the back of his mind spoke up. He ruthlessly squashed it, his attention once again zooming on the tiny patch of flesh so indecently exposed.

He knew very well that he was being silly. But he had made up a perfectly good excuse for why he, an Uchiha, would indulge himself in these silly activities. It was all because he was in serious lack of a moving punching bag or kunai target (such as a certain missing dobe). He'd think about this for a while before he'd huff angrily, brood a little more, then go back to staring gloomily at his shoes.

So, since he was deep in _serious_ thought, he was very irritated when he was promptly glomped by a warm female body. He gritted his teeth and kept on walking, ignoring the way that the girl was hanging off his back.

"Oh, _Sasuke_-_kun_.." the girl breathed into his ear with a high pitched giggle. The look on his face soured. He'd rather spend some more quality time with his shoes. "I have a present for _you_."

"Too bad." he said snappishly. "I don't want it." Unfortunately, his acknowledgment of her presence only encouraged her instead of making her back off. At least Ino, with her wandering hands and habit to tackle him whenever she saw him, would have backed off by now. That was the only positive thing that he could say about the blonde, really.

"I _know_ you missed me." she whispered in his ear, trying to be seductive. Sasuke couldn't think of anything more pathetic than a twelve year old trying to seduce another twelve year old but, before he could repeat this train of thought to her, a familiar and welcome person ran up to them.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called out with a wide smile, waving at him. Without even thinking about it, Sasuke started to smile back but the oh so heavy weight on his back ruined the moment by making a disgusted noise.

"Hey, lookie Sasuke-kun." the girl said snidely and just loud enough for Sakura to hear her. "It's the _mutated_ forehead." The surprised look on Sakura's face changed into a look of death. Sasuke tossed his head back, glaring at the girl. If looks could kill, the combined teamwork of Sasuke and Sakura would have knocked the girl six feet under already.

"Do I even _know_ you?" he stated boredly. She giggled again, as if she thought he had made a funny joke. Sasuke's irritation grew at an alarming rate. He knew there was a reason why he hated girls.

"Get off of him, Ami!" Sakura snapped out, her green eyes flinty.

The girl, Ami he supposed, sneered at her. Now that he thought about it, she did look a little familiar. Perhaps she was from the Academy, one of the many who never made it to genin because of the difficult test. Sasuke knew that Team Seven themselves had barely passed, and that most of their passing rode on Naruto and his efforts. A fact that never ceased to annoy him when he thought about it. Back then, how was he supposed to know that teamwork was better than working alone?

Ami's shrill voice rang in his ear as he wondered if most girls possessed only half of a brain. Anyone with sense would know that screaming in your love's ear would not endear you to him. Not unless he had severe brain damage. "What? You think you and your overly large forehead are better company than me? Ha!" she tossed her purple hair over her shoulder. "I think not!"

Sasuke saw Sakura's eyes flash with pain and decided that enough was enough. He pivoted his shoulder, making the girl loose her grip on him. "A cockroach would be better company than you." he said coldly to the girl, walking towards Sakura as he spoke. His teammate looked up at him in shock. He didn't care.

Sasuke was well aware of the interest in him that many girls had displayed over the years. He was aware of the silly rumors and what the girls thought he 'liked best in a girl'. It annoyed him because one, the only way that they would know what he liked or not was if they asked him (not that he would have told them) but they never did, and because two, the conditions were so stupid and completely unlike anything he would think what would be a good quality in a girl. Not that he.. _cared _or anything.

Who the hell cared about the length of a girl's hair anyhow? Make-up, foolish styles, hair length, even the scent of their _shampoo_.. none of these mattered to Sasuke because he was aware of one universal and irreversible fact. None of that stuff could disguise complete and utter stupidity.

Okay, so maybe he _did_ care about and pay attention to the qualities in girls. But only a little! Just enough so he could use it against them. Naruto had told him he was a sadist at heart. And Sasuke believed him. He would use the girl's stupidity against her and not feel a twinge of regret.

He turned, looking at the surprised girl. He smirked. "Besides, I only go for girls that made genin. Anyone who failed that _simple_ test is beneath me." he said venomously. The girl flamed red. Making sure the other girl saw it, Sasuke gently touched Sakura's shoulder, making it clear who he preferred over Ami. "Come, Sakura." he said softly, seeing Sakura's pink face out of the corner of his eye. Her shoulder was oddly stiff under his hand.

They walked away, leaving a crushed girl behind. After a moment, when they were completely out of sight, Sakura elbowed Sasuke in the gut. _Hard._ Sasuke winced and took his hand off of her back. "That was mean, Sasuke-kun!" she chastised, trying so hard to keep a scolding look on her face. Her face was flushed pink but he couldn't tell if it was from anger, embarrassment, or something else. Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction when she let out a muffled curse. Turning abruptly towards him, she spoke again, keeping her voice down so that no one save for Sasuke could hear her. "You used me, you.. _user_!"

A small smile tugged at his lips. She amused him to no end. "Your point?" he said just as quietly. "She had a big mouth. Someone should have stuck a gag in it or something." Sakura's attempt to chastise Sasuke crumbled at an amusing memory of her early Academy days. Sasuke glanced over when a muffled snort escaped her. He was surprised by her amusement, having expected her to scold him some more. _Something about manners and whatnot.._

"Ino." she explained to him simply with a wide grin. Her eyes glowed brightly in mirth. "When we were in the Academy, Ami was making fun of me and Ino gagged her with flowers." Sakura smiled warmly at her fond memories.

"Hmph." Sasuke murmured, relaxing a little. So maybe there _was_ two things that he liked about that clingy blonde. "She must have recognized the wide target."

Sakura was quiet for a moment, her smile fading as she contemplated over something. He could tell by the way that she was fidgeting with her hands that she wanted to ask him something. "Have you ever.." she trailed off for a moment, looking up at him. Suddenly, as if she was too embarrassed to look at him, she turned her gaze to the ground. "Have you ever considered getting a girlfriend? You know, to get them off of your back?"

_Ah, so that's how it is._ Sasuke mused, pretending indifference. "Yes." she looked up at him, almost holding her breath. "But I will never have a girlfriend." he finished blandly. He was gladdened by the disappointed look in her eyes. It meant that, though she had changed very much from the girl back in the Academy that clung to him so much, she still liked him. He had to hide a cocky smirk, feeling oddly pleased with himself.

"Oh." she said, trying to be indifferent as well but failing horribly. Sakura wasn't the one to hide her feelings. "Why is that?"

He looked over at her in all seriousness. She looked up and met his eyes. "Because.." he said quietly, leaning towards her. "The rest of the girls would kill her. And that would be a damn shame."

For a moment, she stared at him in shocked silence. Then, she started to laugh. "Ha, then you should get yourself a strong girlfriend!" she teased with a grin.

"Or one terrifying enough to scare the rest of them off." he added lightly, leaning away from her once more.

Sakura shot him a smirk. "Sorry, I don't think Anko's single."she said slyly. Sasuke's eyes widened in memory of that crazy woman and also at Sakura's bold comment. Just the thought of her even mentioning a possible relationship between the much older woman and Sasuke was enough to make the Uchiha laugh briefly. Sakura was forever corrupted. And he knew exactly whose fault it was.

"You know, you shouldn't hang around Naruto so much." he teased, a smirk on his face. "You're starting to lose that pristine good girl image." Sakura grinned at him with a blush but then snapped her fingers.

"Oh, Naruto!" she said, suddenly remembering something. "That's right! He's the reason why I was looking for you!"

Sasuke's attention was immediately captured on her at the mention of his rival. "Naruto?" he said, doing what little he could to suppress the excitement he felt from coming out in his voice. He wanted to show Naruto what he had learned while he was gone on the mission. Naruto was going to be so jealous that Sasuke was now the second user of the infamous chidori technique. He couldn't wait to rub it in the blond's face. His sandals were completely forgotten. "What about him?"

Sakura smiled brightly. "He's back!"

---

The first thing that Naruto did once he parted from Shino was bang on his old sensei's door loudly. Iruka, not wanting to disturb the neighbors, opened the door very quickly even though it was obvious that Naruto had woken him up from a nap. More than a little grumpy, Iruka stumbled through getting his clothes on as Naruto pushed him out the door to an unknown destination.

It was only when a steaming bowl of freshly made ramen was placed in front of him did Iruka really wake up. He blinked at the smiling chef before looking down to the stool to his left which, as per usual, was occupied by a blond heartily slurping down some noodles.

"It's been a while since I had this." Naruto revealed around some noodles when he realized that Iruka was looking at him. He grinned widely, slurping up the rest of the noodles. "It tastes better when you're with me." Iruka smiled for the first time in days and picked up his chopsticks, following Naruto's example.

Between bites and ramen bowls, they discussed a wide range of topics, most centering around the Chuunin Exam. Surprisingly enough, Naruto had more questions about who was going to watch the exam than the ninjas actually involved. Iruka was able to tell him a lot, being on one of the many committees dedicated to making the visitors' stay as comfortable as possible.

After a moment, Iruka finally got the reaction he had been expecting from his old student: irritation. He almost smiled when Naruto shoved some more noodles into with his mouth with a snort. The boy swallowed, then turned to face Iruka more fully, his face pulled in a frown.

"Isn't that just stupid?" he asked, dropping his chopsticks with a thud. Iruka started to reach for money to pay for his student's meal only to watch Naruto yank out his froggie wallet and slap down some money.

_Wow._ Iruka thought. _That's the first time that he hasn't tried to con me into paying._ Now that he thought about it, Naruto only had one bowl. That paled in comparison to his average of five to ten bowls per meal time. Iruka wondered if his old student was sick.

Naruto wasn't sick but he definitely was stressed out. It affected him to the point where his favorite food tasted like sawdust in his mouth. He tried to explain himself to the older ninja, feeling a need to express his irritation. "I mean, having so many people come for just one silly exam? I thought this was a _hidden_ village."

Iruka smiled at the annoyed look on the blond's face. "If we were truly hidden, then we wouldn't get any missions, now would we?" he mentioned reasonably. He was surprised when Naruto shook his head.

"No, that's not what I meant." the boy said, bracing himself on his knees. He didn't look at Iruka. "If.. _hypothetically_.. something bad happened during the exam, like uh, maybe an attempted _invasion_, wouldn't just the massive amounts of people here just end up making the situation a hell of a lot worse?"

Iruka frowned, an ominous feeling passing over him. When someone asked about something hypothetically, it rarely was ever hypothetical. For not the first nor the last time in his life, he wondered what Naruto had gotten himself into this time. "If, hypothetically, something was to happen.." he paused, thinking about it. On a normal day, something like an attempted invasion or an attack by a large group of ninjas could easily be brushed off, if they followed their three step plan of removing threats.

First they would make an attempt to nip the problem at the bud with the forces closest to the problem in question. If that did not work, all of Konoha's attention would move towards evacuating as many civilians as possible out of the danger zones. The last and final step was, of course, to bring out the elite and take out the intruders. The last step never failed. The elite were truly the elite. There was little that they _couldn't_ do. And, in all of Konoha's history, the only thing that they couldn't do was kill a rampaging fox demon.

Iruka absently stirred his noodles as he contemplated. _But following such a plan right now.._ he thought, biting his lip as he imagined it. _It would be damn near impossible to take out the intruders without massive amounts of casualties_. There was just too many people. Konoha ninjas would end up stretching out their forces as much as they could to protect as many people as they were able to and then, much like a stretched out rubber band, would all too easy to break.

He looked over at Naruto, who waited patiently for a response. "_Hypothetically.._ yes." he turned back to his noodles, leaving it at that. It was simply too horrible of a notion to linger on. Iruka didn't think such a thing would happen but then again.. even the great Yondaime couldn't have predicted that the Kyuubi would have come to their village or that he would die in the battle. "Having so many civilians in Konoha during a time of crisis would make the crisis turn into.." he trailed off with a shrug, trying to think of a word.

"Pandemonium." Naruto supplied, his eyes growing dark. He remembered the Chuunin Final Exam. There really wasn't much of a finale in the first place. Gaara and Sasuke had been fighting, and then something had happened and he fell asleep along with nearly every other person in the stadium.

But even when Sakura had woken him and Shikamaru up, and they had chased after Sasuke with Pakkun, Naruto didn't realize how bad the fighting was. All he had seen was Kakashi, Gai, and many other assorted jonins kicking the asses of the Sand and Sound nin invading forces.

It was only afterwards, when Naruto had heard that the Sandaime had been killed and after he had been patched up by a tired looking medic nin, that he had realized exactly how bad the attack had been. It had shaken Konoha to the core and broken its spirit. Even Gai had found it hard to make his enthusiastic youth speeches.

"You know, Jiraiya wants to tag me with an ANBU." Naruto mentioned quietly, seeming to change to subject randomly. Iruka would never know how much the hypothetical invasion and the upcoming topic were related.

Iruka looked at him with surprise. "Why would he want to do that?" Naruto felt an odd sense of pleasure at the outrage in Iruka's voice. Though he could understand why Jiraiya wanted to have him babysat and (had he not been the charge in question nor had not known how much more powerful the Akatsuki was compared to the average ANBU) would have wholeheartedly agreed, he still was glad that someone agreed with him.

"It's about my uh-" he looked around, as if he was expecting to see another genin or friend of his. Iruka frowned at his carefulness. Naruto leaned slightly forward. "It's about my furry friend." he explained in a quieter voice. "The Akatsuki- you know, Uchiha Itachi and the like- want him for some bizarre and probably illegal reason." The chuunin was shocked by the blond's nonchalant tone.

"That's horrible!" Iruka whispered, his eyes flashing protectively. Naruto smiled a little. _And this is where he suggests more baby sitters.._ he predicted.

A determined look passed over Iruka's face as he clenched his chopsticks. They snapped in his grip but he didn't even notice. "Hey, is one ANBU even enough?" he asked fiercely. Naruto smirked. He had his old sensei pegged.

Before they could continue on with their conversation, a very irritated medic nin in training walked in. Though Naruto pretended to be surprised and enthusiastically greeted her, he had been aware of her presence for five long minutes, accompanied by a much subtler and subdued presence that he had written as one of the many vaguely suppressed chakras in the village. Her presence, unsuppressed or hidden and shining like a beacon to anyone who cared to look, had been the main reason why he had been a little reluctant to talk about Kyuubi so openly.

Without even giving him a proper greeting, Sakura yanked him off his stool and pulled him outside, ignoring his protests. Iruka, when Naruto pleaded for assistance, only saluted him with his broken chopsticks and a smile.

The flaps on the stand fell and Naruto was suddenly jerked to the side. "Say something to him!" Sakura growled in his ear. It took a moment for Naruto to realize that 'him', the owner of the muted chakra that had been accompanying Sakura outside of the stand, was Sasuke. Naruto blinked owlishly at the expressionless boy. "He's been a pain in the ass the whole time you were gone!" With that, she shoved him forward.

Sasuke looked him up and down, his face carefully indifferent. Naruto wondered why he hadn't recognized his chakra and promptly realized that it was because he had been expecting to feel the evil taint of Orochimaru's chakra. He couldn't help but feel a little smug about that, since it had been because of his actions that Sasuke's chakra remained pure, but under that unreadable gaze, even that small sense of pride wilted.

"Uh.." Naruto looked at Sakura. She made encouraging sounds, gesturing for him to say something. Naruto, scratching the back of his head, looked back at Sasuke. "I'm back from my mission." he stated the obvious, clueless as to what he was supposed to say.

"Oh.." Sasuke said softly. There was a pause in which Sasuke looked at him with that same annoyingly emotionless face. "..You were gone?" To Naruto's surprise and growing annoyance, Sasuke looked away, a bored expression passing over his face. The next sentence set Naruto's temper off like nothing else could. "I didn't even notice."

Sakura had to physically haul Naruto back when the blond started to lunge at Sasuke. "You prick!" he yelled, shaking his fist at the now smirking boy.

"Really, Sasuke-kun.." Sakura said, surprised at how much force it took to hold Naruto back. She would have figured that her training with Tsunade would have at least made her a little stronger but it seemed like she still wasn't stronger than Naruto. "That's.. not exactly how friends are supposed to act.."

"Yeah!" Naruto said loudly, stomping his foot for emphasis. "What she said!"

Sasuke's attention was drawn by Naruto's foot which, as it had been for the last few days, remarkably sandal-less. He grimaced, reminded of his own sandal predicament. "Where's your shoes, dobe?" he said, looking at Naruto with distaste. At Naruto's mumbled confession that he had lost them, Sasuke smirked again. "How utterly distasteful. And _so_ you." Sakura had to restrain Naruto again.

Even though Sasuke smirked just out of Naruto's reach and Naruto shouted obscenities and flailed, both of them smiled to themselves, reveling in a feeling of content that both had felt before when they realized that the other was just as lonely. But now it was less about the knowledge that they were alike and thus not as lonely as they thought.

Now, based on more than just knowledge of each other's pain, they smiled inwardly, understanding the message that the other was sending to him.

_I'm home, Sasuke. _

Welcome back, Naruto.

---

There was no better day than a day where he had nothing he needed to do. Sure, the others had tried to rope him into joining a committee and help out with the Chuunin Exam, but Kakashi was much smarter than that. He begged off the duty, using Sasuke's training as an excuse.

It still surprised him how much influence the Uchiha name still held. When mentioning Sasuke, everyone immediately backed off, agreeing that he should train the only remaining Uchiha that really counted.

_Hehe.._ Kakashi grinned to himself. He liked that tag on and had to applaud Naruto for thinking of it. Sasuke, after all, wasn't really the last Uchiha. Itachi was still lurking about and no doubt his pride would be wounded if he found out that everyone consistently referred to Sasuke as the last Uchiha. Kakashi smirked grimly.

Of course, he hadn't mentioned to the committees at all that he had given Sasuke the last week off. Kakashi had told the irate boy that he needed to be in top form before being pummeled by Rock Lee, which meant letting his body heal from his training.

Kakashi grinned at the memory of Sasuke's reply. The boy had been angry at the thought that Lee would defeat him, and even more so at the thought that Kakashi believed that he didn't have any chance at all.

It was called reverse psychology and he was surprised that Sasuke, as smart as he was, didn't catch on. Though it was all well and good to have people believe in you and believe in your inevitable victories, it wasn't good at all to get a big head over it. _Big heads make big targets, after all._

He had noticed that Sasuke had grown overconfident of himself over the years of the Academy and, while placing him in Team Seven had knocked him down a peg or two, he still had an annoying tendency to always believe that he was going to win.

Kakashi's comments stating otherwise had two purposes. One, and the most important one of them all, was so that if Sasuke did lose, he wouldn't feel as dejected with the loss. No other person on the continent could pout and sulk like an Uchiha could and Kakashi would rather not have to face that again.

The second purpose was slightly selfish. Kakashi wanted Sasuke to win. _Badly_. Gai's student fighting his student? There was already a large bet going on over who would win the fight and Kakashi had placed a large sum on Sasuke, despite his own beliefs that Sasuke couldn't match Lee in strength, speed, or taijutsu._ Talk about blind faith.._

If Sasuke thought that others believed that he had no chance, the boy's pride would shove itself to the surface and _demand_ that the Uchiha prove them wrong. A person fighting to prove others wrong was a better fighter than an arrogant fool who thought that the match was already decided in his favor, but only by a little.

The jonin decided, putting aside all bets and rivalries, that he was very worried about Sasuke and the boy's overinflated ego. After all, wasn't pride one of the deadly sins? Kakashi had to wonder what would happen to Sasuke if his pride increased to the point where he no longer cared, or worse, if his pride was crushed underneath the heel of more powerful ninjas. Either way, Kakashi was sure that Sasuke would not be able to survive such a thing.

He didn't worry about this as much with his other two students. Despite her determination, Kakashi had found that Sakura was seriously lacking in pride, something that had alarmed him, especially when he had first believed her to be in abundance with it. After all, who would tackle a scowling boy without first being comfortable enough with herself to do it?

Sakura had steadily grown in self confidence over the last few months, mostly because of her medic nin training. Kakashi wasn't quite sure where that hobby had started, nor would have ever predicted it as a path for her, though he should have because of her nearly perfect chakra control. Because she knew that she was weaker than the rest of her team, but she knew that she brought something value to them as a medic nin, her confidence in herself stayed at a very manageable level, for this Kakashi was very glad.

He was used to dealing with arrogant boys(having been one in his youth), not arrogant girls. That was _way_ out of his field of expertise.

Speaking of boys, Kakashi thought back to one of the most confusing and mind boggling boys he had ever met. When they had met, he had mistaken him for being an arrogant brat who thought too highly of himself and had gleefully anticipated crushing his confidence. After all, who really snapped out that they were going to be the Hokage and show the rest of them what Hokages really were supposed to be?

Now that Kakashi thought back, he realized how blandly Naruto had proclaimed his dream. Sure, it had been loud as one could have expected from a blond, but it lacked spirit. And Kakashi realized how much of Naruto's perceived arrogance lacked spirit as well.

_Like a well practiced script_, Kakashi thought, frowning a little. His expression tensed a little more when he thought on how Naruto and Sasuke interacted with other. They seemed to have a dangerous rivalry at times. And other times, they almost seemed to be best friends.

_Though Naruto has been unusually careful in messing with Sasuke's ego_. On numerous occasions, when the two boys sparred, he had seen Naruto pause in the middle of battle, as if checking himself. This only happened after Sasuke fell too far back or couldn't block an attack all the way.

Even worse, he had seen Naruto's eyes widen in worry if Sasuke didn't get up fast enough, then had watched the boy loudly proclaim that Sasuke had broken his hand and retreat to nurse over his imagined injury. This naturally prompted Sasuke to smirk and insult Naruto's punches, even though that Kakashi knew the boy was hurting from the blows. Either way, Naruto's behavior was highly suspicious. It had gotten to the point where Kakashi actually asked Naruto about it.

The boy had feigned ignorance, something that was painfully obvious to Kakashi's eye, since a guilty look had passed over his face right before he lied. So Kakashi didn't ask any more and mused to himself. Why did Naruto hold back? Why didn't Naruto follow through with the fighting words that came out of his mouth every time that he and Sasuke verbally sparred?

At first, he was ashamed to admit that he thought that Naruto wanted to hold Sasuke back. The point of having a team was to have other people push you to become an even stronger ninja. By not fighting Sasuke with his fullest capabilities, Naruto was essentially making Sasuke weaker.

Then came the mission in Wave Country and Kakashi suddenly knew why Naruto never fought Sasuke with his all. He felt stupid for not realizing it at first, not when it should have been so obvious. It was clear in the sudden way that Kyuubi's youki had wrapped around him on the bridge he nearly died on and the bizarre way Naruto had acted afterwards, moody and unwilling to fight anyone.

Naruto was _terrified_ of hurting Sasuke. And, Kakashi mused, had all the reason in the world to be. One, he was the host of a powerful demon and there was no telling when youki would bled into Naruto's chakra and make Naruto monstrously strong and deadly. Two, he was unnaturally strong even on his own. And three... Kakashi sometimes worried about number three. Sure, he could get over the Kyuubi and the effects that came with it, since Naruto seemed to have decent control over the fox, but the third reason why was what made the situation even worse than it had to be.

Not only did Naruto have the strength and the energy to kill Sasuke if he wanted to, but he also had the _experience_. Kakashi couldn't count on his hands how many times Naruto had made a motion as if to perform a killing blow, only to stop short of it. It was a very subtle movement but Kakashi had been a captain of the ANBU. Kakashi didn't miss much, no matter how subtle or hidden it was.

He noticed it almost immediately and it _scared_ him. For many reasons, obviously. Where had Naruto learned to kill? Kakashi certainly didn't teach him it. Jiraiya condoned killing unless it was absolutely necessary so it wasn't him either. And Kakashi seriously doubted that the almost motherly chuunin Umino Iruka had taught him how to kill either.

Killing itself was easy. Certainly it was much easier than subduing, as it meant the difference in skill that it took to immobilize a person for a long time, or to break their neck in a span of a second. But dealing with the emotional backlash from killing was something that had to be taught in order for one not to become insane.

Naruto's actions reminded Kakashi of a killer but Naruto's words reminded him of an idealist. How could two completely contrasting characteristics lie in one person? "_I know a ninja must kill. Some people must be killed in order to keep the balance between powers. I am not naive enough to believe I can live without killing someone._" he had said before and Kakashi wondered how much of what he said was spoken from experience.

Kakashi had put this in the back of his mind to chew on later, having no explanations or answers to his questions at the time, a tactic that he found worked quite well. And, forgetting himself and everything that he had figured out about the blond previously, he had chastised Naruto on the same arrogance issue that he found himself struggling with because of Sasuke.

"_You know, you can't win every battle_." he had commented. It seemed fairly innocently due to the context. They were on a mission, searching for another lost animal of the Fire Lady. This time, it wasn't a cat but a huge tiger.

Kakashi had idly wondered if the Fire Lady's constant misplaced animals had less to do with a conveniently 'open' gate and more to do with the utter terror that the animals had of her suffocating hugs. Team Seven tried to coax the tiger out of a tree and calm the poor creature down. The tiger, being surrounded by a bunch of strange people, was far from being coaxed and lashed out at the closest target, Sakura. The girl had screamed immediately, tearing Kakashi's gaze away from his book.

But before Kakashi could move to defend the girl, Naruto had already stepped between her and the huge cat, taking four thick claws in his back. The tiger, seeing the space created by Naruto's lunge to save Sakura, immediately darted out and back into the woods once more.

The initial concern for Naruto's back wearing off after the boy had insisted that the barely sliced past skin, Sasuke had berated him for moving out of the formation. "_Now we have to go find that stupid thing again._" the boy had fumed, even though Kakashi knew he would have been in front of Sakura and protecting her before Naruto could, had he been in the right angle to do it.

Naruto mumbled something like an apology as Sasuke angrily walked away, Sakura, after a small apologetic glance towards Naruto, on his heels. Naruto had looked so dejected by this that Kakashi stepped forward, actively participating in the mission for the first time in the last three hours.

"_Let me see your back._" Kakashi had asked and had immediately been appalled by the sight. Naruto shrugged off his shredded vest and shirt, revealing four long and bloody gashes going down the length of his spine. It looked absolutely horrible but when Kakashi had started to gather chakra to heal it, Naruto backed away from him.

"_No point_." he had explained, pulling back on his shirt with a wince as the material rubbed against his raw back. "They'll heal soon anyway." He had looked away then but Kakashi still could see his defeated expression from what little was exposed of the boy's face.

"_You know, you can't win every battle_." Kakashi had mentioned. He then prepared to go into a rant, or possibly story mode to teach Naruto about the old phrase 'you win some, you lose some'.

But Naruto had turned to him with the most heartbreakingly sad smile that Kakashi had ever seen in his entire life. His entire rant died in his throat. "_Yeah._" the boy said quietly. "_But it seems like the battles that you **do** win never truly are a real victory while the ones you lose only make everything harder in the long run. Or make the long run itself an impossible concept._" He stuck his arms through his vest, his eyes focused on nothing. "_But that's the life of a shinobi, isn't sensei?_"

Why was it that only the people he viewed as being weaker or less intelligent than himself (he would never have called Naruto an idiot but he had called Obito one, numerous times) were the ones with the insights on life that he, surprisingly, could find himself agreeing with?

Wasn't Obito's bold declaration about teammates from what he based his entire life from then on? Wasn't he walking towards the very stone that reminded everyone who cared to understand about what the pain of being a shinobi was, what Naruto had revealed was the bittersweet victories and devastating losses that came from living the life of a ninja?

Obito's death had been a devastating loss, for him at least, while the sweet victory of Konoha against the rock nins had been tainted with sorrow. Everywhere he looked, every real victory was tainted with loss. Why couldn't there be a circumstance where they would win without pain? Why did life have to be so _damn_ hard?

Without Kakashi's knowledge, his feet had started to walk a very familiar path towards the memorial. While he had noticed it halfway there, he didn't bother to stop until he was only twenty feet away from his usual spot. Between him and the stone, a lone figure knelt on the ground, gently running a thin hand past the numerous names etched on the face of it. He was about to go away, not wanting to intrude on another's mourning but he recognized who it was.

Instead of leaving, he took a step forward. And then another and another until he stood right next towards the figure. Well aware of his presence, the kneeling figure continued to look at the stone with detached eyes.

"..He would have been happy." the first words to come out of the figure's mouth were not harsh but soft. Her fingers lingered on the name 'Uchiha Obito'. Kakashi glanced over, his eye swiftly moving over the familiar female features with more than a little pain. It had been quite sometime since he had seen her, after all. "He always.. wanted to be acknowledged for something." A bitter laugh escaped her. "Well, at least he is acknowledged in death. I'm sure that's more than he hoped for."

"He would have been happy that _you're_ here, Rin." Kakashi corrected quietly. The medic nin shot him a vaguely annoyed glare. It confused him, seeing her as if she barely had enough energy to feel anymore.

Obito's death had affected him deeply but Rin had reacted like a piece of her soul had been dragged off along with the Uchiha's. There was times at which Kakashi had wondered if she was suicidal but, seeing as she had been away from his supervision for more years than he cared to remember and she was still alive, he figured that he should have given her a little more credit. She might have been in serious emotional pain but she wasn't a coward. No student of Yondaime could stand the thought of being a coward.

"How can you.. _do_ this?" Rin questioned him, her eyes narrowing. "How can you stand it here, knowing that he had died for this village and all they gave him and his name was a tiny place on a stupid stone?"

Kakashi sighed, shifting from one foot to another. "I suppose.." Many reasons went through his head. Most went out the window. He doubted that Rin would appreciate his long hidden hope that Obito would walk through the gates one day, all in one piece and pissed off that they had left him there on that battle field to fend for himself.

Every time that he went through this particular fantasy, the jonin could never come up with a good pretend reason why Obito had taken a year (then two, then five, then ten years) to find his way back to Konoha but Kakashi had always teased him mercilessly about it, no matter how late in coming that the reunion was.

Kakashi couldn't find a good answer for Rin's question. Why did he stay in Konoha? After all the disappointing victories and devastating losses, why did he still stay a ninja? Why even bother with life at all when it was too damn hard to deal with?

"Because." Kakashi said finally. Rin's eyes narrowed a little in confusion. Kakashi decided to be more specific. "Because.. he was here. Because I like Konoha and I like the people who live here. Because I like being a ninja. Because this is where I'm needed and because the people of this village give me a purpose." His voice was light in tone but he only spoke the truth. "That's why." he said with a nod, smiling a little.

Rin looked away after a moment. "I wish.." she murmured, her eyes fixed on the name of her long dead beloved. "I wish it was that easy for me." With a sinking heart, Kakashi watched as she stood up. With a sense of desperation, Kakashi grabbed her arm. With utterly blank and dead eyes, she looked up at him, not even bothering to yank her arm out of his firm hold.

Kakashi had to swallow before he could finally speak. "Before you do anything you might regret, like leaving the village for good or something.." he said quietly, resisting the urge to shake sense back into her. "Can't you.. give me a chance to prove that staying here isn't the worst possible thing in the world?"

Rin frowned at the plea she could hear in his voice. "That chance may have come and gone already." she said neutrally. Something in her eyes changed and Kakashi felt hope rise up in him once more. She wasn't beyond reach after all.

Being up in the mountains with little to no human contact save from the other people training there with her had left her with too much time to contemplate her past. Rin wasn't a cold person and that's probably why she had been affected so heavily by Obito's death in the first place. Kakashi needed to remind her of all the things that she had loved and probably still did about Konoha. He had to remind her of all the small things that she had adored, all the people she had missed, and most of all, why she had become a ninja in the first place.

And he knew what his first plan of action was. He smiled when Rin shot him a suspicious look, most likely sensing his amusement.

It was about time that Rin met Team Seven.

---

The boy bounced up and down on his feet, trying to look everywhere at once but sadly lacking in another pair or three of eyes. His hand was clenched tightly by his mother's. It was fairly hot in the village, hotter than what he was used to, and he wanted to let go of her warm hand but she was too worried that he'd run off and get lost. He wasn't _that_ stupid..

"My, it's so crowded here." his mother murmured to his grandfather. His grandfather only took a large gulp of water from his bottle before nodding. "Was it this bad when you were here?"

"Nah." his grandfather said, idly rubbing the boy's head affectionately. The boy tried to twist away. It was so hot that he had abandoned his hat. As much as he loved his grandfather, he didn't want to share body warmth in a place that was hot enough as is. "Konoha has a pretty big population but this exam thingy must have brought in people from all over."

"Like us!" the boy piped up, once again excited. From his angle, he could just barely see the famous mountain he had heard so much talk about. But then a huge man stepped in their way and he couldn't see anything once more. _Rats._

"That's right." his mother said with a smile. She leaned down to address him more specifically. "We're here for your birthday but you're going to have to say thank you to Kakashi-san. It's because of him that we were able to get in to see this exam, after all."

His grandfather sniffed. "I don't know, I hear that this exam thing is extremely violent. I'm not sure that it's the best thing for Inari to watch. In fact- Oh, look! Food!" the old man immediately ambled quickly towards a food stand and took his place in line.

Inari pouted. As far as he could see it, he and any innocence regarding violence had been ruined for life. Too many things had happened to them and their village for any hope of the boy to not be effected by it. His grandfather was saying it more out of principle than anything else.

And his mother was against violence and didn't want him to see more danger than he had to. She was initially opposed to him going to the exam, but she also knew that he might do better to learn from ninjas than any sort of negative role model he could find in Wave Country. Everyone in their village was far too passive to understand why he had taken to patrolling their village with his crossbow in hand. She didn't want him to get hurt if he did something stupid but she also wanted him to be able to defend himself if the situation called for it.

She knew better than to ask a ninja to train her son but she thought that he could learn a thing or two by watching the exam. And, as a plus, she'd be there at his side, ready to tell him which one of the things that he had learned would get him grounded for life if he even _thought_ about doing them.

Inari grinned and wiped his hand off on his shorts when his mother finally let go. It was about time. He grabbed on the material of her dress and looked around. The village was as awesome as his friends had described it. Excitement surging through him, he looked up, wanting to see the ninjas that one of his friends said always loitered the roofs.

The boy hadn't believed him at first, as being on top of the roof got him grounded by his mother, but, seeing two ninjas lightly land on opposite roofs and run off into an unknown direction, he couldn't help his giggle. Lee hadn't been pulling his leg.

His mother distractedly patted him on the head as she tried to explain to her father exactly why the climate was so hot in Konoha. With a grimace at the all too hot touch, the dark haired boy twisted away, stumbling away from his mother and the line. She didn't notice his absence.

Inari started to walk back to them when a shine on the floor caught his attention. Curious, he walked over to it and hunkered down to get a closer peek. It was a well worn shuriken that had extremely dull points. The boy, as he picked it up, remembered that one of his friends had told him that only the dull ones were used for training while the sharp ones were used for killing. It was a rather blunt statement but the older boy wasn't exactly the type of person that his other friends felt comfortable in correcting.

Save for Naruto, of course. He never really seemed to be afraid of anyone, let alone Neji. Naruto was _so_ cool. Not as cool as Neji or Sasuke of course, but still pretty cool in his own right.

The boy stood once more, the shuriken in his hand as he looked around for who could have dropped it. Obviously they needed it back if they wanted to train, right? He needed to give it back to them! With this good intention in mind, he started to try and find a ninja to ask but couldn't tell the average citizen from the average tourist from the ninja.

Something dark flashed in the corner of the boy's vision and he turned just in time to see a darkly clad person darting into an alley. _It's a ninja!_ Inari thought happily, running over to the alley. As soon as he gave the weapon back, the sooner he would be able to eat. His mother and grandfather wouldn't miss him. He was only going to be gone for a few seconds.

"Hey hey!" Inari said, his voice echoing strangely in the alley "You dropped your weapon thingy!" Oddly enough, he couldn't see the ninja he had been chasing. "Hey, where did he go.." Pouting but determined to give the rude ninja his weapon back, he continued to walk deeper into the dark alley, ignoring the tell-tale feeling of being watched.

He couldn't see anything and could barely make out the outline of his hand. He looked up, wondering why it was so dark. He realized then that he wasn't in an alley, he was in an abandoned building. It hadn't been an alley, it was a long entrance. Inari gulped. Dark alleys hadn't triggered his alarm but dark buildings made him realize that he needed to leave. _Now_.

Realizing his mistake and more than a little eager to get out of the creepy place, he immediately turned around to run for a exit but collided into a warm body. Inari shrieked, falling to his rear on the ground. All of the fears that he had pushed aside in his self-appointed role as the guardian of his village suddenly surged to the surface at the sight of white eyes barely flashing in the darkness.

----

"Four more days!" Lee sang out, balancing on one foot. "I can't wait to fight Sasuke-kun!" Tenten smiled at his enthusiasm. They were resting after a last minute team training session. She sat on the ground with her back to the tree and barely an arm span away, Neji stood, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the tree. Lee was excitedly bouncing in front of her and Neji, unable to sit still.

She leaned over to Neji, who had been quiet for the last ten minutes. "And you? Are you excited for the exam?" she asked him, looking up at him with a smile. She was trying to pull him into the conversation. Neji's pale eyes flickered over to her, then over to Lee's bright grin before they closed.

"It is merely a battle, one of many that I will win." he replied, sounding bored. "The other fools-" here Lee frowned at Neji, being one of those 'other fools' "-are not opponents that I will have to exert much effort in destroying."

Tenten bit her lip. "But what about Hina-"

"Especially Hinata-sama." Neji said firmly. "She won her battle just because the sand nin underestimated her. If they fought again, Hinata-sama would lose."

Lee frowned even more, looking like a kicked puppy. He tried so hard not to fight with Neji. But sometimes the genius pissed him off to no end. They were friends, right? But why did Neji always have to look down at everyone? Tenten shot him a warning glance when she saw his hand fist.

Lee took a deep breath before continuing the conversation in an amiable tone. "Well I think Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun will be fun to fight." he said firmly. "And I thought Hinata-san fought well in her battle." Lee couldn't remember who Hinata was but he was a nice person.

Neji snorted. "It is a pity that most of the people involved with the final exam are just a bunch of rookies. The Uchiha, of course, is someone to watch out for, but none of the other rookies stood out in any other way." he opened his eyes. "The preliminaries were pathetic."

Tenten winced and looked away. Lee turned to Neji, his eyes blazing. "Everyone fought with their all! It was not pathetic!" he snapped angrily. "Everyone's fights were inspirational!"

"Please." Neji said with a groan. "You defeated that fat kid with one blow." Lee growled softly under his breath.

"Chouji-kun is a good fighter.." Tenten spoke up reluctantly in defense of the younger boy. She had met him through Lee and had thought he was a nice guy, if not a little short tempered about his weight. "And a good friend too. He just-"

"Lost." Neji cut in blandly. "That's all that matters in a fight. Winning or losing. Whatever luck managed to get the rookies this far in life will falter in the battle field in four days. Destiny will decide how each of them is beaten."

A strained silence hung amongst them. Lee was breathing very hard, trying to control his temper. He had to remember that Neji was his teammate and teammates don't try to punch each other's lights out. _I hate that destiny talk! Hard work is what decides your life, not this preordained stuff! _He took several calming breaths, trying to think happy thoughts. If someone caught him fighting Neji, he could be disqualified from the exam for unsportsmanship-like conduct.

Tenten was subdued. It was often up to her to keep the peace in their group, even though she often sided with Neji. But she found herself a little lost as to why she even bothered. _Doesn't matter if he's cute, Neji is a real bastard._ She sighed, feeling sorry for Hinata. She liked the shy girl. Even though she knew why Neji hated the main branch, she couldn't understand why he always heaped it on little Hinata's shoulders. It wasn't like she was the one who slapped him with the seal in the first place. But it really wasn't any of her business so she tried to keep out of it.

Neji was distracted by the thoughts of his own upcoming battles. _That Shino is relatively unknown._ He mused. _Best keep up my guard._ And after that, either Hinata or that weird Naruto kid. He shook his head. Neither of them would win against him. Hinata was too weak and Naruto was-

A sudden memory popped up of a blond outlined in impossibly hot chakra that formed a shell about his body. Violent yet controlled winds ripping a hole through metal, the jaw aching screech of it bending at his will-

Neji shook his head. _A complete fluke_. The Hyuuga reminded himself. _Just like Lee and his gates. Only works once in a while, most of the time it's a liability._ In a sense of heavy curiosity, he had allowed his Byakugan look into the strange red chakra and had seen it eat away at the boy's muscles and cells as well as slowly eroding his inner coils. Heavily destructive chakra that the boy couldn't possibly dare to bring out during the Chuunin Exam. _Thus, making him an easy opponent_.

He couldn't remember exactly who else was fighting but he knew that the only two he would need to worry about after was the Uchiha, who he was fairly certain he could bear, and that odd sand nin, Gaara. Gaara was really the only opponent that Neji felt apprehensive about. The red head wasn't just a genin, he was a real ninja who wouldn't hesitate to kill. That Sound nin girl he nearly killed in the preliminaries was brutal evidence to that.

"Um.." Tenten broke the silence. The last thing she wanted was for everyone to leave in a bad mood. She searched for a nice neutral topic that no one would conflict heavily on. "So, how's training?" The tension almost visibly broke.

Lee enthusiastically gave them a lengthy summary of what he and Gai had been up to and Neji follow with a brief explanation of his training. Curious about the Hyuuga's training, Lee asked a few questions and, without any biting remarks, Neji answered. Tenten sighed in relief. _Now if only life was as easy as this.._

---

Nearly succumbing to fear, it took Inari a moment to realize that the light hands on his tear covered face weren't harmful at all but were instead trying to calm him.

"Please, please stop crying." a soft female voice asked, almost sounded on the verge of tears herself. In spite of himself, the boy felt the tears slowly stop as curiosity took hold. "Ah, now see? That's much better." She grasped his hands gently and squeezed, reassuring him as much as she was reassuring herself.

The boy frowned at her silhouette, sniffling a little. Though she was much bigger than him, she looked far too small to be an enemy ninja and besides that, there was a gentleness in her voice and in the way that she soothed him that didn't remind him anything of the only two female ninjas he had met before in his entire life. They both had been really forward and kinda scary. Inari decided that she had to be a Konoha native or, like him, was just visiting.

"I saw you walking in here." she explained without his asking. "This building was supposed to be torn down but because of the exam, it was delayed. I didn't want you to get hurt so I came in after you." She pulled him up to his feet and started to tug him back to the entrance. "Come." Inari didn't resist her, dropping the shuriken to the ground as he edged very close to her side.

"How can you even see me?" he asked, very curious. He could barely see the shapes of the things in the room. Every hulking shadow looked like a ninja just waiting to pounce. He pressed himself closer to the girl.

"I can see your chakra." the girl replied. Almost as if she could feel his confusion, she explained. Her soft voice echoed in the room. "There's this.. light, deep down in everyone. This light, this energy is called chakra. I can see chakra and I can see your inner coils, so I could tell that you were there."

"So you were following my light?" he said, frowning to himself. It sounded kinda weird. And a little embarrassing. He blushed, nervously tugging at his clothes. A thud from their left made him stiffen and yelp. The girl paused in her footsteps, looking towards the direction of the sound as well.

"I.. want my mom." Inari whispered. He didn't like the dark at all. What had possessed him to walk in that not-alley anyway? The hand enclosed around his tightened briefly.

"Don't worry. We'll find her in no time at all." the girl said soothingly. The closer and closer that they got to the entrance, the more and more that Inari could see of his rescuer. She was much more delicate looking than he had expected and it only reaffirmed his belief that she wasn't a ninja. He held on to this belief for another two minutes before it was completely shattered.

Two dark silhouettes stood between them and the exit so suddenly that Inari wondered why he hadn't seen them there in the first place. He started to move in front of the frail girl but was surprised when she took a step in front of him instead.

"Please, sirs.." the girl's soft voice rang out. Inari wondered why she wasn't surprised to see them. _Maybe she saw their light too?_ "We need to leave and you're standing in our way."

"We saw him first, girlie." one of them rasped. He made a movement that even Inari knew was threatening. He 'eep'ed and hid his face behind the girl. "He followed us, it's his own fault."

"This is Konoha. Whatever goes by your rules does not apply here." the girl said firmly, an edge in her voice that hadn't been there before. "Now, I beg of you, please move out of our way." Her feet widened slightly even as she pressed her palm into Inari's chest, pushing the boy away from her and the men. "Please do not make me have to fight you. Relations between our villages are tense as is."

Inari wanted to run outside and scream for help. The girl was going to get hurt! Inari blinked and almost missed it. The two ninjas had dove at the girl but the girl was already moving to defend. She ducked underneath a kick and blocked a punch aimed at her midsection with her arms.

She then darted forward, lightening fast, and seemed to barely touch one of the men's throats. Immediately he stared to rasp for air, dropping to his knees as he clutched at his throat.

With a roar of anger, the other ninja started to run at her, only to freeze in his tracks. The girl paused as well even though her lack of mobility wasn't forced. It took Inari a moment to realize that it wasn't her doing that had made the other man freeze. He noticed this when she looked around, seeming a little confused.

"Hey, it isn't very nice to attack a woman and a child in a dark place, you know." Inari's eyes followed the voice to see a ninja perched on top of one of the piles of boxes in the building. The boy couldn't decide whether the ninja was angry, annoyed, or just tired. However, when the ninja just sighed and hopped off of the boxes, Inari decided on bored.

"H-hey.." the immobilized man got out. His whole body was trembling but he didn't move a muscle. "She attacked him first." The man who had been suffocating was lying flat on the floor. Inari had a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. Was the man dead? He looked over at the girl, now scared. She didn't seem much older than him. Could she possibly have what it took it kill a man?

"Psh. You think that's my problem?" the bored ninja called out. Inari couldn't see his face but he could almost imagine the annoyed look on it. "Besides, I know her and she doesn't attack anyone unless she has to. And from the looks of it, she had to." The ninja abruptly turned his back on them. "Besides, your friend isn't dead. Just unconscious." Inari felt a rush of relief.

Inari blinked as the girl turned back to him, offering her hand. He took it, more warily than last time because he had seen what she could do with it. They walked hand in hand past the two other ninjas to stop by the side of the bored looking one. The ninja looked over them and nodded, almost as if to himself, and starting walking to the entrance. The girl and Inari followed.

Once they got closer to the entrance, he could see the bored ninja's face. He looked fairly average with dark hair and dark eyes. He recognized the symbol etched on the forehead protector tied to the ninja's arm as being of one of the Konoha ninjas. Inari beamed at the familiar symbol, a symbol that he had long associated with being safe.

"Um, thank you Nara-san." the girl said quietly.

"You shouldn't get yourself in trouble, Hyuuga-san." the ninja, really just a twelve year old boy Inari realized, shot her a look. Inari blinked. For some reason, the name 'Hyuuga' reminded him of the pale eyed genin called Neji. He just couldn't remember exactly why. "Having to protect you is so troublesome."

"She was doing fine before you came." Inari piped up immediately when Hyuuga blushed. He noticed that she had the same pale eyes as Neji did and was about to ask if they were siblings but then Nara began to talk.

"So she was." Nara looked down at him, then shrugged. "To be blunt, my reasons had less to do with you and more to do with them." He pointed back into the darkness where Inari feared that the men still were, watching and lurking, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Inari loved ninjas but he figured that any ninja that wanted to kill him was definitely not one that he wanted to be in the dark with.

"What do you mean?" Hyuuga asked, noticing how Inari clung to her as he stared back into the darkness. Her other hand, the one not being griped with almost bruising force, patted the boy's head lightly.

"Didn't you see their forehead protectors? They were Sound nins." Nara said, as if it had some great significance.

Hyuuga frowned, missing the point. "And?" she asked. Inari couldn't blame her. He didn't know there was a village of the Sound. But, then again, the only ninja village he was familiar with was Konoha. Just remembering why he was in Konoha was enough for his high spirits to slowly crawl back.

Nara looked at her for a long while, as if remembering something. "Is Naruto back yet?" Hyuuga continued to frown at him, as if she was confused how Naruto and the Sound nins fit in the same conversation. But Inari hardly noticed. Naruto was a name he knew and it made all of his excitement return in one fell swoop.

"Ah, yes!" Hyuuga said after a moment. She had a sheepish smile on her face. "We were on the same mission together but since we got back, I lost track of Naruto-kun." Inari could sympathize with the disappointment in her voice. He also felt disappointment that she didn't know where he was. Now he'd never be able to find the blond!

"I need to have a word with him." Nara said with unusual intensity. As if he realized what he was doing, he blinked and snapped out of it, rubbing the back of his head. "Troublesome.."

Inari couldn't contain himself. He tugged on Hyuuga's sweatshirt to get her attention."I wanna talk to him too. Please? Can I go with you?" She would have a better chance in finding Naruto, right? With the whole able-to-see-inner-light thingy? He might as well just stick with her.

"Ah, but your mother-" the girl said with obvious concern. Inari cut her off, bouncing from foot to foot.

"I'll ask her, I'm sure she'll say yes! Please?" he shot her the best puppy eyed stare that he could manage, ignoring how Nara rolled his eyes and turned away. Hyuuga looked uncomfortable with the situation but Nara decided the solution for her, surprisingly enough in Inari's favor.

"If you want to and your mom says it's fine, then I have no problem with you tagging along." he said with a sigh. Inari pumped his fist in the air victoriously. _Yes! _

"Thank you, Nara-san!" the boy called out happily. The older boy shrugged.

"Whatever." he said, looking over his shoulder with a half smile. "But it's Shikamaru." he shot a look at Hyuuga who blinked at the sudden shift in attention. "And I've told you that before as well, Hyuuga-san."

"U-um.." Hyuuga just blushed, embarrassed for some reason. "You don't call me by my name either.."

Nara- no Shikamaru, Inari remembered- gave her another one of those shrugs before turning away once more. He started to walk out into the crowd of people, Inari and the Hyuuga girl right on his heels. "Fine then, if you call me by my name, I'll call you by yours." he said with finality. "Is that fine by you.. Hinata?"

The girl, whom Inari had just learned was called Hinata, smiled brightly. "Yes, Shikamaru-san!" she chirped, missing the other boy's wince at the continued formality.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, giving up on the girl. "Hopeless." he muttered to himself.

---

Ino shot an irritated look at the group when, about twenty minutes later, they stumbled into her shop. Shikamaru brushed it off easily but Hinata blushed and bowed, immediately offering up an apology.

"I'm sorry, Ino-san!" the girl cried. "But Inari-chan looked like he was going to pass out and I-"

Ino held up a hand, a somewhat sheepish smile on her face. "It's.. fine Hinata-san." she said. It was hard to get mad at the girl. Out of all the genins that Ino knew, Hinata was the least irritating. And definitely the most apologetic.

From behind Hinata, a pale boy stepped out, his face covered in sweat and looking miserable. "Why is it so hot?" he whined tiredly. Gasping at the state of the boy, Ino ran to the back of the shop, quickly getting him a glass of water. When she came back, Shikamaru had already sat the boy on top of the counter. The boy sat there with his shoulders hunched and his face listless.

"I think he may be dehydrated." Shikamaru offered up as an explanation. "And he's visiting. It's also possible that he's adjusting to the environment here and he just didn't know that he was dehydrated."

"Where are you from, kid?" Ino asked, pushing the water into the young boy's hand. He took it shakily and gulped down the water. He coughed when too much water came down.

"W-Wave Country." he rasped out, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

"Well, no duh." Ino said, snapping her fingers. "That's right on the coast! Of course he's having a difficult time! He's used to cooler temperatures!"

Hinata immediately bowed and started to apologize again. "I'm sorry!" she said softly, sounding upset. "Inari's mother told me that they were from Wave Country! It's all my fault.."

"Hey." Shikamaru rapped her head lightly with his knuckles. He sighed when Hinata looked up with wide pale eyes. "I was there too, you know. Don't be so selfish. Half of that blame belongs to me."

"I'll be fine." Inari insisted, now looking much better that he was in a well conditioned store. They looked over at him, unconvinced by this. He turned to Hinata, the only one he thought he could win over. "Please?" he begged, "I want to see Naruto!"

Ino blinked in surprise. "Naruto?" she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You've seen him?" Shikamaru immediately asked, his attention captured. Ino looked over at him, noticing that Inari wasn't the only one who wanted to see the blond genin.

"Yeah, he, Sasuke-kun, and Sakura just passed this way." Ino said with a shrug. She had wanted to say hello to Sasuke and, as she glomped him to make sure she pissed off Sakura, look Naruto over to make sure that he was still in one piece and the vision that she had of his death was not coming up.

The only way she could tell this was by looking at his clothes. In the vision, he had on a pair of orange pants and a black shirt with a red spiral on it. If he was wearing his usual outfit of a black vest, black shirt, and green shorts, she was certain that he was going to be okay.. at least for now.

Just when she was preparing to tackle the stoic Uchiha, she realized that it might not actually be the best timing. Naruto and Sasuke were both walking on either side of Sakura, who looked a little nervous since she was, in all but title, their referee. Naruto had been shooting glares at Sasuke while the Uchiha himself looked smug with his smirk. Ino decided to not press her luck and had sullenly went back into the store when Shikamaru, Hinata, and the little kid came in.

Ino still had not a clue how she was supposed to save Naruto but it wasn't for a lack of effort. Hundreds of crumbled up pieces of paper littered her bedroom floor with half crazy ideas how to keep Naruto from being killed. Her task was only made more difficult when she realized that she had no idea how he died, only that he did.

"Which way did they go?" Shikamaru was already halfway out of the store. A little surprised, Ino wordlessly pointed in the direction that they had taken. He immediately took off in that direction, an apologizing Hinata on his heels. Inari leapt off of the counter and ran after them.

Ino stared after them, hesitation stilling her movements. She tugged lightly on her bracelet, a frown on her face. In the matter of seconds, she had made her decision. "Mom!" Ino called out, shrugging off her apron. "I'm taking a break!" She braced a hand on the counter and hurled her weight over it, taking off after the others. She never heard her mother's reply.

---

Sasuke could see Naruto's smirk over his hands as they slid into taijutsu stances. It irritated and amused him at the same time. He could barely see Sakura out of the corner of his eye but he knew that she had a worried look on her face. She never really did like them fighting. But there wasn't much she could do about that.

Sakura knew that, and that's why she stayed close. "I can't heal much beyond broken bones, so go easy on each other!" she said, crossing her arms over her chest with a soft sigh. Boys were so stupid. Why did they always want to fight?

Sasuke's rigid stance slipped when he heard that. _She can heal broken bones? _He thought, awed by it. Naruto had a similar look on his face, as if he was surprised that she had gotten so far in such a short time, even though it was his fault that the genin had gotten into medical jutsu. Naruto and Sasuke shared a rare grin before they launched themselves at each other. Sakura looked away with a wince when the first hit sounded solidly.

Sasuke threw the first punch and wasn't surprised when Naruto dodged it neatly, right into his knee. Naruto blocked most of the force from the surprise second attack with his forearms and jumped back, a retreat that Sasuke ruthlessly followed him on.

Normally, having someone so doggedly shadow your steps with blood red sharingan eyes was a little daunting. But Naruto only grinned in response and showed Sasuke exactly why he had chosen him for a rival: his surprise tactics.

Instead of jumping back again, Naruto dove towards the ground near Sasuke's feet. There, he placed his hands firmly into the ground and rolled with the forward movement. His foot shot straight up, connecting soundly with Sasuke's jaw. Sasuke was the one who stumbled back this time, holding his hand up to his jaw. Blood came out of his mouth, either from abused gums or an accidental bite to the tongue.

Naruto moved back to a fighting stance with almost deadly grace. "Got it memorized?" he asked, his voice neither teasing nor smug. The expression on his face was openly honest and it spoke nothing of being cocky about getting a hit in. Sasuke thoughtfully closed his eyes, moving the blood around inside of his mouth. After a moment, he spit it out and nodded.

They went at it again.

----

Despite his general dislike for humans as a whole, Orochimaru could never really say that he held a definite hatred for any one person. It was like none of them could really measure up to filling the requirements to gain his hatred, and even when he contemplated it himself, he was unsure of exactly what would make his normal feelings of annoyance and irritation rise to such a level where they could be labeled as something as powerful as hatred.

In his past, there had only been two people that he briefly thought he hated. But the feeling had passed with time, so Orochimaru guessed that it couldn't have been hatred. Wasn't hatred all consuming?

Jiraiya had been the top contender for Orochimaru's most hated person but now the snake eyed man could only shake his head. It couldn't be hatred that he felt for Jiraiya. At worst, it was an extreme irritation. The pervert annoyed him to no end but Orochimaru certainly didn't hate him, even though he didn't mind the thought of killing him. But then again, he didn't mind killing anyone, really.

At one point, Orochimaru was positive that he had hated that scrawny whelp of a Yondaime. There had been a definite sense of rage when Sarutobi had chosen Jiraiya's student over him, the older, more experienced, and stronger of the two. But he had realized later that he hadn't really hated the Yondaime. He hated being upstaged by a weakling.

Silly fool had gotten himself killed when that Kyuubi came along. Obviously he hadn't been that good of a leader. If Orochimaru was in his place, he would have either tried to make a deal with the demon or used the demon's power for his own. Either way, he wouldn't have stuck the demon in that other blond brat.

Just thinking about the Kyuubi kid made Orochimaru seethe. How could one person be so damn irritating and nosy? Not only had the brat killed one of his undercover Sound nins during the survival exam, but he also somehow managed to scare not only the three Sound genins he had hand picked for the exam, but also the ever loyal Kabuto.

Both situations made the inevitable attack on Konoha a little more difficult, seeing as his men were now skittish and the guard around Konoha was increased dramatically at the appearance of a corpse of a ninja who hadn't been signed up for the exam in the first place. But what pissed Orochimaru off the most was that the blond seemed to _know_ (somehow) that Orochimaru was going to come after Sasuke. Why else would the fool make hundreds of copies of his team and send them off in all directions?

Chasing after the wrong teams had made Orochimaru lose the small window of opportunity to make contact with Uchiha Sasuke. Now it was nearly impossible to get near the genin. When that Hatake wasn't around, an ANBU was lingering by, a likely result of Sasuke being knocked out and placed on the stairs by a possible Akatsuki member.

Not only were the ANBU a pain to get around but Itachi had made a bold but subtle statement that had amused Orochimaru to no end when he had first figured it out._ Touch my brother and you die._ Now even Kidoumaru was skittish and it took a lot for the multi armed boy to get afraid. Needless to say, Orochimaru was no longer amused.

It was all because of that stupid blond and his interference. Because of him, his forces might actually have a hard time getting by the jonins and ANBU. Orochimaru might not even get a chance to kill his sensei. The snake eyed man had to wonder if the dark feeling building up in his chest that made him want to rage and kill was truly what someone would call hate. Did he hate the Kyuubi kid?

Had anyone else in his life ever screw things up for him so badly? Had anyone else kept from him what he truly desired? Had anyone dared to defy him, even subconsciously? Had anyone else provoked such a feeling of rage inside of him like the Kyuubi kid did? With all this in mind, did he hate the Kyuubi kid?

_Yes.._ Orochimaru hissed silently to himself, his hand clenching into a fist. He had never hated anyone more before in his entire life. He smirked to himself. Who knew that such a dark feeling would make him feel so _alive_?

And thus the reason why Orochimaru was thinking about hate was revealed. "Uzumaki Naruto, age 12. Genin. Teammates are Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Hatake Kakashi. One A rank and 20 D rank missions. Specialty seems to be in ninjutsu. Proficient in taijutsu but seems to have a weakness in genjutsu. Passed the Academy with the lowest score." Kabuto looked up from his cards, confusion in his eyes. "But I thought Sasuke-kun was the one you're interested in?"

Orochimaru shifted slightly, folding his pale fingers together. "He _is_ the ideal body." he said slowly, his gold eyes narrowing. "But that demon child has been in my way every time that I've tried to get close to him." The look on his face turned dark as he remembered nearly being ambushed by the ANBU because of the boy's distractions.

Kabuto, after a moment, nodded. "Yes, it was the same for me. I don't like giving excuses but.." he hesitated, pushing his glasses farther up his nose. "I would have to say it was Naruto-kun's fault that Sasuke-kun and I didn't get the chance to become well acquainted." He slipped Naruto's card back into the pile and put the deck away.

"How so?" the snake eyed man asked after a moment. He had been most displeased with Kabuto's failure a month ago and, though taking his punishment quietly, this was the first time the young man had offered up an explanation.

"Naruto-kun reacted negatively to my presence." Kabuto said slowly, still confused over it. "I'm not sure why, and it doesn't fit in with the normal way he acts towards strangers. But he looked very angry to see me, to word it gently. I'm certain that I could feel Kyuubi's youki rise underneath the surface as well. It was very bizarre." he paused, remembering the flicker between red and blue in Naruto's eyes, and the sudden look of rage. It was almost scary. But certainly not as scary as Orochimaru had been when he found out that Kabuto had failed him.

Kabuto continued. "Sasuke-kun sensed this as well but instead of fearing it, he took it as a signal that I was not to be trusted. That is the only reason why I think Sasuke acted that way because even he is civil to strangers." He had observed the boy for a while, trying to figure out the best way to approach him. When he figured that the boy would most likely appreciate being approached directly, he had been surprised when the response had been negative. If there was something that the Uchiha siblings had in common, it was that both were fairly polite from a distance. They weren't obviously rude to someone unless they had a reason for it.

"Hm." Orochimaru thought over this before grinning. Kabuto had to suppress a shudder. It never was a good thing when his leader smiled. "Do you know that some animals can scent out predators before the predator even moves to kill? Their own desire to protect their life gives them a sixth sense, in a way. Sometimes this is amplified to an extreme when the animal has others that it wishes to protect." While Kabuto looked at him in confusion, Orochimaru only laughed, his eyes darkening. "I will enjoy killing Uzumaki Naruto."

----

Hours later, after Kakashi abruptly showed up in the middle of their sparring and told them to stop, after Shikamaru randomly popped up and tried to catch Naruto in his shadow (a task that he failed because Naruto _knew_ it was coming), after Naruto ran away cackling and missed being introduced to Rin or being reunited with Inari, Konoha was nearly silent in the moonless night. Everyone was either at home or in a hotel of some sort, save for a few lingering souls.

Naruto was in his home, snuggled up in bed like most everyone else. His pillow had been too lumpy and had smelled weird so he had thrown it away a month ago, much preferring to use his arm as a head rest, even if it meant that his arm would hurt in the morning. His other arm was curled in front of his face, his hand lightly gripping the sheets underneath him. He had kicked off his covers in a fit of a dream but now he laid there almost silently on his stomach, save for a soft sigh or two. He was peacefully unaware of what was to come.

A soft noise echoed nearly silently through Naruto's apartment. His eyes slowly opened, his muscles instinctively tensing. After a minute of listening and hearing nothing (but _knowing_ something was there), he rolled off the bed and landed lightly on the ground in a crouch. He shook the numbing effects of sleepiness from him and slowly stood.

Distractedly adjusting the collar of his black shirt (his favorite and most threadbare one that had an oh so original red spiral in the middle) back to it's proper position and tugging up the orange pants kept slipping down his hips, he took one step forward and suddenly _knew_ who was in his apartment. With a low sigh, his already cranky mood steadily worsened.

He walked quickly out and into his kitchen, filling a kettle with water. He distracted himself with the task of making some tea while quickly trying to figure out how to deal with the current situation. It didn't help that Naruto was in a pissy mood and didn't want to deal with his visitor at the moment.

He waited for a minute until he acknowledged the heavy presence. "You know, if you're gonna be so rude as to enter my home without invitation in the middle of the night, you might as well pretend you still have some manners left and take a seat." Naruto's voice echoed throughout his home. There was no reply but the air suddenly seemed more tense. Naruto patiently waited, his back to the rest of the apartment.

A slow grin appeared on his face as he hear the scrap of a chair against the ground. "Good. So you did learn something from your sister after all, eh?" he took the whistling kettle off of the fire. "I can't imagine your asshole of a father would bother teaching a monster about something as inconsequential as _manners_." Naruto moved to take two cups out of the cupboard.

"No." The word was murmured and the voice was rough. Naruto paused briefly at his visitor's response. "He didn't even like looking at me. He was afraid of.. my _existence_." Naruto didn't need to see the terrifying smile that followed to know it was there.

The genin turned around with the cups in hand and slid one over to his visitor over his kitchen table while keeping one close to him, quickly preparing the tea. He didn't meet eyes with his visitor. Just as he leaned over to fill his visitor's cup with hot water, his wrist was gripped harshly.

Involuntarily, Naruto's eyes shot up and met the cold green eyes of his visitor. The other genin's voice was harsh. "Do _you_ fear my existence.. Na-ru-to?" His name was mockingly drawn out.

Naruto yanked his arm away, spilling some of the water. "We've already had this conversation, Gaara." he said blandly, filling his cup with water. He didn't like tea very much. He doubted that he would drink it but it gave him something to do. _The only thing I can do right now, when Gaara's falling apart right in front of me. What the hell did I do last time?_

"About your fears?" Gaara leaned back in the chair. "You said you feared no one." A hissing noise escaped his mouth. "_Lies._"

"Hey I wasn't lying." Naruto defended himself lightly. "I fear stuff, I just don't fear people." He pushed himself up on the counter, having no other chairs to sit on since Gaara was in his only one. Besides, he liked the distance it gave as well as the sense of security. It was a never a good thing to stay too close to Gaara.

Gaara made a rude noise under his breath, prompting a tired glare. "Oh right, you'd fear the death of your friends!" he spat. Naruto snapped his fingers with a smile and nodded. "Why do you even bother? They'd fear you if they knew about your demon."

"Somehow, Kyuubi just isn't at the top of my list of worries anymore." Naruto admitted. He was growing more and more pissed off, and, if he was to listen to Kyuubi, that was Gaara's true aim. He decided to let some information slip. "And it's all because of that damn Kazekage of yours with his plans and shit."

Gaara didn't even blink at Naruto's hint and dropped a bombshell. "Trust me, the _real_ Kazekage wouldn't have bothered with this foolish business at all." he snapped. Naruto nearly dropped his cup.

"What the.." he mumbled. He slammed the cup down on the counter and slid off. "You knew that the Kazekage was.. was.." he cut himself off, back tracking. There was no point in showing too many of his cards. But Gaara served to surprise him once more.

"Prematurely disposed of and replaced by another?" he questioned, looking bored with the topic. "Of course I could tell. But the real Kazekage and this one.. it doesn't make any difference."

"It makes all the difference in the world, Gaara!" Naruto exploded. "Why the hell haven't you told anyone else about this?" Didn't he understand what an impact that would have made? If the sand nins knew that their Kazekage was murdered, they would turn against Orochimaru so fast that he would get rug burn! What the hell was Gaara thinking by keeping such a thing secret from his fellow ninjas? He ignored the tiny voice screeching 'hypocrite!' in his head.

"They never asked." Gaara replied blandly. Naruto had an urge to bang his head into the counter or, better yet, kick the shit out of Gaara for being an idiot.

"No one's gonna ask you anything if you continue to act so unapproachable." Naruto said with a groan, covering his eyes with his hand. "I bet that all of Suna would want to know that their Kage is dead, Gaara. Just 'cause you don't give a shit doesn't mean that they won't either."

"It won't matter to you soon." Gaara said, standing slowly, his sand suddenly pouring out of his gourd. "You're my prey. You're not going to live for very long during our match." His eyes darkened into a goldish brown that Naruto found disturbingly familiar."Am I talking to Gaara or Shukaku?" he asked tiredly. He already knew that he was talking to Gaara but he was confused as to how much of Gaara's thinking had been warped by youki. Just that fact that he said 'match' and not 'right now' meant that Gaara still had control over himself though and he thanks the gods for small favors. "Really. I'd like to know."

Gaara blinked. Naruto realized suddenly that the sand nin was surprised. He had only asked because he was irritated and also because he was a little curious as to who Gaara thought was in control. "What difference does it make? We're one and the same." the other demon host said slowly. The sand slowly creeping towards Naruto paused.

Naruto looked at Gaara, a confused frown on his face. _Is it possible that even he doesn't know which one of them is in control?_ He mused to himself, terrified by the idea. _That loss of a sense of self.. that's.. horrible. Could their personalities be mingling to the point where it's hard to tell where Gaara starts and Shukaku ends?_

**Don't think too much on it**. Kyuubi rumbled. **That's not what happens with us. The dead blond brat made sure of it.** There was a cough in the background. **And I'd like to remain me, thank you very much.** He added in with faint disgust.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. _Yes, best not to think about that... not until I'm more than half awake, that is._ "That's not true." Naruto said with a yawn. "Shukaku's nuts. You're just a damn fool."

Without any warning, sand wrapped around him tightly, binding his arms and legs together. Almost lazily, since it was satisfied that he couldn't move, more of it slowly crept up his body, encasing him in a firm hold of sand. Naruto's half open eyes opened up all the way, his chakra raising with his temper. He hated Gaara's sand with a passion.

"You know.." Gaara imitated Naruto's lazy way of speaking. "I could kill you in a second." Naruto turned his gaze towards Gaara, his normally warm eyes as cold as ice.

Something cracked and snapped audibly, resounding loudly through the tiny apartment. Gaara blinked and suddenly the sand that had been wrapped around his prey was thrown every which way. And his prey, once leaning against the counter, was gone-

And right in his face. A steel like vise clamped around his throat and lifted him weightlessly into the air. His sand rushed to reinforce his defenses and kill the threat. More cracking noises commenced instead of the swift death. Gaara opened his reflexively closed eyes to see what he could feel.

The utter heat that surrounded Naruto wasn't youki but it didn't seem like chakra either. But it was hot enough to burn sand into glass and sear him through his defensive sand covering. Gaara waited for the kill, feeling a strange sense of nervousness, anxiety.. fear?

"And I, Gaara," Naruto's voice was low and dangerous. "Could kill _you_ in half of a second." He leaned forward slightly and Gaara observed unwillingly that, though Naruto's eyes remained blue, his pupil was slitted like a cat's. "Do you fear my existence... _Gaara_?" Naruto threw Gaara's words back at him in a soft hiss. The sand nin was surprised to find that he wanted to say 'yes'.

Gaara was promptly dropped to the floor and, because he hadn't expected it, collapsed to his knees, hands gingerly feeling out his throat. Darkened green eyes looked up to see Naruto with his back to him, calmly cleaning up the mess of the tea. Neither demon host had touched their cups but Gaara's had tipped over and spilled over the table.

"Next time you feel like randomly visiting me, ask for an invitation." Naruto said, the tone of his voice giving Gaara the strangest feeling that he was being dismissed. "Or, better yet, just knock."

For a second, Gaara stayed where he was, sand slowly trickling back into his gourd. Then, with another light touch to his neck, he pushed himself off the ground and left the apartment without another word.

Gaara didn't bother trying explaining to himself why he didn't kill Naruto when his back was turned. The topic was too difficult to understand, perhaps stemming from unsolved issues of his past or maybe because Shukaku kept muddling his thoughts with his constant mantra of death, blood, and pain. He gripped his head and forced Shukaku down until the screams were faint whispers.

Either way, he had a lot to think about now. It was a good thing he didn't need to sleep.

---

TBC

..And I unfortunately do. : ) I'm really tired right now so if there was any really obvious errors, _do_ be a dear and point them out. I'll fix them once my beta looks this over.

Preview of the next chapter:  
_"I know that balance stuff." Naruto said irritably, even though it was the first time it had been brought to his attention. It could have been one of the many topics that Iruka had brought up in class that he had missed because he was pranking people, and it wouldn't have made a difference. Shikamaru seemed to know this but carried on without a comment.  
"Just listen." the boy said urgently. "You have **no** idea what you did, did you?" Naruto opened his mouth, about to defend himself when the slightly jumpy Nara shook his head. "No, **listen**. There's a balance, not between good or evil. Those are just values forced upon us by society. Just **lies**, you know. The real balance is between what is and what should not be." He slammed a roll of paper down on the ground, making Naruto jump at the noise. The roll rolled open, revealing Shikamaru's writing and strange scribbles.  
"Naruto." his voice was said with such a tight voice that Naruto looked away from the paper and at Shikamaru questioningly. "You should not have been able to travel back into the past. That ruins that balance, you see? It goes under 'what should not be'. And thus, is **impossible**."  
Naruto pulled away with a snarl. "Are we back to that shit again?" he snapped incredulously, jumping to his feet. "I'm telling you, I wasn't lying-!"  
"I **believe** you." Shikamaru said, his voice pitching low. Naruto's rant died in his throat. "I believe you, Naruto. I do. I really do. But, you see, it's.. even worse than you thought."  
"How so?" Naruto whispered, not liking the look on Shikamaru's face.  
"You're not supposed to **be** here." the other genin said quietly, his gaze fixed to the ground. "But.. here you are. And there's only **one** reason why the powers that be allowed you to come back here." He looked up, seeing the confused look on Naruto's face. He clarified it softly. "Two negatives make a positive, Naruto. Something.. happened. In your future, something so bad that the gods themselves put their asses on the line to allow you to break a few laws of physics. Think!" The Nara said, his voice almost desperate. "Not about Konoha, yourself, or even Sasuke. What is the worst thing that could have possibly happened then, in a god's point of view? What would shake the very foundations of the balance itself?"  
Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, deep in thought, a little annoyed because Shikamaru had a look on his face that said that he already knew the answer but was patiently waiting for Naruto to catch up. He scowled a little, then attempted to figure out what it was.  
Lots of bad things had happened then. It was war, after all. But in a god's point of view? How the hell was he supposed to know what they wanted or what they thought was bad? Naruto tapped his bicep as he tried to remember something important, something.. earth shattering.  
Naruto's breath caught in his throat when he suddenly realized what had happened. He trembled lightly as he remembered his last day, the sudden bold attack after months of strained peace. The utter triumph he could feel outside of the broken walls, the echoing laughter of a pleased man as they retreated like scared rabbits. The tight feeling around his heart when he had tugged and hauled Ino away from Shikamaru's dead body, the knowledge that they had lost more than just Konoha and the entire **damn** war..  
"Oro.. Orochimaru." Naruto rasped out, tortured eyes seeking out his friend. "He.. he.." The thought was too horrifying. He fell to his knees in front of Shikamaru. "Impossible!"  
"Not impossible." Shikamaru said softly. "Perhaps improbable. But it happened, didn't it? The last attack on Konoha? It wasn't because he was pleased with his new host, was it?" Naruto's head was bowed. Shikamaru prodded further. "It wasn't because he knew Konoha was barely holding on, was it? It was because he had an advantage that no.. **earthy** body could boast." Naruto looked up, looking so lost and worn down. Shikamaru's heart went out to him but he had to say it. He had to make sure that Naruto knew it before he continued his quest to save Konoha.  
"This was never about Konoha." he continued. "It was never about you. Your duty.. your only **real** mission.. is to stop that thing that made the gods relent and push you back here. You need to help them regain the balance by making sure it doesn't tip in the first place." He gripped Naruto's arms tightly and gave him a slight shake when the blond's head lolled down once more. "Naruto! You need-"  
"I know." Naruto looked up, his eyes hardened and his lips pulled into a tight frown. "I need to kill Orochimaru before he becomes immortal."_


	50. Spies and Monsters

AN: It's been forever and a half, I know. But these last few weeks have been a major pain for me because of a wedding I'm expected to go to and also because school starts up again soon. So patience, okay?  
This is mostly a filler chapter but with a lot of important pieces to the unraveling of future plots.  
---

For the Love of my Friends  
Chapter Fifty: Spies and Monsters  
by Foxie

---

Naruto and Gaara were not the only ones up late that night. Surrounded by crumbled up pieces of paper, half opened scrolls, and a book or two, a hunched over figure scribbled something down on a piece of paper before making a crude noise and crumbling it up into a ball, tossing it somewhere over his shoulder.

Normally such a task (that, for some reason, he immersed himself in with such diligence and patience that most would believe he was delirious because of a fever of some sort) would be deemed troublesome and steered clear from. 

But this task of researching, strategising, and pretty much trying to figure out what the_ hell _was going on wasn't just an average task that Shikamaru could blow off in favor of more interesting pursuits. It could mean the future of Konoha as a whole, and that's why Shikamaru took it very seriously.

He was willing to ignore the fact that, had he known how much trouble it was going to cause him beforehand, he would have told Naruto to keep his knowledge to himself, for pity's sake. Even though he found himself idly cursing Naruto for dragging him into this mess, he couldn't find it in his heart to get mad at the blond at all.

What little he had been able to read between the lines from the sparse amounts of information he had been given was that the future had scarred Naruto in more ways than one. That, in Shikamaru's mind, was the only explanation for the brief looks of anguish or pain that would pass through Naruto's eyes before disappearing under a dull sheen of indifference.

Mildly annoyed at the other boy for trying so damn hard to hide his emotions, Shikamaru realized that the boy's stupid grin did a better job of hiding his negative emotions than his poor imitation of Sasuke's stoic stare. Shikamaru tensed a little, frowning to himself as he wondered just when he had realized that smile was a mask as well.

Stretching his sore back and abandoning his musings over the strange boy, Shikamaru leafed through one of the books, his face marred by a frown as he glanced through some of the many theories of time traveling. He no longer questioned that Naruto was from the future (he predicted too many things that came true and Shikamaru _knew_ he wasn't a Yamanaka, despite their uncannily similar looks), but he wanted some sort of concrete fact to explain _how_ he got to the past.

Of course, with time, nothing was concrete. All Shikamaru got in return for his diligent research was theories, paradoxes, and even some writers insisting that time traveling was impossible. Half of the theories offered up were so mind boggling that even he, with his exceptionally high IQ, had to read it twice before it made some marginal sense. 

After reading a theory that carefully explained how the universe would implode if someone messed with the time stream, he tossed the book aside, an action that the stern librarian who had gave it to him would have gasped in horror at. _Lovely_, he thought with a sneer as he threw it. _In an attempt to save the world, he would destroy everything. The greatest cosmic irony...  
_  
The motion, however, let a loose piece of paper slip out of the book and into his lap. Shikamaru looked down indifferently. It had nothing to do with time traveling at all. It was just the symbol of yin and yang. The balance of the world so easily illustrated in a single circle.

As he stared at the symbol, the white and black halves lazily twisting in his half asleep mind, his thoughts grounded to a halt. His vision became hazy, his mind perfectly blank.. and then it suddenly _clicked_.

It made _sense_ now. He sat very still as the possibilities ran through his mind, frozen in the horror of what could have happened and also in fear of loosing what little understanding he had of the situation.

_It makes sense._ Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered exactly how it made sense, but he doggedly held onto his realizations, almost convinced that it was some sort of otherworldly knowledge slipped in his mind because he, a mere _pawn_ in this game of chess, was taking too long to make his move.

Suddenly, at the sound of a clap of hooves somewhere outside, he lunged forward, writing quickly on a new piece of paper, trying to put into words the idea that had sprung in his mind and deciding not to question it, at least not until it reached the right sources.

He didn't get any sleep that night.

----

When Gaara finally got back to the rooms reserved for him, his siblings, and other various sand nins, he was greeted by a worried Temari who, judging by the rumpled state of her clothing and her lengthy yawns, had sat up and waited for Gaara's return the entire time.

She never fussed over him in an obvious way, but Gaara could tell she was worried by the way she looked him over critically. He could never figure out, however, whether she was looking for someone else's blood or for his own injuries. But he would never ask. It made no difference in the long run.

"_It makes all the difference in the world, Gaara!"_ Naruto's angry voice hissed in his mind and, once again, Gaara felt a little bewildered. Not a feeling that he was very fond of.

But, then again, it had been the first time ever that such pure anger had been displayed towards him without a single drop of hate. From Gaara's experience, anger and hate usually went hand in hand with fear hanging around as the awkward but necessary third wheel.

Gaara sneered. He didn't even think Naruto was capable of fear and not because of any sort of power on his end. Most likely misplaced confidence and foolish bravery made him able to stand toe to toe with Gaara and make him back off. Yes, that had to be it. Naruto simply could _not_ be stronger than Gaara. It was a foolish notion.

"Your neck is red." Temari stated, reflexively reaching towards him. There was concern in her dark eyes. A cold glance in her direction made the hand curl and return to her side. Satisfied with her retreat, Gaara moved to slide open the door to his room.

A bold question made him pause. "Where were you?" she asked, her fingers twitching nervously. He didn't need to look at her to know that she had that tense look on her face, a look that she had been wearing more and more frequently and especially with him. He turned around, his eyes unreadable, a cold retort about to slip out of his mouth before he remembered Naruto's words with disturbing clarity.

"_I bet that all of Suna would want to know that their Kage is dead, Gaara. Just 'cause you don't give a shit doesn't mean that they won't either._" The boy's half angry words floated through his mind.

Oddly enough, the only time where Naruto seemed extremely angry had been the times where Gaara insisted that nothing he could do would change anything. Gaara could only imagine that the blond hated the idea of not being able to have an effect on the world. Gaara just couldn't bring himself to care.

In a moment of curiosity (and perhaps a bit of weakness), he decided to test the other demon host's theory. But he wouldn't make it easy for Temari. If she was going to be dumb or stubborn about it, she was not worth him spreading the knowledge. Let Suna burn to the ground, for all he cared.

"Have you noticed how odd the Kazekage is acting recently?" he asked, almost a little reluctantly. Temari noticed, but was surprised that their father was a topic that Gaara would willingly bring up without the phrase 'I will kill' being tagged in front of it. When Gaara's eyes narrowed, she realized that he wanted an answer.

"Uh, yes!" she stumbled eloquently, then paused to think. Actually, the Kazekage _had_ been acting odd as of recently. Sure, their father had rambled on and on in the past about showing Konoha which village was stronger, but she had never pegged him as someone who would go through with his ambitions.

This was especially clear where Gaara was concerned. When the Kazekage had been so firm and cold about his ambition to make his child a killing machine, even at the expense of his wife's life, he had faltered when he had seen the results and attempted to destroy his creation. And then he stopped trying to take Gaara's life after Yashamaru got himself killed.

_Inconsistent._ Temari had thought many times before, but kept her opinion to herself. She was glad he was, however. As scary as Gaara was, the last thing she wanted was for him to die. He was her brother, after all.

But recently, the Kazekage had focused on this goal of destroying Konoha with almost frightening intensity. _That's it._ She thought with a frown. _**Destroying** it_. The man she knew wanted to bring Konoha down to it's knees then flaunt Suna's power in Konoha's face. The man she was taking orders from now wanted to destroy the very foundations of Konoha.

"He.. has been acting weird, hasn't he?" Temari tentatively sounded out, her eyes flitting around nervously, as if she expected someone to hear the mutinous words and punish her for them. But only Gaara stood there, looking faintly annoyed at her for essentially repeating what he said.

For once, Temari didn't back away at the faintly murderous look in his eyes. She was too distracted by her own thoughts. She looked at her brother, wondering if this was some elaborate ploy to prove her dishonesty but even as that thought ran through her head, she immediately dismissed it.

Temari trusted him not to be a spy to sniff out traitors or to deliberately try and get her to say something to get her killed. It wasn't because of any sisterly faith. It was because she knew that those tactics were too underhand for her little brother. If he wanted her dead, he would kill her himself.

Knowing this, she leaned forward, eager to share her opinion with someone who wouldn't turn her in. "His actions are much different nowadays than what I would have based on what I know of him in the past. His whole attitude has changed. He's become.. firmer. More ambitious. And.. it's scary, I think." she paused, placing a hand on her hip. It was always startling how someone so much shorter than her could be so terrifying but for once, she didn't feel fear towards Gaara.

For once, she felt something was connecting them, something more than blood, but so brief and precious that she didn't want to let do. It was almost like they were comrades, both seeing the same things, sharing the same opinions. But Gaara didn't share his opinion lightly nor was willing to listen to others so Temari made sure he heard hers while he was still in the mood to.

"I think he's not.. the person he used to be." she said slowly. Gaara gave her a 'no duh' look. Temari started to explain why before all of her thought processes halted with a fleeting idea. The nervous expression on her face changed to one of horror. Gaara's turned curious and he watched her carefully.

Temari bit her lip and looked down at her feet. She had a horrible thought. What if the Kazekage wasn't just being weird? What if the Kazekage.. wasn't really the Kazekage? It would be the perfect explanation for all the changes.. but the consequences of it being true were too horrible to think about for Suna, let alone the fate of her father. She tentatively started to feel out a plan in her mind.

She had to make sure that the change was just a phase her father was going through. Temari hoped that it was just that, but with reasonable doubt still lingering, it was her duty as a sister and a ninja to find out. What if he was an imposter in disguise? That would be very _very_ bad for Suna, especially in the midst of a surprise attack on a powerful village. She had to make sure that he was her father and no one else. She would face him tomorrow, armed with the knowledge she had obtained of his quirks through the years.

If he wasn't really her father.. she faltered. What could she possibly do but pass the knowledge on and hope for the best? Before she could even think about telling Kankurou, let alone Baki, she had to be a hundred percent sure that he wasn't the Kazekage before trying to denounce his name. The Kazekage wasn't forgiving to traitors. She tried not to think about how the imposter wouldn't like to be betrayed either.

Gaara looked at her, a slight frown on his face as his hand lingered on his door. His eyes were dark and sharp, but then again, they always were. Other than that, Temari couldn't read the expression on his face. The only time she could was when he started acting psychotic but that was definitely a time she wanted to get away from him as soon as possible.

Inwardly, Gaara was slightly impressed. He could tell by her facial expressions what she was thinking and he had no doubt that she had fit everything together to get the end result that he hadn't told her purposely. She wasn't stupid. Knowing her, she would most likely want to do something about it.

He turned back to his room sharply, startling a still thinking Temari. He slid open the door, then paused in the threshold. Temari held her breath, knowing he had something else to say.

"If you get caught, sister, I will immediately kill you myself." He stepped over the threshold and slid the door behind him, leaving a confused Temari to stare in silence as she sluggishly translated the initially threatening words into the meaning Gaara wanted to get across.

Oddly enough, Temari felt better. If she did get caught, she'd be spared the torture and interrogation because her brother promised to kill her. It was the only act of mercy that Gaara probably knew.

--- 

The next day was oddly bright and cheery considering the events that occurred late last night. It was so bright and cheery that Naruto, Gaara, Shikamaru, and Temari were all equally irritable, though for different reasons.

Naruto was _exhausted_, mentally and physically. After Gaara left, he was plagued with nightmare after nightmare before he woke up and, after tripping over the sheets he had kicked off the bed (a rather painful meeting with the hard floor woke Naruto up instantly), he realized exactly what he had done to the sand nin. He immediately began to berate himself for his complete lack of tact.

While Kyuubi unhelpfully blamed Naruto's aggressiveness on his generally cranky attitude when woken up at a bad time as well as Gaara's obvious attempts to piss Naruto off, Naruto worried about what his actions could have done. His behavior last night probably seemed like a challenge to Gaara and he knew all too well how Gaara never backed down from a challenge.

_Dammit!_ He cursed to himself, punching the wall in irritation. His loss of temper did little more than pissing him off further. Naruto now was mad at himself for provoking Gaara, putting a hole in the wall, _and_ for breaking three of the bones in his hand. Equally irritated at the blond, Kyuubi didn't heal or numb the injury at all. Naruto, in an oddly sadistic way, was grateful for the pain. It reminded him of how much of an idiot he was being.

Gaara was, as usual, slightly homicidal but his thoughts, contrary to Naruto's terrified belief, were far away from the other demon host. He was, instead, occupied with trying to keep down his own demon. Shukaku wanted blood and Gaara said no. That led to a huge conflict and it took every ounce of Gaara's control to suppress Shukaku.

He still remembered Naruto's 'condition' for fighting him, even though Naruto himself hadn't realized how it had made an impact on him. If Naruto said no killing, then fine, he could deal with that. What he wanted more than blood was to fight Naruto. Shukaku just didn't understand.

He still couldn't sort out exactly how he had felt when Naruto had overpowered him. He was certain that, being only half awake, the blond's guard would be fully down, leaving him completely vulnerable. He hadn't expected Naruto to be so damn strong and (unrestrained? Was that what it was?) almost terrifying.

_Never poke a sleeping fox in the eye._ He thought to himself. His neck still ached from the brutal hold. He wondered, with that shudder of suppressed fear, if Naruto could have crushed his windpipe if Gaara had prodded and pissed him off just a little bit more. It was a sobering and terrifying thought all at once.

Shikamaru hadn't slept at_ all_. He had taken a very brief nap during breakfast, much to his father's amusement, but his mother had woken him up when his head sunk into the rice. Surprisingly, his normally overbearing mother offered to let him sleep in for a few more hours, thinking that his exhaustion was because of the training he had been going through for the last month. 

But Shikamaru declined sadly, knowing he had business to take care of that day. He couldn't slack off, no matter how troublesome his predicament was. Shikamaru could live without a little sleep.

When his mother heard him say that, tears gathered at the corners of her eyes and she had hugged him tightly, saying something or other about how proud she was of him. Instead of annoying him, the affection made him very solemn, reminding him of his purpose. This was what he needed to protect. This was what he needed to help defend in the dark days ahead. He missed the look of concern that his father shot him over his cup of tea.

Temari was alert but her hands were shaking. She had overindulged in caffeine while trying to mentally figure out a plan how to get close enough to the Kazekage to find out if her hunch was right. She didn't dare put it down on paper, knowing that either one of her own or one of those annoying sound nins they were allied with would catch her and get her in a lot of trouble.

She had several ideas but one seemed just as bad at the other. Temari couldn't get past the idea that the Kazekage would catch her in the act and that was effecting her deeply to the point where she couldn't think straight. Her temper, naturally, was also affected. She scared off Kankurou within minutes that morning and it was a good thing Gaara wasn't around or she might have said something to him that could have gotten her killed.

In the end, she had told one of the Kazekage's assistants, an odd man she found herself not recognizing (odd, since Suna was so small and everyone knew each other) that their team was a little confused as to what their roles in the invasion was and that she wished to clarify that with him. It was a reasonable request and the man came back immediately and gave her a time to see her father. This, instead of soothing her nerves, did not help her anxiety. She almost wished he had said no.

However different the four's reasons were for being irritable that fine morning, any and all who dared to greet them regretted it immediately. None of them were very sociable at all and Gaara wasn't the only one giving people murderous looks.

----

"Dammit, Naruto!" a loud voice echoed throughout the training area. "I just asked you a question! Don't be such a crab!" Kiba pointed at the apathetic blond, his face red in anger. "Why are you being such an asshole?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "I don't know, why are you such an idiot?" he hissed underneath his breath. Though the others had a hard time hearing what he said, Kiba heard him perfectly.

"Oh, you've done it now, chibi boy." the admittedly taller genin said, rolling up his sleeves. Akamaru hovered awkwardly in the sidelines next to Shino, unsure whether to go to Kiba and help him fight or just watch the show. "Those are fighting words!" Shino sighed, glad that Hinata wasn't around. _She shouldn't have to be exposed to this level of immaturity._

Sasuke leaned against a tree with a concealed yawn. "Wake me up after Kiba gets his ass handed to him." he muttered to Sakura, who looked like she was on the verge of stepping between Kiba and Naruto. Kiba heard Sasuke's comment and growled but Naruto let out a bitter laugh, interrupting what Kiba was going to say to the Uchiha.

Naruto's eyes positively glowed. "Come on mutt boy." he said softly. "I _dare_ you."

Kiba smirked, ignoring the instinctive desire to back down. Naruto was not in a good mood and that could only mean trouble. "I'm not one to back down from a dare." he said dangerously before lunging at Naruto. Before the taller boy could reach Naruto, the boy abruptly disappeared from view behind a flak covered back. Kiba slid to an awkward stop, not wanting to be accused of attacking a teacher.

"Hm, I seem to sense a bit of a pattern here." Kakashi tilted his head back to glance at Kiba before returning his gaze to his student. "Do you realize that this could disqualify you for the exam? Fighting with your fellow genins right before your match?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Kiba doesn't count. He's not in the finals." he said blandly. Kiba flushed red when he remembered exactly who had kept him out of the finals. Sakura grinned at him shamelessly, sticking her tongue out. Kiba scowled at her. "Me and Sasuke weren't fighting yesterday either. We were training."

"I find that hard to believe." Kakashi said lightly. "It's public knowledge that you two are rivals..."

"It's true, Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke straightened and walked away from his tree. His face was a careful mask of boredom. "We were training together, and have been doing so long before this exam." He stuck his hands in his pockets with a shrug. "He's taught me more about taijutsu than you and Iruka-sensei combined."Kakashi's exposed eye widened. "Is that so.." he murmured to himself. He hadn't focused on taijutsu with Sasuke as much as he had made the boy drastically improve his speed. He believed that the only chance Sasuke had to win against Lee was to exploit the boy's weakness in ninjutsu and genjutsu, though Sasuke would definitely need the speed to dodge Lee's attacks.

Sasuke needed to be fast enough to react to what he could see happening with his sharingan and fast enough so that he could do more than just defend, but Kakashi wasn't sure if Sasuke was ready yet. He had exposed him to some fast paced fighting s few days earlier to test his speed, only to be shocked at the highly advanced taijutsu that the Uchiha would use in defense. He had chalked it up to the boy being exceptionally skilled at learning these things himself but it turned out he had another _teacher_.

Naturally, such learned skill would have to have come from a learned instructor (he decided to brush off the knowledge that he had only seen Naruto perform only the most basic taijutsu, knowing that the genin had a habit of hiding things) and he turned, wanting to ask how the blond had known these things to start with."Naruto-"

Naruto was gone. Kakashi frowned, wondering why Naruto always seemed to disappear right when he wanted to get some answers.

"Leave him alone, sensei." Sasuke spoke up once more. "He's stressed out. You know Naruto."

Sakura piped up with a bright smile. "He hates waiting. He'd rather fight right now and get it over with. He's very impatient." She had no idea how right she was.

"Hm.." Shino nodded once and turned away. "If Naruto's impatient to fight, then Kiba's an idiot for picking a fight."

Kiba rounded on his team mate. "Hey!" he shouted, pointing a finger at the stoic boy's back. "Whose side are you on!"

Shino looked at his team mate for a moment before directing his gaze down to the dog by his side. "Let's go, Akamaru." Shino said instead. The bug user and the dog walked off quietly, an annoyed Kiba at their heels.

Kakashi frowned, not hearing the background noise of Kiba and Shino bickering. He was staring at the spot where his most unusual student had been standing. _Why are you avoiding me, Naruto?_

----

He knelt in the grass, the heat from the sun warming up his back better than any blanket. Had it been any other situation, any other person, any other place, it would have almost been peaceful.

Instead of relaxation, it was battle for dominance. Gaara gripped his head between his hands, willing away Shukaku's voice. He pushed down the youki as much as he could, trying to regain control but Shukaku was being unusually persistent for a tanuki with a short attention span.

**Just let me kill one little girly, who would notice? Take a nibble off of one of the more whiny of brats...** Shukaku demanded, sounded a little whiny himself. **Hell, let me rip into a bunny and I'll be happy!**

_No. _Gaara put all his will behind the word. _Naruto said he wasn't going to fight me if I kill someone._ Gaara, for some reason, had completely twisted Naruto's words. Perhaps a small part of him that was still capable of guilt and of mercy was responsible for it. _If that's what it takes-_

**Ack, I don't get you! Blood is blood, and I want it NOW!** Shukaku screeched. Gaara flinched and curled in on himself. **First you don't want to kill, then you'll be promoting some sort of 'save the trees' foundation like a good samaritan! I don't want to be in a peace loving brat! **Shukaku smashed youki against Gaara's will, trying to take over.

_I never said I wasn't going to kill_. Gaara snapped out. He tried not to think how much the thought of killing for sport made him feel a little nauseous. Had a month and a half without death or blood reverted him back into a human being? If Gaara had a sense of humor, he would have laughed at the thought. _I just said not **now**._ _After I kill Naruto-_ Shukaku laughed.

**That Kyuubi won't let the brat die so easily, you know! He's a tenacious bastard and so is his host! **Apparently, Shukaku hadn't been too pleased to note that Naruto not only was capable of getting past Gaara's defenses, but also could be provoked enough to kill him, in the right circumstances. Gaara himself was rather indifferent to it all. The idea that he could die didn't bother him (what did he have to lose?) but the thrill of his self preservation instincts going haywire over Naruto's brief show of killer intent made him feel more alive than he had ever felt in _years_.

And, really, that was all that mattered to him. In the hollow shell of life where he felt more dead than alive, he killed to prove his existence, to make everyone acknowledge his presence. But even that was loosing its glamor. People were getting _used_ it. And, to top it off, Gaara found himself more and more disgusted with his prey the stronger he got. What was the point of wasting any energy on those weaklings? Even just the energy to wipe their existence off of the face of the earth?

But Naruto... he was different. He _acknowledged_ Gaara. He had strength inside of him that rivaled his own. He was even a demon host, just like Gaara. But even in their similarities, there were many differences. Naruto was his opposite in every way. The other side of the coin, the good to his evil. And, just like all opposites, neither could survive while the other lingered.

Gaara's eyes closed a fraction, a briefly cold smile curving his lips as he thought about the inevitable battle between the two demon hosts. He shook his head lightly, turning back to his conversation with his irate demon. _Isn't that the point?_ He said, almost tiredly. He was exhausted suddenly, all at once feeling as if he was much _much_ older than he truly was. Whether it was because of his whiny demon or because of his unsatisfying life, even he wasn't sure.

**Point?** Shukaku pulled back a little, a little curious as to what his antisocial host was thinking. Sensing a way to keep the demon from lashing out, Gaara tried to explain.

_Aren't you... bored?_ Gaara asked, surprised to find out that he, at least, was willing to admit it to another. But who would Shukaku tell? His confidence was boosted by this and he explained a little further. _Of all these easy kills? Don't you want... a challenge?_

**Death and blood are all the same.** Shukaku insisted, but there was a bit of reluctance in the demon's voice. **No matter where they come from.** Gaara realized that Shukaku, though a little irritated by Naruto, couldn't care less about a fight with him. Humans were humans. Death was death. But challenges were different.

"Wouldn't you love to best Kyuubi?" Gaara whispered, unaware that he had spoken out loud. There was a shifting feeling near the back of his mind and he just knew that Shukaku was going to rant about blood again but the tanuki paused, thinking a little.

Gaara felt the demon's curiosity and smirked. _Naruto is my challenge, and Kyuubi will be yours._ He prodded further. Shukaku, after a moment's deliberation, grinned evilly. The demon made no attempt to hide his bloody fantasies of ripping into Kyuubi.

In response to the blood lust, Gaara only closed his eyes, glad that he had won the verbal battle this time.

----

Temari never was the type of girl to wear her heart on her sleeve, nor was she the type to admit her weaknesses. She was strong and confident in the eyes of all and she wanted to keep it that way.

But if anyone was to ask her what was wrong right at that moment, she would admit without hesitation that she was _scared_. But who wouldn't be? She was on her own self-assigned undercover mission to find out whether her father was really her father. And the worst part of it was that she didn't know who would, if properly provoked, would kill her faster, her father or the would be fake Kazekage.

But, nonetheless, she brushed a hand over her hair, took a deep breath, and walked into the room that the Kazekage was staying in. She managed a smile when he turned away from his scrolls to look at her.

Oddly enough, he hadn't discarded the kage robes he was wearing, even though Temari heard him time and time again complain how uncomfortable it was in the overbearing heat. But they were in Konoha and she supposed that he would make an exception, since the temperatures were fairly cool when compared to the desert. He also did have the habit of wearing it whenever he felt he was going to have an important meeting and he wished to impress. So she let it slide.

"Good morning, Kazekage-sama." she said formally. Over the partial face mask, her father's dark eyes narrowed. The girl held herself rigidly until the look in the man's eyes relaxed.

"Ah, Temari." he said quietly, after a moment. Temari ignored the little voice in her head that asked why it had taken a full minute for him to remember her name. "And what brings you here?"

She bowed quickly. "Forgive me for intruding but Kankurou and I were wondering what the exact details of our mission." She kept it as vague as possible, knowing that there could be spies about. "At least regarding what needs to be done with Gaara." _Perfect excuse_. Even a spy who knew nothing would know that Gaara was a dangerous person who needed to be handled carefully.

She laughed inwardly, a little hysteric. The person in front of her could very well be a spy as well. But what was the point of spying on a village when you had the top seat? The Kazekage shifted so he could look at her better. Temari tensed under the sudden scrutiny.

"Isn't that something you should be asking Baki?" he said, his eyes narrowing further. Temari guessed her nervous laugh and blush were mistaken for embarrassment instead of anxiety because he continued. "You are to hold back Gaara until the time comes to Shukaku to be unleashed." He turned away, a silent gesture that meant that he was done with her.

Temari, however, lingered. Her mission wasn't complete! "Uh.. K-Kazekage-sama!" she blurted out. He turned slightly, glancing back at her in annoyance. With the slight twist of his shoulders, Temari could now see that he was writing in the scroll... with the wrong hand. Her father was right handed, not left handed.

_Strike one._ She thought, biting her lip nervously. Though it could be very likely that her father was ambidextrous, it didn't change the fact that he, in all her memories of him, used his right hand to write. She hesitated on using that as evidence, but decided, if he really was her father, one little strike wouldn't matter.

Temari smiled nervously. "I didn't mean that, Kazekage-sama." she said, getting her anxiety under control. "I heard that you changed the time of attack. Instead of during the fight with the Uchiha boy, you plan to stage it.. later?"

"Are you questioning me, Temari?" the Kazekage asked mildly, no hint of a threat in his voice. But Temari knew better than that. Somethings didn't needed to be hinted at in order to be heard.

"No, no! Of course not..." she spoke up immediately, putting her hands up in defense. "I just don't think Gaara can control his blood lust for that long."

"He will, if he keeps his eye on the prize." the Kazekage turned back to his scroll. "His prize, naturally, being the death of Uzumaki Naruto."

"Who?" Temari blinked twice. Of all the people that she would have thought of that Gaara wanted to fight, Uchiha Sasuke came first. He was everything that Gaara despised. He was loved, had friends, he was acknowledged, and the little brat _knew_ it.

The Kazekage twitched in annoyance. "Uzumaki Naruto." he repeated. He glanced over again, a faint look of amusement in his eyes when he revealed the next bit of information. "He's a demon host."

Temari sucked in a breath. "A demon host? In _Konoha_?" It made sense why Gaara would want to fight Naruto, then. Killing this Naruto would be bigger 'proof of his existence' than killing Sasuke.

"Your brother wants nothing more than to kill him." the Kazekage said lightly. "Who am I to stand in the way of a monster?" There was cruel humor in his voice.

Temari's eyes sharpened, reminded of her duty at the word 'brother'. _Strike two_. She thought sadly. Her father never acknowledged that Gaara was a part of their family. It was either a slip of the tongue or... she swallowed, one last idea to try.

Temari pasted on the brightest smile she could manage. Since she was a ninja, it came out looking pretty honest. "I'm sorry if I'm annoying you with all these questions." she said warmly. "I'm nervous." she dropped her eyes to the ground, a faint flush on her face. "I only wish to please you.. Father." She held her breath, peeking a glance at the Kazekage through her lashes. He had an uncomfortable look on his face.

Before she could glance at it closer, it was gone. He stood slowly, the motion making Temari tense. _This is it, moment of truth._ She thought, preparing herself for a punishment. Her father never acknowledged that they were related either, not when he was in full Kazekage mode and only very rarely when he was in casual clothing. As much as Gaara had been a disappointment to him, she and Kankurou were sometimes viewed even worse. The only thing they had going for them is that their father would never call them a monster.

A heavy hand dropped on her bowed head, making her look up. Her eyes widened at the sight of her father close up. He almost looked like he was smiling, though it was hard to tell past the cloth. Temari felt a sick feeling at the pit of her stomach. Dread from being punished suddenly changed to a horrified dread of knowing something that, now that you know it, you wish you never did.

"Everything will go as according to plan, Temari." he said kindly, the tone making Temari twitch. "Follow my lead and everything will be alright."

_You.. you son of a bitch_. Temari thought, gritting her teeth inwardly. She now knew. There were too many things, too many pieces of evidence. Alone, they meant nothing, but together... _Where the hell is my father! What have you done with him!_

That was the fake's mistake. Their family wasn't conventional. The only relatives she had some sort of relationship with was her brother. Her father was barely her father, too tied to his duties as Kazekage to bother with the son whose life he had screwed up, let alone his other two kids.

It didn't change the fact that she was raging inside, angry at the fake for trying to take his place. Bastard or not, Temari's father was Temari's father. She loved him the same way she loved Gaara. Hopeless family love that barely held on by the skin of its teeth through their family's darkest moments, but love all the same.

Outwardly, she smiled again. "Of course." she said, her voice sickeningly sweet. "I am at your command." She ducked from underneath his hand, bowed once, and left. She quickly made plans to spread the news. Someone else higher than her, Baki maybe, had to make sure that the whole invasion was turned around. Why risk the ire of Konoha when their 'all powerful' Kazekage was a fake? She walked quickly, her mind whirling with possibilities, plots, and an undercurrent of unavoidable fear.

"Hm..." Back in the room, the man in the Kazekage robes tapped his cheek. "You." A sound nin popped out of the shadows.

"Yes?" he said, alert and ready for a mission.

"There was something odd about that conversation, wasn't there?" the man asked, but didn't wait for a reply. "Follow her."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

----

Though her walk had done wonders for calming her rage, Temari was still furious, for two very important reasons. One was, obviously, that someone was pretending to be her father. Even though he wouldn't have received any awards for parenting, he was still her father. The fact that she knew that the present Kazekage was a fake meant that there was a high possibility that her father was dead. The second had less to do with grief and more with pride.

Who did they take her for anyway? She gritted her teeth. Someone was _following_ her. She was a sand nin, not a child! They thought she wouldn't notice. Her hand clenched into a fist as she glanced over her shoulder at the ninja shadowing her footsteps.

One of the things that Temari took much pride in was that, though they didn't have as many ninjas as Konoha, each and every sand nin was powerful in their own right. Temari herself was strong enough to be a chuunin. It often made her laugh to see the Konoha genins still acting like they were fresh from the nursery.

She would not be insulted with that ninja's utter lack of stealth! Just because she couldn't see him or hear him didn't mean she couldn't feel him! She whipped around, about to charge up the side of the building and show that damn stalker who the real ninja was, subtlety and tact be damned-

But a pair of sharp blue eyes made her falter. Actually, it was more the fact that a tiny genin had been standing behind her the whole time and, when she had turned, was almost tripped because he stood so close.

_I didn't... he wasn't..._ Temari stared into the familiar face. She hadn't felt his chakra, heard his breath, or anything! The only time she had a _hint_ of his presence was when she almost stepped on him! She gathered her thoughts and straightened. _Now **that** is stealth_. Her opinion of Konoha ninjas raised a notch.

He spoke first. "Temari, you know you're being followed, right?" he asked nonchalantly. Even as she struggled to put a name to his face, she still found the time to get annoyed. At least her stalker was too far away to hear the conversation.

"Of course! Who do you take me for?" she snapped. Even though she was aware of the dangers of lip reading, she found herself more unnerved by the blond she was talking to than the ninja who was following her. How did he know her name? "One of your Academy students?"

For a second, there was no reaction on the blond's face. And then, suddenly and without warning, he grinned. "Of course not." he said lightly. All the tension rushed out of his shoulders and he positively _beamed_ at her. Temari was thrown off balance. "...Even though you _did _get your ass kicked by Hinata-chan..."

A vein throbbed in Temari's forehead. She didn't think twice about nailing the blond in the head with her fist. The cry of pain was well worth it. "Evil brat..." She continued to walk away, twitching when she heard the blond (whose footsteps were now audible, the jerk) hurry to catch up.

"Temari!" he whined. It was rather unfortunate that the tiny blond whined so well. "Don't ya want my expert help?"

"At what?" she growled. "Being an idiot?" She looked at him, disturbed to see how bright and happy he was now when he had been so gloomy and stressed before. _Bipolar, anyone?_ "Who are you anyway?"

"Aw, don't hurt my feelings!" he said lightly, bouncing a few steps ahead of her. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, of course!" Temari froze. Naruto continued ahead, rotating his arm energetically. "Future Rokudaime and, a little closer to the present, the future winner of the Chuunin Final Ex- eh?" he turned around, noticing that she wasn't following him anymore.

Temari stared at him. _This is Uzumaki Naruto? How can there... be a monster hiding behind that cheerful face?_ She questioned herself. _How can he be so happy... when Gaara is so miserable?_ For a second, a brief flash of white hot anger bursted in her chest. _Why does Gaara have to suffer when this kid does not?  
_  
The smile on Naruto's face slipped when he saw Temari's eyes grow cold. It eventually disappeared until all that was left was that oddly stern yet impassive look remained, the same look that Temari had seen when she had whipped around.

He tilted his head to the side, towards the sound of quick footsteps. She did the same, also noting that her stalker had paused on the roof top closest to Temari, apparently waiting for Temari to move again. Someone rounded the corner a moment later, a fearsome scowl on his face.

"Naruto!" the genin called out, looking annoyed. Temari vaguely remembered the genin's face from somewhere. She narrowed her gaze on him, trying to fit a name to his face.

"Hiya, Shika." Naruto said lightly, a small smile appearing on his face. The irritated look on the other genin's face, if possible, increased at Naruto's greeting. Temari snapped her fingers inwardly, suddenly remembering the genin was to be the first one who was going to fight Kankurou in the exam. 

Temari looked him over, a smirk appearing when she realized that Kankurou was going to have an easy match. The genin was too short, almost slender, and looked to all the world as if concentrating on one thing too long would be mildly troublesome. He was too... _twelve-ish_. Kankurou was going to wipe the floor with him. Shikamaru spared her a brief but bored look before turning back to Naruto.

"Thanks for running off yesterday, you idiot." he said, a scowl twisting his features. "We need to-" Anything he was about to say was cut off when Naruto gestured for him to stop. Temari marveled at how the genin instantly froze in place but before she could make a rude comment about it, Naruto was speaking to her again.

"There's a library not too far from here, just around the corner, in fact. It has some pretty interesting stuff on jutsus." he said vaguely to her before turning back to the other genin. He tapped his shoulder twice, jerked his head towards Temari, and then made a sweeping motion with his hand.

The other genin nodded slowly, the meaning of the gestures clear. _Someone's following her. Let's get them off her tail._ Though he couldn't understand why Naruto would be helping out a sand nin, much less one of the three that he had warned him about, he also read something underneath the gestures that suited his own ends. Naruto's eyes pleaded with him to help, a promise in them.

"You owe me." the genin said quietly. "Training area six. _Don't_ run off again." Naruto solemnly nodded. Then, waving at Temari with one of those bright grins, he jumped back several feet, rudely sticking his tongue out at Shikamaru.

"Nyah! You'll never catch me!" he boasted, all but ignoring Temari as he cackled and leapt on the roof. "Slow poke! I've seen slugs move faster!"

"You better get going." Shikamaru murmured to Temari before lunging after Naruto. "Hey, get back here, you annoying brat!" Though her feet obediently started walking the rest of the length of the alley, she couldn't help but watch what was going on over her shoulder.

Shikamaru jumped up the side of the building, chasing Naruto with occasional inputs of sarcasm and irritation. Naruto cackled evilly and stayed out of his reach, his inputs much more vulgar and more insulting.

With a sudden burst of chakra, Naruto hurled himself backwards with a lot of force and wasted chakra. A truly unfortunate move (Temari snorted softly to herself) since he wasn't aware of the sound nin's presence, of course. He ended up slamming hard into one of the metal advertisements on the opposite roof. The metal trembled and groaned, weakened from the impact, and the thin supports snapped.

Just as she reached the corner, the wood and metal advertisement fell over on an unsuspecting sound nin, who yelped as it nearly crushed him. Seemingly just noticing the injured bystander, Naruto yelped as well, rolling off the ad to see if the sound nin was alright.

Shikamaru jumped over the gap to land at Naruto's side, rolling his eyes at Naruto's loud accusations thrown at him. "You killed him, Shika!" the blond whined, pointing a finger at the groaning sound nin. "You broke him!"

"If anyone killed him, it was you, you idiot." Shikamaru said mildly, just loud enough to be heard. They had caused a scene, apparently. Two passing ninjas (leaping from roof top to roof top as most ninjas did) paused to watch. Even an ANBU, one of the silent specters of Konoha, watched from his (or her? Its?) perch on a wire.

"I'm fine, really." the sound nin said, trying to get up. No doubt trying to get back to his mission, Temari thought grimly. She stopped observing, noting the library that Naruto mentioned. Nice and big public place. Most likely with a back entrance. Excellent. It was time to shake off that damn stalker.

Temari smiled, easily pushing open the door and sliding in. Maybe that kid wasn't half bad.

---

After waiting patiently for ten minutes for Naruto to arrive (after he, naturally and with a big commotion, dragged the sound nin to the hospital to get him 'fixed'), Shikamaru's efforts were rewarded when he heard the soft thump of someone sitting down next to him.

The grass was cool, the bright blue sky was only slightly hindered by cottony pure-white clouds (his favorite), but he couldn't feel any more solemn even if he tried.

"So, what did you want to talk about, Shika?" Naruto began the conversation amiably, tension easing from his body as he relaxed in the relatively empty clearing of one of the less frequently used training areas. He still had a wicked smirk on his face, most likely because of the nurse's misunderstanding of what he meant that the sound nin needed to be 'fixed', a misunderstanding that he had made no move to correct. He truly had no pity for any of Orochimaru's men at all.

Shikamaru glanced over, aware that Naruto's posture was the exact opposite of his own, relaxed verses tensed and ready to spring. Shikamaru was sitting up, a rare thing since clouds weren't so easily viewed like that, his shoulders hunched over slightly as he kept a tight grip around a roll of paper.

Naruto yawned and looked over, a frown replacing the dazed look of exhaustion and sated look of mischievous satisfaction on his face when he saw how tense Shikamaru was. He ran a hand through his hair, an oddly nervous gesture even though it was disguised as something more vain than nervous, before he sat back up. He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees and lightly clasping his hands where they hung.

"Didn't sleep much last night, huh?" Shikamaru asked, knowing the answer already. He hunched forward a little more, balancing his chin on his palm. His elbow dug slightly into his knee where it was perched and his other hand tensed around his night's work.

"I had a late night visitor." Naruto said vaguely. "Between him and the nightmares, I didn't sleep much." He slanted an all too knowing glance at his friend. "Not that you can boast having a full eight hours either, eh Shika?" Shikamaru wordlessly shook his head.

Engaging in simple small talk wasn't his style but it served to calm him down a bit. It also gave him some time to figure out how he was going to address his problem.. _their_ problem really. The whole damn world and everyone in it, human or otherwise. Well, theoretically.

Shikamaru's hand twitched as he wondered why he needed to keep reminding himself that it was just a theory and it could be wrong. Where was the cynical side of him hiding? Probably behind Shikamaru's unfortunate epiphany that Ino was really pretty when she wasn't being a nag, the coward.

"So... um." Shikamaru frowned a little, not sure how to start. "What do you know of the world and the balance?" It was an odd theory that he had ran across in one of the scrolls he had filched from the library but it made more and more sense now that he thought about it. The world was full of examples of the natural balance.

"Um.. it uh balances?" Naruto guessed immediately. Judging by the annoyed look on Shikamaru's face, it probably wasn't the answer he was looking for. Naruto thought some more. "Like, between good and evil?" he said, stabbing in the dark. The look on Shikamaru's face lightened a little. Naruto sighed when he realized it was a good answer.

"That's good." he said with a faint smile. "I was a little worried that you were completely oblivious to the world." He ignored Naruto's half hearted protests and carried on. "It's a belief that nearly everything that happens in the world has something to do with balance."

"I know that balance stuff." Naruto said irritably, even though it was the first time it had been brought to his attention. It could have been one of the many topics that Iruka had brought up in class that he had missed because he was pranking people, and it wouldn't have made a difference. Shikamaru seemed to know this but carried on without a comment.

"Just listen." the boy said urgently, all traces of his smile fading. "You have no idea what you did, did you? When you came back here?" Naruto opened his mouth, about to defend himself when the slightly jumpy Nara shook his head. "No, _listen_. There's a balance, yes, but not between good or evil. Those are just values forced upon us by society. Just lies, you know. The real balance is between what is and what should not be." He slammed a roll of paper down on the ground, making Naruto jump at the noise. The roll spun open, revealing Shikamaru's writing and strange scribbles.

"Naruto." He spoke with such a tight voice that Naruto looked away from the paper and at Shikamaru questioningly, no doubt wondering what had knocked Shikamaru off of his eternal pedestal of calm indifference. "You should not have been able to travel back into the past. That ruins that balance, you see? It goes under 'what should not be'. And thus, is impossible."

Naruto pulled away with a snarl. "Are we back to that shit again?" he snapped incredulously, jumping to his feet. "I'm telling you, I wasn't lying-!"

"I believe you." Shikamaru said, his voice pitching low. Naruto's rant died in his throat. "I believe you, Naruto. I do. I really do. But, you see, it's... even worse than you thought. The future? As much as you may have though it was bad... it was _worse_."

"How so?" Naruto whispered, not liking the look on Shikamaru's face. He wasn't confused. He was worse than confused: he was out of the loop. He hadn't been out of the loop for a long time and to suddenly be hurled out was a little scary.

"You're not supposed to _be_ here." the other genin said quietly, his gaze fixed to the ground. "But... here you are. And I've been thinking about this long and hard and there's only one reason why the powers that be allowed you to come back here." He looked up, seeing the confused look on Naruto's face.

"I'm... not following." Naruto said slowly, fully focused on Shikamaru with an intensity that was almost frightening.

Shikamaru clarified it softly. "Two negatives make a positive, Naruto. Something... _happened_. In your future, something so bad that the gods themselves put their asses on the line to allow you to break a few laws of physics. Think!" The Nara said, his voice almost desperate. "Not about Konoha, yourself, or even _Sasuke_. What is the worst thing that could have possibly happened then, in a god's point of view? What would shake the very foundations of the balance itself?"

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, deep in thought, a little annoyed because Shikamaru had a look on his face that said that he already knew the answer but was patiently waiting for Naruto to catch up. He scowled a little, then attempted to figure out what it was, pacing in front of Shikamaru as he mentally searched his mind for an event that would break this balance... _thingy_.

Lots of bad things had happened then. It was war, after all. But in a god's point of view? How the hell was he supposed to know what they wanted, or even what they thought was bad? It's not like he knew any, for crying out loud.

Naruto tapped his bicep as he tried to remember something important, something... earth shattering. One of those rule breakers, one of those 'things that should not be'. The only thing that he would have considered 'earth shattering' back then was-

Naruto's breath caught in his throat when he suddenly realized what had happened. He trembled lightly as he remembered his last day, the sudden bold attack after months of strained peace. The utter triumph he could feel outside of the broken walls, the echoing laughter of a pleased man as they retreated like scared rabbits. The tight feeling around his heart when he had tugged and hauled Ino away from Shikamaru's dead body, the knowledge that they had lost more than just Konoha and the entire _damn_ war…

"Oro... Orochimaru." Naruto rasped out, tortured eyes seeking out his friend. "He... he..." The thought was too horrifying. He fell to his knees in front of Shikamaru. "Impossible!" 

**Ah, but that's what makes it one of the 'things that should not be'. **Kyuubi commented lightly. He was hardly moved by Naruto's horrified realization.** The fact that it breaks all laws, all rules, and shreds any and all decency. Just imagine how many people snake face sacrificed to rid himself of all of his human weaknesses. Pitiful fool.**.

"Not impossible." the other genin said softly, something like sympathy or perhaps empathy passing over his face. "Perhaps improbable. But it happened, _didn't it_? The last attack on Konoha? It wasn't because he was pleased with his new host, was it?" Naruto's head was bowed. Shikamaru prodded further. "It wasn't because he knew Konoha was barely holding on, was it? It was because he had an advantage that no... _earthly_ body could boast."

Naruto looked up, looking so lost and worn down. Shikamaru's heart went out to him but he had to say it. He had to make sure that Naruto knew it before he continued his quest to save Konoha. Even if he had to tell Naruto that, even if he _had_ stuck around Konoha in those final days, he wouldn't have made a _difference_ against Orochimaru. And that was knowledge that could possibly kill Naruto if he ever realized it fully.

"This was never about Konoha." Shikamaru continued softly, his words strengthening with each sentence. "It was never about you. Your duty... your only real _mission_... is to stop that thing that made the gods relent and push you back here. You need to help them regain the balance by making sure it doesn't tip in the first place." He gripped Naruto's arms tightly and gave him a slight shake when the blond's head lolled down once more. "Naruto! You need-"

"I know." Naruto looked up, his eyes hardened and his lips pulled into a tight frown. "I need to kill Orochimaru before he becomes immortal."

A tense silence followed the blond's proclamation. Shikamaru found himself mildly disturbed at the dark look in Naruto's eyes. It was the same cold eyed gaze that Naruto had given the sound nin, even as he laughed and smiled and caused a commotion. The genin found himself wondering what kind of ninja Naruto had really been in the future. Something about those icy blue eyes screamed 'ANBU!'.

A part of him had hoped that Naruto had at _least_ become a Hokage (because he knew how much that dream had meant to Naruto during the Academy), even though he knew inwardly that it was never possible. Had he been Hokage, Naruto would have never left his Konoha, not even for the past. He would have went down with it, like a captain with his ship.

"Well..." Shikamaru said a little reluctantly, shaking his head out of his thoughts. "It's just a theory." A theory that made so much _sense_ that it _had_ to be true but there was still a good chance it could be wrong. Shikamaru didn't know who he was trying to convince more, Naruto or himself.

Naruto stood suddenly, an abrupt motion that Shikamaru imitated. The shorter genin was silent for a moment, his head bowed and what little Shikamaru could see of his face completely blank. "It doesn't change much." Naruto said finally, slowly giving voice to some optimism. "It just gives me more of a reason to kill him."

It chilled Shikamaru to hear Naruto speak so casually of killing someone, but even he knew that Orochimaru had it coming. Especially if Naruto had some higher powers aiding him to do it. Still, Naruto looked like a child, with his bright blue eyes, his sunny blond hair, and his short stature. He did not look like a killer. It was faintly disturbing but just another dark part of the shinobi lifestyle.

Suddenly and without warning, a wide grin appeared on Naruto's face, startling Shikamaru. The blond started to laugh, crossing his arms behind his head while his eyes danced with amusement. "Oh man, Shika..." he said between chuckles. "You have no idea how _much_ better your theory makes me feel."

"What?" Shikamaru gaped at Naruto. His theory wasn't amusing! It was _horrible_. The idea that someone as powerful as Orochimaru had attained godly status was terrifying! After developing it, he couldn't sleep because he was plagued with a vivid imagination as to what would happen to the world under the power of Orochimaru. But Naruto was laughing. _Laughing_, the idiot!

Naruto snickered some more, amused by the shocked look on Shikamaru's face. "Come on, think about it, Shika!" he said with that wide grin. "You just gave me the best news ever!" He turned around, walking away. As he walked away, he filled Shikamaru in. "That bastard... he's afraid of dying! Ha! Not so fearless after all, eh?" There was nothing more amusing than a villain with a phobia, apparently. "The only fate we all share." Naruto snorted. "Pansy."

Shikamaru watched Naruto walk off, still chuckling at some joke that the Nara boy didn't understand. The only thing that he did understand about the situation, however, was that they were now back to square one. Before Shikamaru remembered why he had wanted to talk to Naruto in the first place, Naruto was gone. Shikamaru scowled.

Naruto, living up to his new reputation of being the most mysterious person in Konoha, had left without telling Shikamaru a _damn thing_. The Nara sighed to himself, about to run after Naruto and demand the answers he wanted before he realized that there was no point. Naruto would only slip out of his grip again. Instead, he decided to focus on what little he did know.

"A theory is just a theory until it's proved to be a fact." Shikamaru murmured to himself. And, even though he truly believed that what Naruto told him was true, he still was yet to learn of how exactly the blond had gotten to the past in the first place.

He was almost certain that knowing _how_ Naruto came back would be able to prove or disprove his theory, or at least help him figure out the situation. If the gods had intervened, there had to be some sort of supernatural element involved in the process of it. Breaking unbreakable laws, after all, wasn't something an average person could accomplish. Normal _human_ power had its limits.

But Naruto managed to get away before Shikamaru could ask. The Nara sighed, rubbing his temples. He decided to pry answers out of Naruto on a day when he felt more that half awake. The boy was just so _exhausting_...

Though Naruto had not given him an answer to his unasked question, Shikamaru had already come up with another theory of how Naruto powered the jutsu (_jutsu_ because he very much doubted Naruto used a machine, like in those bad sci fi movies). This was an idea that spawned when he had researched Gaara.

If he was right, then Naruto would no doubt be shocked that Shikamaru had figured it out with little to no evidence. If he was wrong, then Naruto would most likely be offended. After all, wouldn't be offensive to imply that someone was playing host to a demon? Shikamaru doubted that Naruto would have appreciated Shikamaru's logic if Naruto ended up to be just one of those strangely powerful but normal ninjas.

With that thought, his mind spiraled off into another direction, moving so fast that he felt ill. He also felt like he was connecting unrelated ideas to create a picture but in his mind, it just made so much damn _sense_ that he didn't throw it away. Had he been a more religious person, he would have joked something about 'divine revelations' but since he was more rational than to put faith in something someone else said was true, he found himself ignoring the oddity of it and simply followed through.

Maybe his theory, his original one, was more right than he had ever imagined. It wasn't about Konoha, Oto, or Orochimaru. Maybe it didn't have anything to do with Naruto either. Maybe Naruto wasn't even a _part_ of the balancing act. Maybe he was just a v_essel_ of the heavy gamble that the gods had played. Maybe-

Shikamaru rubbed his temples with a groan. He had a major migraine beating behind his eyes. There was too much information going through his mind right now. _And way too many damn maybes._

---

Kankurou leveled a sharp stare at his sister, his fist clenching by his side. "Do you have any idea of what you're doing?" The words, though harsh, were hissed softly, desperately quiet to prevent eavesdroppers. "Are you _insane_?" Temari stood up a little straighter, tossing her head back as she tossed a glare at her angry but worried brother.

"Of course not, I'm no more insane than you are. I know what's at stake." she snapped, her eyes narrowing on her brother's rapidly paling face. "That's why I went through so much trouble to get evidence."

"Evidence? _Evidence_?" Kankurou groaned, hiding his face in his hand. "This is beyond crazy... this is mutiny! People have been killed for less!" Yet he didn't skip out to report her, choosing to look at his sister through his fingers. He waited for some sort of rational explanation, sure that there was one _somewhere_. Temari wasn't without reason.

Twenty minutes ago, Temari had slipped a tiny piece of paper into his hand as they came across each other in Konoha. Sensing her distress, Kankurou didn't stop to ask her what she was doing. He immediately went somewhere private (a public bathroom, of all places, yet it was surprisingly private) and read the piece of paper while hiding in one of the stalls.

It contained a single sentence: _He's not our father._

They met back up in their rooms, which were relatively private because Gaara regularly scared away any sound ninjas that came around. After a few 'accidents', no sound nin dared to come near their rooms.

Kankurou, blown away by the accusations against their father, tried to talk some sense into his sister, only to be met with a firm and unwavering wall of resistance. She really and truly believed that the Kazekage was a fake and their father was gone.

The door to the room slid open and, his face impassive as a brick wall, Baki walked in. Seeing them there made him frown a little before he turned his full attention to Temari. "You wished to speak to me, Temari?"

Kankurou rounded on his sister. "You're getting _him_ involved too?" he demanded furiously. "Do you have a death wish?" Temari glared at her brother, about to let loose some rude retorts but Baki waved his hand.

"That's enough bickering." he said, his frown growing more pronounced. His curiosity grew at Kankurou's anxiety. "Now, if you please, I wish to know why I'm here."

Shooting Kankurou a glare that screamed 'Shut up!', Temari straightened and began explaining the situation to her sensei, who looked more and more worried by the minute.

---

If there was one thing Hinata could wish for, it was to be with Naruto right at that moment, instead of standing outside of the Hyuuga home. Even with her anxiety over their match, Naruto was the one person who brought her happiness without question or confusion and without even really being aware he was doing it.

Just seeing him smile was enough for her, the gleam of amusement in his eyes uplifting, and the sound of his laugh was enough to put her at ease. It was easy to forget how hard life was when she looked at him.

But, all that aside, she had promised her father that she would return home after her missions and before that, she had promised to speak with Hanabi. Her sister, apparently, still was holding a grudge against her. This knowledge bewildered Hinata, who couldn't imagine why her little sister would even bother thinking about her. Did she already have what she wanted?

Hinata wondered how her father knew these things. Every time she had caught a glimpse of her sister, the girl's eyes had been blank and her face impassive. Could there really be emotion behind all of that apathy, let alone anger? It was hard to think that her sister really could be capable of emotions, even though her father assured her that she did.

Hinata slipped off her shoes and walked in and, in spite of herself, smiled at the familiar surroundings. No matter what, this was her home and she was happy to be back. It was a place full of good memories and bad, and although the bad seemed to outweigh the good at some moments, it still was easy to come home.

Hinata didn't know why but she had sort of half expected some sort of barricade keeping her out, or a sign on the door that said 'No weaklings allowed'. She should have know that those weren't things that her family would stoop so low as to do, but she couldn't help thinking that she was so much more wanted in a tiny apartment by that one special person than in the huge Hyuuga home with all of her numerous family members."So you're back." Hinata's gaze immediately shifted to the source of the voice, meeting her cousin's empty stare as she was jolted out of her thoughts. He was leaning against one of the walls, his arms crossed over his chest. Nothing gave him away. Just complete apathy, a mask more perfect than her sister's.

Hinata wondered more and more often why Neji couldn't have switched places with her. He was more befitting of the Main House, and besides, she didn't mind the idea of helping the Main House from the sidelines. That was more her thing. Neji, in contrast, was never meant for a life of servitude. The thin scroll she kept close to her at all times suddenly weighed her down like lead.

_How much more longer will it be until I can master that jutsu?_ She thought, biting her lip. Of course, even if she did end up mastering the jutsu, her family would kill her the second she performed it. The seal was never meant to be lifted, no matter how talented the recipient from the Branch Family was. But it would be _worth it_, just to see the look on his face afterwards.

When Neji's eyes narrowed in that way that always had her wondering if he could read minds, Hinata rushed to speak and stumbled over her words for a moment before firmly answering. "Yes, I am." she said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "My mission is complete." She knew that her mission wasn't what he was talking about but she wanted to avoid any questions asking where she had lived in the several weeks period of being absent from home.

Feeling slightly guilty, she turned away and walked to her room, briefly activating her eyes to make sure that he wasn't following. Neji didn't follow her, much to her relief, but his gaze followed her until she was almost to her room.

She shook her head in sadness. He was another blank person that she just couldn't understand, no matter how much she tried. Maybe, once she took the seal off, he could be able to open up? But most likely not. Hanabi, after all, was just as bad as he was and she didn't have a seal or a long and bitter grudge.

She opened the door, tugging on her necklace with absentminded nervousness and walked in, trying to figure out a way to deal with her sister, hopefully in such a way where neither of them would get hurt.

---

Sasuke was angry that Kakashi had interfered with his and Naruto's battle. Couldn't the jonin see that it was less of a spar and more of a training match? Naruto had _complete_ control of the fight. Even Sakura had seen that.

There was a brief stinging pain to his pride, knowing how easily Naruto controlled their fights, even with the sharingan activated. But he found himself caring less and less that Naruto was stronger than him.

There was, of course, the fierce feeling of rivalry and the thrill of finally having some competition. But, in a normal circumstance with only this feelings present, it would easily give way to jealousy, bitterness, and anger, knowing that the kid with the lowest passing score was leaps and bounds stronger than him, and would only get stronger.

However, any sense of jealousy towards Naruto that Sasuke may have had was abruptly killed when he realized just how much Naruto wanted to pass on his knowledge to make Sasuke stronger. This change of pace, having a rival who was more of a teacher than a peer, bewildered Sasuke to no end and made him often question Naruto's motives.

Who would, after all, want their rival to best them? Yet, even with this in mind, Sasuke couldn't erase the image of the gleam of pride in Naruto's eyes when Sasuke mastered a move perfectly.

Sasuke rubbed the back of his neck, directing his gaze low so that his hair would hang in front of his face and hide his expression. If he had been vocally honest about the situation, he would have admitted that it made him a little embarrassed.

There was pleased, like how Kakashi would nod to him when he got something difficult right the first time, then there was _pleased_, like how Naruto would grin brightly in excitement when Sasuke was improving. The only other experience he had with the second type of 'pleased' was with his mother. No matter how many times he fell and scraped his knees, she was always proud of him for getting back up and trying again, just like Naruto.

It was an alien feeling, one that he had thought had died with his mother, the feeling of being pleased with himself because another was proud of him. It was nothing like the cold pride of seeing himself becoming stronger. It was warmer. It made him miss his mother dearly.

_He'd be a good father_. Sasuke thought unexpectedly. But it was true. Naruto was lenient, but hard, forgiving, but a bit forceful. There was also the fact that he would die to protect his family. He started to smile at the thought of Naruto finally getting the family he had always secretly desired but it wilted at the sudden mental image said blond and family.

Not that the image itself was bad. It was Kodak moment worthy. But it brought a wave of pain, a mental anguish that he thought he had buried a long time ago. The older looking Naruto was replaced with his father, the woman Naruto had his arm wrapped around with was replaced with his mother. And the two children at their sides suddenly became a younger Sasuke and Itachi.

Sasuke closed his eyes tightly, willing the image away. He clenched his fist so tight that his blunt fingernails dug into the fleshy part of his palm. Grateful to have something to focus on, he turned all his attention on the slight pain and breathed slowly out of his mouth.

As it always did, the mental anguish went away, this time before any physical hints of it came to the surface. The thud of another's sandals against the wood of the roof made him open his eyes and look up, unsurprised that his visitor happened to be the one he was thinking about. Naruto always seemed to know when Sasuke was, as Naruto phrased it, 'in a mood'.

And, like always, Naruto offered the one sure fire thing to get Sasuke out of his 'mood'. "Hey, you wanna spar?" the blond asked, leaning over his seated friend. Sasuke glanced over at Konoha below, as if he just realized where he was, then looked up at the shorter blond. He was tempted but his gaze dropped down to Naruto's hand. It was swollen and an angry red. Naruto wouldn't be able to make hand seals with that sort of injury.

"Kakashi-sensei will barge in again." he said, not being able to take the regret out of his voice. "There's no point." 

Naruto sighed with just as much regret before sitting next to the Uchiha. "That sucks." he mumbled. He leaned back, bracing his hands against the roof. A flinch shot up through his arm and the blond looked back at his injury, surprised to see that it was still there. "Why doesn't he trust us?" Naruto asked, more hypothetical than anything else as he idly tested the movement of his injured hand.

"One, we're rivals and we're bound to kill each other." Sasuke answered promptly. Naruto flinched but not from his injury. Besides a long questioning look, Sasuke didn't ask why and only continued on. "Two, if everything works out well, we could fight each other in the exam and fighting now could end up disqualifying us both. And three..." he paused, glancing at Naruto. "He finds it hard to believe that you could teach someone something."

Naruto laughed, something about it a little forced. "Heh, I know. Short attention span and even shorter patience." he said with a grin. Only half of the blond's amusement seemed real. Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly.

_That's __**not** the reason, Naruto._ He thought with a frown, but dropped the subject. If Naruto wasn't going to tell him anything, then he wasn't going to force him to. Sasuke had to push down the sudden wave of bitterness and tried to convince himself that he couldn't care less. It was a tactic that he found was working less and less for him.

As a rival, he didn't feel much jealousy towards Naruto because of the blond's constant 'teaching' methods. But on a personal level, as Naruto's friend, he couldn't suppress the waves of bitterness and anger when he realized Naruto wasn't telling him everything. It was a stupid thing, since everyone has their secrets.

But it just seemed like Naruto had a lot more than everyone else. So much secrets that Sasuke knew that he had to unload some of them on somebody. The bitterness mostly surrounded the fact that he knew that it wasn't him who Naruto was sharing with.

"Hey, listen up." Naruto said, the tone of his voice changing. It suddenly became low and serious. 'Teacher Mode', as Sasuke liked to think of it. "About the exam... I know you don't like me giving you advice-" Sasuke looked away. He liked hearing Naruto's advice because it ended up being beneficial but his pride demanded that he pretend that he didn't want it. "But listen. The only way you can defeat Rock Lee is to defeat him before he pulls off his weights. And in order to do that, you must rely on taijutsu as a defense and ninjutsu as an offense." 

Sasuke nodded. From what he had seen of Rock Lee, that seemed like the best course of action. The older boy had a weakness for ninjutsu and genjutsu but was almost crazily strong in the taijutsu field. "Weights?" he echoed, his frown becoming more pronounced.

"Yeah, he has a bunch. He's fast as is, but he's a lot faster without them." Naruto gave him an apologetic smile. "If he takes off those weights, Sasuke, and I mean no offense... you're a goner."

Sasuke made a soft contemplative noise before propping up his chin on his clasped hands. _So I have to hit him hard and fast with ninjutsu._ He thought, running over his knowledge of ninjutsu. It seemed like he'd be using a lot of fire jutsu this time around.  
He tensed a little when he remembered that nearly all the taijutsu that Naruto had taught him was defensive, save for one or two moves. Sasuke hid his smile behind his hands. _That guy... for someone who acts like an idiot, he sure does know his stuff._

"And also... um." Naruto pushed himself forward, leaning his elbows against his knees. He looked both parts reluctant and fiercely determined. "Be wary of sound nins."

Sasuke looked at him, a little confused. He couldn't see Naruto's face because the boy was leaning forward, his back almost hunched as the shadows hid his face. "What do you mean?" he said, finally asking. "None of them are in the exam. They were all wiped out in the preliminaries." Befitting of a tiny village out in the middle of nowhere, he had thought with the arrogance of a strong genin. And Naruto was still worried about them?

Naruto glanced over, his normally bright eyes dark. Sasuke suddenly regretted asking at the brief but miserable look on his friend's face. "I just don't trust them." Naruto said slowly, once he had a somewhat indifferent mask fixed in place. He stood up in a fluid motion. Sasuke couldn't remember a time where he felt more confused. Naruto refused to look at him. "And, while I'm at it, I'd better tell you to stay the hell away from Kabuto too."

Sasuke's frown deepened. "Who?" Sasuke mumbled to himself, not intending to be heard or answered.

"The gray haired guy from the exam. Glasses, nosy, pony tail. Medic nin wannabe. Dangerous as hell." Naruto replied, his shoulders losing some of their tension. The blond couldn't help but feel a little relieved that Sasuke couldn't remember the traitor. It meant that Kabuto hadn't approached Sasuke a second time after the Uchiha's cold rejection.

**Maybe we should... make special efforts to ensure that there will be no 'approaching' on the worm's part.** Kyuubi inserted, a wry grin pulling at his lips and revealing a rather terrifying sight of all of his teeth.

_Intriguing_. Naruto said, his reply deceptively mild. Kyuubi wasn't fooled because he could feel that Naruto was just as darkly pleased as he was at the idea of killing Kabuto. _I'll keep that in mind._

While Naruto was briefly distracted by fuzzy memories of Kabuto's dead body, Sasuke thought over what Naruto had told him. He didn't care who this 'Kabuto' was and couldn't even remember a face to put to the name. What he did know was that seeing Naruto so tense and serious was annoying to him, at least in the sense that Naruto's more cheerful behavior was something that Sasuke was used to.

Not that he liked it when Naruto was happy or anything. No, of course not. Who would think that? It was complete and utter nonsense, in Sasuke's point of view. _Caring how that dobe acts... psh._

One would also argue that being defensive in your own mind would be 'complete and utter nonsense', but then would be beaten over the head with a crowbar by Sasuke at the first mention of 'denial'. Sasuke did not take kindly to being informed of innocent geographic facts. Or, at least that's how he reasoned it.

"Whatever." Sasuke stood with a dismissive gesture. He walked down to the end of the roof, taking a moment to glance over his shoulder at Naruto. "Come on. Let's go get some ramen." Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as the dark haired genin jumped off the roof. He scrambled over to the edge, staring at Sasuke's retreating back.

"W-what?" he said, sure that he had heard wrong. Since when did Sasuke eat ramen? _Willingly_? And not just because Naruto or Kakashi was paying for it?

"You heard me." Sasuke said gruffly. He looked over his shoulder, the unfriendly look on his face completely at odds with what he was trying to do. "I'll even pay for it."

Naruto stared before a slow grin appeared on his face. "Yes!" he cried, punching his fist into the air. Sasuke started walking away again. Naruto was quick to jump off the roof and hurry after him, unaware of how hard Sasuke fought to keep a smile off of his face at the return of Naruto's good mood.

----

Hinata crept into the large training room silently, her eyes on her sister. Hanabi, her eyes blazing with their blood limit, focused on trying to get past her father's guard. Naturally, she was _so_ focused on her father that Hinata knew that Hanabi was deliberately ignoring her. It was painfully obvious.

Hiashi glanced over Hanabi's head at Hinata. Hinata, trying to remember the tired man she had conversed with before the Chuunin Exam (as opposed to the stern and almost scary one in front of her), attempted a smile and was overjoyed when Hiashi nodded towards her before bringing his gaze downwards to defend once more.

Still trying to not disturb the training match, Hinata gently put down the tea and rice balls she had brought in (a rather lame attempt at a peace offering, she would be the first to admit) and sat down next to it.

Watching her sister and her father wasn't as entertaining as it was awe striking. Her sister's form was perfect, every hit and every strike executed with the right about of force and right amount of chakra. But even all that sheer perfection couldn't measure up to Hiashi's overwhelming skill, power, and, most important of all, reach. Hanabi was good, but Hiashi was a hundred times better. That, somehow, made Hinata feel a little better about losing to him so many times when she was younger.

As if her presence was a trigger, Hiashi ended the match quickly, immediately moving over to her. Hinata offered him a cup of tea and a rice ball, which he took with another nod before moving to walk out.

"You and your sister need to talk." His voice rang out in the previously silent room. It took Hinata a second to realize that he wasn't talking to her, but to Hanabi, who was froze in mid step in her attempt to sneak out of the room. As the girl turned around, her face screwed up in a fearsome scowl, Hinata suddenly remembered the encounter she had with her former opponent, Temari of Suna.

She had been in the library, burying herself underneath a pile of scrolls and books, desperately trying not to think about the upcoming match against Naruto. She had been very surprised to see a slightly flushed Temari jog into the room, glancing behind her suspiciously. The girl had spotted Hinata and a very awkward conversation had sprang up. But the blonde left with a parting bit of advice.

"_This is for your own good, chibi._" the taller girl had said, her dark eyes narrowed. "_Forfeit the exam._" The scowl on the blond's face nearly matched the scowl on Hanabi's face, only Temari's eyes had hinted at traces of concern while Hanabi's burned with anger under a thin veil of apathy.

Hinata swallowed, face to face with the very reason why she couldn't back out of the exams. She took a heavy breath and offered a cup of tea to her sister. It was pointedly ignored. The gesture lost on her angry little sister (why? What did Hinata do wrong?), Hinata sighed and put the cup back down.

"Spit it out, I have more _important_ things to dwell on." Hanabi said with venom. Hinata winced. Her sister really knew how and where to stick the knife in and twist it. Nonetheless, she managed to keep her cool.

"I... was under the impression that... _you_ were the one who wished to 'spit' something out." Hinata said bravely, her voice only trembling a little. Hanabi was not impressed but Hinata sat up straight, somehow managing to keep her gaze, a nearly impossible feat that would have drove her to tears a few months ago.

Hanabi finally turned away, stalking to the middle of the room. She stood there for a moment before turning her icy eyes on Hinata. "Well?" she said, her voice full of irritation. Hinata's eyes widened.

_She wants me to... fight her?_ The genin swallowed, bad memories of their last fights making her fingers twitch. She always was in so much pain afterwards. "I... um... well..." Hinata tried to come up with a good excuse out of the fight but couldn't think when Hanabi was glaring at her so impatiently. "...Okay."

Reluctantly, Hinata stood, facing her sister with a worried frown as she took up her position across from Hanabi. She slid into a similar stance as Hanabi, already gathering chakra to activate her byakugan. 

"Now." Hanabi said suddenly, before Hinata could make the appropriate hand seal to activate her blood limit. The little girl's eyes narrowed, her eyes already glowing with it as she darted forward.

Stifling a gasp, Hinata jumped back from the first strike and jumped when it looked like her sister was about to knock her off her feet with a low sweeping leg. _This is just like last time!_ Hinata thought, her throat constricting as she landed and defended against the next blow at the same time. _She won't let me activate byakugan!_

Every Hyuuga had the byakugan but the only difference was the user's ability to wield it. Extremely gifted people, like Hiashi, Neji, and Hanabi, could activate their bloodline without much more than a burst of chakra. People like Hinata, however, needed a few seconds to make a hand seal in order to make the chakra flow correctly to their eyes.

Hanabi had no intention of letting Hinata have those few seconds.

The little girl hounded Hinata's every step, shadowing her footsteps, attacking when Hinata was off balance. She was ruthless, cold, and Hyuuga perfection in its highest form. Hinata couldn't defend herself against every blow. It wouldn't be long until she was no longer to channel chakra through her right arm, that was for sure.

Tear pricking the corner of her eyes when she realized how utterly weak she was, Hinata wondered what Naruto would say if he saw her right now. And he had seemed so proud of her too, after that failure of a mission. Her arm was now useless. Jyuken was now useless. She was now useless. How could she have ever thought otherwise?

An image of Naruto flashed before her eyes. He looked very impatient, his hands fisted at his sides. "_Come on, Hinata-chan!_" he said, his blue eyes glinting. "_If the brat won't let you use your eyes, then hell! Don't use them!_" He shook his fist at her, his fierce scowl suddenly changing into a small smile. "_Dammit, Hinata-chan! You're a ninja! __**Act like one!**_"

Hinata focused on her sister, a slight smile playing around her lips. Naruto would say something like that, wouldn't he? Hanabi was surprised to see the smile but even more surprised when Hinata switched from a jyuken stance to a taijutsu stance, landing a solid blow to Hanabi's chest.

The little girl immediately jumped back, wheezing and coughing for breath. But this time, Hinata was the one to follow her retreat. For every step the girl took back, Hinata followed, landing one out of three blows.

Hanabi was shocked at how the fight had turned around. She thought she had pretty much won, since Hinata was no longer able to channel chakra through her right arm. But the older girl had switched fighting styles, unknowingly finding Hanabi's ultimate weakness.

The little girl was used to fighting with jyuken, defending against jyuken, and finding weaknesses in other people's application of jyuken. She had little to no idea how taijutsu worked and was caught completely off guard. _Damn you, Hinata!_ Hanabi thought angrily.

Hinata didn't allow herself to think. If she thought too much, she'd jinx her winning streak, she just knew it. It was only a matter of seconds before Hanabi adapted and wiped the floor with her. Hinata's right arm was screaming in pain and trembling in exhaustion.

But she couldn't stop. She knew enough basic taijutsu from the Academy to fight and defend, since Iruka insisted that everyone, even people with families like the Hyuuga clan, learn taijutsu. She seen enough semi-advanced taijutsu from Kiba to know how taijutsu worked beyond the basics. But the switch from jyuken to taijutsu had rattled her as much as it rattled Hanabi.

Jyuken was all Hinata had ever used in battle or training, but jyuken wasn't all that she knew. Naruto was right. She was a ninja. Ninjas used every tool to their advantage to win a fight, even if it meant going out of their comfort zone. And that's what it was all about, right? Even though she didn't want to fight Naruto, she had to. She was a ninja! Ninjas don't back down.

And she couldn't become the ninja she wanted to be, a ninja that Naruto could be proud of, if she forfeited from the exam. Or if she was too scared to fight her little sister.

Hinata, wincing at the pain of two fingers poking into one of the major chakra points on her shoulder, grabbed her sister by the front of her shirt and hurled the little girl over her good shoulder.

Immediately expecting an answering attack, Hinata jumped away, clamping her hand over her bad shoulder until the pain had gone down enough for her to think properly. In her current state, it was hard to string even two words together.

But there was no attack. There was no soft sound of feet bounding against the wood. There was only a very loud thud. Hanabi hadn't flipped around and landed on her feet, like Hinata thought she would. She instead met the ground with her shoulder and laid still, her dark hair covering half of her face.

"Oh no." Hinata whispered. Not moving equals not good. She hurried over, dropping to her knees next her sister. She rolled the girl over, somewhat pleased to see that the girl was conscious. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to throw you that hard. I wasn't even sure I could throw you! Are you hurt?" She babbled, looking for some sort of injury.

Hanabi's face looked very tight, as if she was trying to stay impassive but it was hard for her to do. This, naturally, only worried Hinata even further. As she helped a stiff Hanabi get to her feet (ignoring the screaming protests of her own shoulder), she offered to heal any injuries, forgetting briefly that Hanabi knew nothing of her ambition to be a medic nin. Hinata's worry and concern, however, seemed to have hit a sore spot in Hanabi's mind.

"Let go of me!" Hinata's light grip on Hanabi's arm was shaken off roughly. Hanabi did an odd skipping hop to put space between her and her sister. Hinata watched Hanabi, completely confused.

And, naturally, she completely misunderstood. "Oh no..." the kind hearted genin said softly, her eyes darkening in concern. "I _did_ hurt you, didn't I?" The look of sorrow on Hinata's face lingered for a moment before she shook it off and reached a hand out to her sister. "Don't worry, I'll heal you." Her eyes brightened and she smiled. "I'm becoming more proficient in the healing arts, but if you are wary, I can still take you to-" Whatever offer Hinata was going to extend was cut off by her sister.

"I don't get you!" Hanabi shouted, irritation and anger making her voice high pitched. "I don't get you at all!" The confusion on Hinata's face, as well as her instinctive step backwards, reminded Hanabi to regain her composure. She took in a deep breath and turned away from Hinata. "Get out." Hinata froze in place at the cold order, hovering awkwardly behind Hanabi.

Hinata bit her lip, deciding to ignore the tempting offer. As much as she would rather avoid conflict, she was afraid that avoiding it now would only make it much more worse later on. "Hanabi..." she whispered, walking up to her sister. She made a move to put her hand on the little girl's shoulder but stopped two inches shy of her goal. Her hand fell back to her side.

"You..." Hanabi whispered, her voice tired and old all at once. "You're so _weak_." Whatever Hinata had been expecting to hear, it wasn't that. But it wasn't too surprising. Or, at least, it wasn't as surprising as it was hurtful, like an expected insult. "You show your weakness by stopping when your enemy is in pain. That... isn't the way of our clan."

Hinata frowned, suddenly understanding. On the battlefield, one was supposed to be calculating and ruthless. They weren't supposed to do anything more than complete their mission. In a way, Hinata showing concern for Hanabi had strangely insulted her.

"...You're not my enemy." Hinata whispered, almost too quiet to hear. "You're my sister."

As if she didn't hear Hinata, Hanabi spoke once more, sounding as if she was in a trance. "You're so weak." she repeated, a small frown appearing on her face. "But... everyone..." She turned to look at Hinata, confusion written clearly on her face. She looked lost for some reason.

"Hanabi...?" Hinata said, reaching a hand out to her.

"Despite all that, everyone... _likes_ you." Hanabi said softly, her voice full of confused wonder. Suddenly, as if her admission reminded her of her anger, her soft frown disappeared and she glared at Hinata before running out of the room.

Hinata, watching her sister's retreating back, flinched at the sound of the door slamming shut. Her hand hovered and trembled in the air before she brought it close to her chest. Confused beyond all reason, she could only stand frozen while her mind wildly tried to sort out what was going on.

"What did I do wrong?" 

---

"Reinforcements?" The word wasn't bitterly spat out, like a prideful man who believed in his abilities to the point of believing he needed aid. The word, however, was spoken with amusement. Dark humor, perhaps. A sort of taunting yet mildly curious echo of Baki's request.

Baki found this very odd and not very characteristic of their Kazekage but he didn't think much more beyond that. Or, normally, he wouldn't. But still vivid in his mind was the firm declaration of Temari that the Kazekage was a fake. He ignored a sense of newly awakened paranoia and elaborated on his request.

"Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that we might not have brought enough of our forces to make the invasion of Konoha possible." he said without a change of expression. "I feel that it would be in our best interests to have more of our ninjas supporting us."The Kazekage's dark eyes were perfectly blank. Another oddity. The Kazekage usually grew irritated quickly if someone started questioning him, although one would not find out much later on when they had a kunai jabbed in their throat. But Baki, like many others, had learned to judge the man's moods through his eyes. 

"I thought you said before that we had enough." the Kazekage said mildly.

"That was before we gained a vital piece of information." Baki said just as mildly. The other man made a gesture for him to elaborate further. "Two of the Hokage's legendary students are here, not just that man Jiraiya. This could endanger the entire operation."

The entire operation was based on the fact that Jiraiya would be too distracted trying to fight off the summon creatures and saving everyone that he wouldn't be able to engage in one on one combat with any of their top players. As bad as the hermit's habits and interests tended to be, there also happened to be the cold reality that he was easily one of the strongest ninjas in the village, most likely even stronger than their own Kazekage.

Baki was irritated that the Kazekage wanted to use Gaara as a weapon of mass destruction when Jiraiya was around. Even if Gaara allowed Shukaku to completely emerge, Jiraiya could and possibly would bind up the youki in Gaara so tight that it would hurt. And, defenseless without his sand, Gaara would be open to any and all attacks, from enemies and so called 'allies'.

It was a horrible thought. A small part of Baki was terrified of Gaara, but a larger part of him wanted to make sure Gaara was safe. _Temari and Kankurou better stay close to Gaara during this hellish mission. _He thought grimly Baki didn't actually want to invade Konoha. He doubted any one of the ninjas pulled for this assignment did. But orders were orders and they were made to be followed.

"But there's also the fact that Tsunade happens to be a gambling drunk who doesn't care a whit about what happens to Konoha." The Kazekage reminded him. Again, there was that cold amusement. Baki slowly nodded.

"Perhaps but we can't take any chances." Baki said carefully, still trying to gauge the other man's reaction. Again, the Kazekage's eyes were too blank. He cautiously continued. "It's bad enough that we need to rely so heavily on another village in order for this operation to succeed. The least we can do is make it go off without a hitch."

Finally, there was a slight change of expression on the other man's face. But it gave Baki the weird feeling that he was being smirked at. "Very well." the Kazekage said regally. That in itself wasn't too odd. The man had a tendency of thinking very highly of himself. He probably thought he was granting Baki a tremendous favor by allowing the jonin to do his job. "You may go back to Suna to get reinforcements."

"Thank you, Kazekage-sama." Baki bowed quickly. "I will be back before the exam starts." With that promise, he immediately left, mentally sorting out the quickest route to Suna. If he didn't stop for sleep, he could make it to Suna in a day and a half. If he went fast, he could make it there in fourteen hours or under but would probably pass out once he reached Suna.

_Solider pills it is._ Baki though with a grimace, wondering why he was putting himself through so much work. He rolled his eyes when he remembered. _Oh right. I don't have the heart to report one of my students for speaking out against the Kazekage. Great_.

Temari's accusations were outrageous but they were based on what she believed to be facts. Baki knew what he was doing was insane but he was fond of his students. He wasn't going to tattle on Temari just because she believed in some wild conspiracy theory.

No, the best plan was to go to Suna and find some sort of foolproof evidence to prove to Temari that she was merely being overly paranoid in a very tense period of time, at least for them. Baki didn't even know _how_ he was going to do that, only that he _was_. 

_Perhaps I could find out some bit of information that only the true Kazekage would know and respond correctly to? _He mused, his frown more pronounced than usual. _That's not without its own loop holes though... Perhaps I should give this more thought when I reach my destination._

He tried not to think too much why he had offered to go to Suna. If Temari had asked, he could have used that as an excuse. But no, he had _offered_ to go. And that could only mean that, in the back of his mind, maybe he could see some merit in Temari's accusations. After all, wasn't he just questioning the Kazekage's odd behavior?

Baki shook himself out of his thoughts. No, it was best if he focused on getting to Suna as quickly as possible so he could get back to Konoha before the invasion. _And_, he thought, glancing over his shoulder with a sudden scowl. _Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get that persistent sound nin to get off my back_. 

------

TBC

Next Chapter:

_The girl looked so upset that Naruto immediately agreed to meet her outside once Kakashi let him go. When Kakashi waved him off, he politely said goodbye to Rin, Inari, and the rest of his team before he hurried outside.  
Ino looked up as soon as he walked out, pleased that he had only taken seven minutes. She tilted her head to the side, gesturing that he should follow her. And, confused beyond all reason, Naruto shadowed her footsteps.  
Ino's breath was heavy. Her hands trembled lightly at her sides. Her eyes darted everywhere, looking at anyone but him. All these gestures had to mean whatever she was going to do or say had to be bad. Naruto swallowed harshly, but stayed silent.  
After a moment of quietly walking, Ino took a shaky breath. "I... have to ask you something." she admitted slowly. "And it might seem weird or odd. Hell, you might even be offended because it's kind of a personal question and I know you won't want to answer and I know you must be thinking 'Why is she talking to me?' and I can't really explain because it's weird even to me and I don't even understand-"  
"Ino!" Naruto said sharply. Ino snapped out of it, wide blue eyes staring at him for the first time in the whole conversation. Naruto's frown gentled into a smile. "You're rambling. Just ask me, okay? I'm not easily offended you know. And if I don't want to answer, I won't."  
Ino took another shaky breath and plunged right in. "Do you own orange pants and a black shirt?" she asked quickly. Naruto looked at her, an eyebrow arching. That's the all important personal question she wanted to ask?  
"Um, yeah. I wore those orange pants almost all of the last year of the Academy, remember?" Naruto said slowly. "And I think __**everyone** owns at least one black shirt."  
Ino nodded. "But it's kinda unique." she said. She started gesturing at her chest. "It has this red spiral thing in front."  
"Oh yeah." Naruto smiled. It was his favorite shirt. "That's my shirt." For some reason, Ino seemed really distressed at that piece of information.  
"And do you... wear a necklace?" she asked softly. It was the last piece of clothing that would prove that her vision could happen. Naruto was completely oblivious to the fact that she was trying to prove that he couldn't possibly die.  
Naruto gave her another confused look. He unzipped his black vest, reached under the collar of his black shirt, and pulled out Tsunade's necklace. At the sight of the necklace, Ino turned pale.  
Dammit. So vision does have merit. Ino thought, one hand fiddling lightly with the bracelet around her wrist. Her last hope had been that her vision had been some sort of fever dream. It was unlikely but she had clung to it even as she tried to figure out a way to save Naruto.  
But he owned the clothing he had worn in vision, **the clothing he died in**... he owned that clothing. Sure, Ino was aware of the pants but she hadn't been aware of the black shirt and the necklace until Naruto admitted ownership. So it wasn't her subconscious playing havoc with her.  
"When... when do you wear that clothing?" Ino asked softly, wondering if she really even wanted to know when. She was just torturing herself with the information.  
"Well, orange is not a very good color for a ninja." Naruto admitted with a faint sheepish smile. "And that shirt's practically falling apart by now. I wear them to bed."__  
Ino stopped completely, her hand going over her stomach as it threatened to rebel. She felt nauseous. **They**, whoever those red and black cloaked men were, ripped Naruto from his very bed and killed him._


	51. Death and Betrayal

AN: Hey, all. Sorry about the wait. And gimme a break, you guys! I know the plural of 'ninja' isn't 'ninjas', just as much as I know 'kunai', 'genin', and 'sensei' don't have s's tagged on the end either. English is my first language and I'm trying to assimilate that with terms that I find difficult to write Naruto fanfiction without.  
I don't pretend to have an understanding of Japanese so I'm not going to try and butcher my story with fangirl Japanese and things like 'sensei-tachi' so I can get the idea of plural teachers across. So bear with me and ignore the way I butcher Japanese. If I could write this story without using a single Japanese term, I would. But really, which do you prefer? Chuunin or 'Journeyman'? -shudders-

WARNING: Extreme gore, and character deaths. This was rated M for a reason. But they're not deaths that you'll burst into tears over. Well, unless you cheer on the bad guys. Then, you'll be sobbing like a little baby.

For the Love of my Friends  
Chapter 51: Death and Betrayal  
by Foxie

---  
The next day was bright and sunny, as was usually typical of Konoha. Fortunately Naruto's bad mood had simmered down enough so that he could actually enjoy the weather instead of cursing it to the deepest pits of hell.

There was also another reason why his revived good mood was fortunate. Somehow, along the way to one of Team Seven's meeting places, he had developed a very sweaty and very whiny cling-on.

"Naruto, it's so hot." Inari whined from his perch on said blond's back. His arms, wrapped around Naruto's neck, flopped with his irritation, nearly hitting Naruto's face. Had Inari managed to approach Naruto yesterday, he would have found himself flat on his back where the blond would have dropped him in his irritation. "Why is it so hot?"

"Because the world hates me and this is one of my many punishments for being who and what I am." Naruto mumbled to himself while unconsciously adjusting his grip on Inari's legs to make sure he didn't fall. His mood was good enough to keep him from snapping at Inari, but not good enough to keep him from grumbling.

"Come again?" Inari said, leaning forward. Naruto sighed.

"Because you're used to mists, fogs, and being close to the coast." Naruto said instead of repeating his self pity. "If you think this is bad, imagine how you would feel in the desert."

Naruto could feel Inari's shudder. Thankfully, the mention of a desert made Inari decide not to complain anymore. The rest of the way to the bridge was comfortably quiet. Inari had almost fell asleep with his head resting on Naruto's shoulder when he heard someone shout a greeting.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out, waving enthusiastically. Naruto grinned at her, adjusting his grip on Inari again as he sped up to meet with Sakura.

"Miss me?" he asked impishly when he came within a few feet. Sakura grinned in return, nodding happily before she turned around and gestured to her other team mate.

"Get over here, Sasuke-kun!" she said, fond impatience laced in every word. "If Kakashi-sensei stays true to form, we might have to wait a little while."

From his position of leaning against a tree, Sasuke rolled his eyes before reluctantly walking over to them, his hands shoved in his pockets. He had the distinct look of someone being forced to do something they didn't want to do, but his team knew him better than that.

If he hadn't wanted to walk over, he would have ignored them or tossed out a very firm no. Sasuke was difficult like that. Naruto suspected that Sasuke rather liked the idea of being wanted. The Uchiha wouldn't lower himself to walking over without an direct invitation, and especially not without acting like he was awarding them a huge favor by allowing them the pleasure of his presence.

"Drama queen." Naruto said, his grin only widening. Sasuke tossed him a smug smirk as habit would dictate, but he did a double take when he realized there was something off about Naruto's appearance.

The genin, for all of his oddities, did not have an extra pair of arms, an extra head, or another pair of legs. There was some sort of insulting banter Sasuke felt he should have been able to pull from that and wield against Naruto. But he was too busy staring at the way Inari and Naruto fit together. Like two siblings would, the younger depending on the older of the two to hold him up and above the world and all of it's difficulties.

No one noticed the stormy look in Sasuke's eyes, nor the clenching of his fists.

---

By the time Kakashi came by, Sasuke was in a foul mood, Sakura was confused, Naruto was irritated, and Team Seven seemed to have adopted a new member. Despite the three genins' varying bad moods, Inari grinned at him so cutely that Kakashi decided not to tell him to go away.

_They tell me I'm going to have to teach kids._ He thought in self pity. T_hey tell me I'm supposed to be a role model. But they don't tell me about the buckets of teen angst I have to trudge through. I deserve a raise. _

"So, how is everyone?" he asked brightly. All he got were no committable grunts and shaking heads. "Wow, you guys, stop talking so much. I can't hear myself think." His attempt at sarcastic humor was ignored. Sasuke was slouching, staring at a point just past Naruto's left shoulder while Naruto himself had his arms crossed over his chest, slowly simmering in anger. Sakura scowled at the both of them. At least Inari smiled a little.

Kakashi sighed, hanging his head low. He had hoped his team would be in a better mood, especially since he wanted them to meet Rin today. His last attempt to bring them together ended in shambles. Naruto ran off, Sasuke mysteriously disappeared, and Sakura was too angry with him to do much more than nod curtly at Rin. Not exactly the way that he wanted Rin to meet the team he had talked about so much in their letters.

A tug at his sleeve made him redirect his attentions. "Um, Kakashi?" Inari looked up at him with big eyes. "Why are they being mean to each other?" Since Inari didn't think to lower his voice, the three genins looked up, surprise in their eyes. "Aren't they friends?"

With another heavy sigh, Kakashi crouched so he was at eye level with the little boy. "See, Inari, they're just being stupid." he said mildly. Three glares were shot at him immediately, though they were largely ignored in favor of the confused boy. "They are friends, don't be confused about that. But their priorities are all wrong, you see? They think whatever they're angry at means the entire world when, really, it doesn't mean anything at all." He smiled brightly. "Whatever their reasons are for fighting, they mean more to each other than it. They just don't understand that yet."

Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he could see his team shifting around guiltily. Sakura stared at the ground, remorse on her face while Sasuke averted his gaze, the slight slump of his shoulders giving away what he thought. Naruto met his gaze directly, his eyes oddly peaceful as he nodded his agreement. 

Kakashi looked back at Inari, his amusement clear to anyone who knew him well. Then he looked back at his team. "But let's not worry about fighting. I set this meeting so we could talk about the exam and about your training. We only have today and tomorrow. It's not much time but I would like to hear how far you've all come." he turned to Inari again, resting his hand on the boy's head. "You, of course, are welcome. Though I doubt much of what we're going to talk to you about is going to make any sense."

Inari let out a whoop, impulsively hugging Kakashi. Naruto and Sakura laughed at the surprised look on the jonin's face and even Sasuke couldn't help an amused smirk. Kakashi was simply not used to being hugged.

Kakashi coughed into his hand, slowly getting to his feet. "So... Ichiraku's?" he offered.

"No." Sasuke said immediately. Naruto grinned suddenly at the boy's flat disagreement. "I had that swill yesterday. I'm _not_ eating it today."

"There's that place where Ino's team goes." Sakura offered up when Naruto didn't make a stand to defend his precious ramen. "We could go there."

"Lot more expensive than ramen." Naruto said slyly, leering at Sasuke. Sasuke glared back. "I dunno, I mean, I don't wanna waste my hard earned-"

"Fine!" Sasuke snapped. "I'll pay for it! But no more damn ramen!" He started walking away stiffly, fully expecting them to follow. Sakura, with a confused huff, hurried after him, Inari only a step or two behind her. Kakashi and Naruto followed at a more leisurely pace.

"What was that about?" Kakashi asked carefully after a moment of walking.

"Sasuke made the mistake of taking me out for ramen yesterday." Naruto said with a grin. "He forgot I have the tendency to eat more than a hungry goat." The genin glanced over, his grin slightly faltering. "Or were you talking about that stand off a couple of minutes ago?"

Kakashi shrugged. He knew what he was talking about but he didn't want to make Naruto run off again by asking things that the boy obviously didn't want to talk about. He'd let Naruto run the conversation anyway he wished, just as long as he could get some information out of it.

Naruto sighed after a moment of silence, sticking his hands in his pockets in a gesture so much like Sasuke that Kakashi blinked for a moment in confusion. "I'm not sure what that was about." Naruto admitted truthfully. "Sasuke seemed okay at first but then he started acting really snippy and mean." He still was surprised that Sakura was the one who called him out, switching roles with Naruto in that instance. 

Sasuke had even snapped at her, something that Naruto hadn't seen Sasuke do in a very long time. It was only at that point that Naruto realized how much the relationship between Sakura and Sasuke had changed but he didn't stop to think about it.

Naruto would be the first to admit that he didn't have good control over his emotions. Seeing the hurt look in Sakura's eyes only loosened his mouth in saying a few things that he was now regretting. But no one would ever say that Sasuke never gave as good as he got.

"_I might be a heartless bastard but at least I'm not a freak that no one can stand to look at._" Naruto was still wincing at his barb. He hadn't realized that Sasuke had noticed that. He had hoped _no one_ noticed that.

Naruto swallowed, then looked over at Kakashi with a bright smile that felt wrong on his face. "Don't worry, sensei. It'll blow over." he said cheerfully. "You're right, we're friends. Nothing will change that."

_Except when Sasuke learns exactly **why** I'm a freak that no one will look at._ Naruto thought sadly. No friendship can weather that sort of revelation. Not even the nicer and more 'dobe friendly' one that he had managed to create between him and Sasuke this time around.

**That's utter bull.** Kyuubi said with a roll of his red eyes. **What about the bug boy? What about the tanuki kid?**

_Shino's different. And Gaara's not my friend._ Naruto told his demon softly. _Sakura only tolerated it back then because Tsunade was right there to beat the prejudice out of her. And the rest of them only took it in stride because, by then, even you weren't as scary as Orochimaru._

Kyuubi had nothing to say to that.

---

Sasuke sat at the table next to Kakashi, his elbow perched on the table as he looked any where but at his friends. Across from him was Sakura but she avoided looking at him just as much as he avoided looking at her. Naruto sat closest to the wall, grinning cheerfully and sharing what he called an 'Ero-sanin adventure' with an amused Kakashi and a laughing Inari, who sat between Sakura and Naruto.

The tension was thick in the air, so thick that the only one who didn't notice it was Inari. A long time ago, Sasuke would have believed that Naruto, with his cheerful pretended ignorance, was oblivious as well but he knew better now. Naruto only pasted that stupid grin on his face when he was sad and was too rattled to act indifferent.

Sasuke refused to believe that the twisted feeling in his gut was guilt. Hunger, perhaps, but not guilt. Naruto deserved what he got. Naruto was an idiot and it was Sasuke's responsibility to remind him that-

Sasuke's eyes accidentally met with Naruto's sad gaze. _Oh, hell._ Sasuke thought, resisting the urge to hit his head on the table. He looked away quickly, feeling nauseous suddenly. If Naruto couldn't hide his pain, then something that Sasuke said must have really hurt him. That was bad. If Naruto could hide it, then Sasuke could at least ignore any and all feelings of guilt. Just what had Sasuke said that made Naruto look like a kicked puppy?

Uchihas do not squirm in their seats. Uchihas do not feel guilt for pointing out one of their observations. Yet Sasuke felt himself doing both. Gritting his teeth, he started tapping his fingers against his knee. He knew the only way out of guilt but he wasn't about to apologize to the idiot. No, this guilt thing had to wear off soon, right?

"I have to go to the bathroom." Sasuke was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard Naruto speak. The blond looked a little sheepish but underneath that, his eyes looked panicky. Sakura and Inari slid out of their seats to let Naruto out. The blond all but fled the scene soon after.

Sasuke's hand twitched against his knee but he did not move. Not even when everyone at the table, even little Inari, gave him an expectant 'well?' look. No doubt wanting him to go after Naruto to make sure he was alright. Ha, like Sasuke would do that. 

It wasn't like he felt guilty about it or anything.

Sasuke paused, rethinking that last thought. Then, hanging his head low, stood. "I'll be right back."

---

Naruto rested his head against the cool wall of the bathroom he had taken refuge in, trying to calm down.

He couldn't help but feel panicky. The only thought that had went through his mind throughout the entire time while waiting for their food was how Sasuke would react when he would learn about Kyuubi. His entire mind hyper focused on that one single thought and he had gone into a panic.

Kyuubi was never someone he was ashamed about. Kyuubi was a demon and, as a demon, did whatever he felt like doing. Kyuubi was detached enough from Naruto for Naruto not to feel the guilt from what Kyuubi had done in the past, but close enough for Naruto to at least understand the reasoning behind the demon's reactions, even if he didn't completely approve of the method.

What he was more ashamed about was the perceived image of a demon host, an image that people like Gaara created. He wasn't Kyuubi, he was Naruto! Yet some truly believed that a demon host and a demon were one and the same. The last thing Naruto wanted was for Sasuke to think he was a demon.

Being a demon, when one thought about it, wasn't really that bad. It was the hate, fear, and distrust that Naruto instinctively shied away from. He tried so hard to be acknowledged by the people around him. 

Subconsciously, he found himself still trying so hard to please. Naruto didn't want someone to hate him over something so detached and separated from him that they could have been a million miles away, speaking different languages. Kyuubi was Kyuubi. Naruto was Naruto. The only thing that connected the two was a seal, and some combined energy. But not everyone saw it that way.

The last time around when Sasuke found out about Kyuubi, Naruto had no idea whether his general derision was based on the fact that he was a demon host, because he was just standing there, or because his hair was still 'obnoxiously yellow', a random thought that Naruto had picked up from Sasuke as the Uchiha faced down Kyuubi.

Only Sasuke would be annoyed at Naruto's hair and contemplating how to fix it when he was staring down a centuries old demon. Naruto smiled at the memory, finally calming down. Sasuke was such-

The sound of the door opening made Naruto stiffen, even though he didn't move from his comfortable position. The cool tile felt nice against his throbbing head. He waited to be passed or be talked to by the person who paused right behind him.

Remembering a little too late that he was in a village full of his future enemies, he extended his senses behind him, breathing a low sigh of relief when he realized who had snuck up on him. _Just Sasuke_.

**Yes, your friend-turned-traitor who stuck a hand through your chest and attempted to kill you many times afterwards.** Kyuubi said sarcastically. **Thank all the powers that be that it's 'just Sasuke' and not someone more inclined to hurt you.**

"We're eating soon." Sasuke said, breaking the silence.

"I would imagine so." Naruto said mildly. "Isn't that the reason why we came here?" He turned around, leaning against the wall as he rubbed his temples. He expected to see or hear a sarcastic or cold reply, only to see Sasuke fidget and look at the wall behind Naruto.

"...The food." Sasuke said, suddenly looking right at Naruto. "It'll get cold."

"Sasuke?" Naruto said, his voice moving from neutral to mockingly pleasant. "Screw the food." He pushed away from the wall, walking around Sasuke so he could get to the door. "You don't have to worry about wasting your money, I'll pay for whatever I-"

Sasuke grabbed him by the upper part of his arm and pushed him back to the wall. Ignoring the blond's protests, he proceeded to lean against the door, preventing any exits. Sasuke bit his lip. There was something he wanted to say, _needed_ to say, but he couldn't say it if Naruto kept running away.

Naruto leaned forward when he heard Sasuke mumble. "What was that?" he snapped irritably. "If that isn't an excuse why you won't let me go, I swear to God, I'll-"

"I'm sorry." Sasuke said louder. Naruto's threat died in mid sentence. He knew how rare it was for Sasuke to apologize so he waited for a derogatory phrase to be tagged on after, such as 'I'm sorry that you're stupid'. When none came, he realized the full impact of Sasuke's words.

He openly gaped at Sasuke in such a way that the pained look on the avenger's face turned into one of irritation. "I am, dammit!" Sasuke snapped, his arms crossing over his chest.

Naruto closed his mouth, shooting Sasuke a calculating look. His mouth opened and closes a few times before the blond finally put to words what he wanted to say. "Look, Sasuke..." he said tiredly, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're my best friend."

Sasuke blinked. Well, that certainly wasn't the way he thought the conversation would go. Naruto, his eyes compassionate, continued on. "I'd die for you. I'm not going to get mad at you just because you were honest. There's no need for you to apologize."

"But you were hurt." Sasuke said, the image of Naruto's hurt expression haunting him. He normally wouldn't care, knowing how much they fought and how much insults were tossed around. But Sasuke had hit a nerve with one of his insults and he now had a feeling that he knew which one was the one.

Sasuke knew he started the fight, but Naruto had provoked him. Not consciously, of course. And not through any of the usual means of provoking. Naruto couldn't have possibly known Sasuke's reaction to Naruto and Inari's entrance. Knowing that and knowing that Naruto was just being Naruto, Sasuke had lashed out. Too many things were reminding him of Itachi these days. 

"Well, sometimes the truth is painful." Naruto said mildly. He smiled serenely. "But I'd rather be hurt by the truth then coddled by lies."

Sasuke had nothing to say to that. So, giving each other cautious looks, as if they were trying desperately not to start another fight by saying something carelessly, they walked back to the table.

They were almost back when Sasuke spoke up. "I don't think you're a freak." he admitted quietly, glancing over at Naruto. Sasuke's wild stab at which comment had hurt Naruto the most was proved to be true because the light returned to Naruto's eyes. With a genuine smile, the blond nodded.

"I don't think you're a heartless bastard either." he said with an easy grin, bumping the taller genin's arm with his shoulder. "But don't tell anyone I said that. This is off the record, 'kay?" Sasuke smirked and nodded.

By the time that the two genins got back to the table, another person had joined their group. Sasuke elbowed Naruto discretely, gesturing towards the newcomer.

"Who's that?" he asked quietly. Naruto 'hm'ed, then took a closer look at the new addition. He promptly was surprised to find that even _he_ couldn't put a name to the face. Shocked, he could only shrug wordlessly.

Kakashi spotted them. "Ah." he smiled, nudging the shoulder of the woman sitting next to him. "Naruto. Sasuke. So nice of you to join us." Sasuke shot him an irritated look while Naruto took the next step in immaturity and stuck his tongue out.

The woman looked them over, a soft but sad smile on her face. Naruto squirmed uncomfortably while Sasuke stared at her straight on. He tilted his head, looking as if he wanted to say something. The woman perked up slightly, waiting expectantly.

"...You're in my seat." Sasuke said finally, his voice flat. Kakashi groaned, hiding his face in his gloved hand. Naruto smacked the back of Sasuke's head, muttering darkly to himself. Something about manners and prissy avengers who didn't have them.

----

Rin smiled at the kids across from her, embarrassed and trying to hide it. After some initial grumbling, the blond had forced dark haired boy to sit next to him on the other side of the table. Between him, the young Uchiha, the pink haired girl, and the tiny boy, it was a tight squeeze.

The blond rectified the problem by pulling the little boy into his lap, an action that made the boy grin because it now gave him a much better reach for the food in the middle of the table. With a cackle, the boy nabbed all the choicest bits of meat before stuffing them in his mouth.

The medic nin reckoned that he was kinda cute, in an evil sort of way.

Rin was promptly introduced to them. The blond was Naruto, the Uchiha was Sasuke, and the pink haired girl was Sakura. Rin recognized their names from Kakashi's letters and their personalities were just as he had described. The little boy, apparently, was the friend of the team and his name was Inari.

"How's your training going, Naruto?" Kakashi asked out of the blue. He didn't partake in any of the meal, choosing to only sit and watch as they ate.

"Fine." Naruto said vaguely in the furtive way that a student reported their grades to their parents without actually discussing it at length or showing evidence of it. "I'm developing a new jutsu. It's mostly theory, but if it works..." There was a spark of excitement in the boy's eyes. "It'll be way awesome."

"Ah, is that so?" Kakashi leaned forward. "What is this jutsu like?"

Naruto, realizing Kakashi's intent, smirked. "Sorry, sensei." he said, not sounding very sorry at all. "This isn't a technique that you could ever hope to copy. But it's an... _unconventional_ use for Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Sakura blanched, almost dropping the meat she was about to put in her mouth. "Tell me it's not that horrid-" she started to say, her face turning from pale to an angry red in moments.

"No no!" Naruto said quickly. "It's not meant to be a... uh, distraction type of thing." Seeing that the girl still wasn't convinced, he went a step further in explaining. "If you must know, it's kinda like a super shadow clone."

"Sounds interesting." Sasuke offered, snatching a thick piece of meat before Inari could. The little boy pouted. _Don't even like this stuff..._ Sasuke thought with a grumble as he ate it, wishing he had a few rice balls instead.

"It's an emergency jutsu." Naruto said vaguely, the expression on his face clearly stating 'there's no way in hell that I'm using it on you'. Sasuke looked a little disappointed at that. Sensing a need for a change in topics, Naruto looked back at Kakashi. "Hey, Sakura-chan's training really hard! She'll be able to beat you one day, I'm sure!" Naruto beamed proudly while Sakura blushed. Sasuke, to Rin's surprise, hid a smile.

"I'm sure she will." Kakashi said mildly, smiling at Sakura. "But remember to rest, alright? Don't be like your stupid teammates and train yourself into the ground." Sakura giggled and nodded.

"Hey." Sasuke and Naruto said in unison, looking offended.

"That's not fair, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto protested, glaring from behind Inari's head.

"You train me into the ground." Sasuke accused with a scowl. "I barely have enough energy to throw a kunai after you're done with me."

"Oh." Kakashi looked concerned. Sasuke's hackles went up immediately. "Okay, I'll stop training you then." Sasuke's eyes widened.

"No!" he snapped. Kakashi grinned at him.

"Then don't complain." the masked man said reasonably. All three of his students shot him a glare. Rin had to hide a smile. Kakashi was so deliberately annoying that he was mending the rifts between the three by making them share a common enemy. Bless him and damn him for his underhanded tricks.

"If you train Sasuke to death, I'll... I'll.." Naruto started to threaten, but then paused, trying to think of a suitable punishment from depriving him of his best friend. Suddenly, he grinned, sending a two second glance in Rin's direction. Rin blinked in confusion at the mischievous look that had been directed at her. "I'll burn all of your porn."

Kakashi started to say something in response but evidently had forgotten about the woman sitting next to him. "_Porn_?" Rin echoed shrilly, catching a suddenly nervous jonin's attention. Well, it was either her shrill voice or the sharp grip that she had suddenly acquired on his ear. "You have porn? And your kids _know_ about it?"

Sakura cottoned on to Naruto's mischief making. "Oh, yeah... Loads of it." she said, her voice deceptively mild. Her eyes, however, were glinting in amusement. "He makes no effort to hide the fact he worships the great deity of porn."

Sasuke hid his smirk and nodded, careful to keep his face blank. "Yes. He's even been so kind as to read portions of it out loud to us so we may get a taste of what is to come." Their arms crossed over their chests, Sakura and Naruto nodded sagely in agreement.

Rin was outraged, the words 'innocent children!' and 'porn!' at the forefront of her mind. Kakashi was nervous, the words 'damn brats!' and 'pain!' dancing through his mind. And Inari was confused.

"Hey, what's porn?" 

---

The meal continued peacefully after the conflict had been dealt with. Meaning, of course, once Rin rammed her fist into the side of Kakashi head, and successfully derailed Inari from his dangerous line of thinking.

Rin grinned at her success but Kakashi had a sheepish look on his face. None of his students could decide if it was because of his revealed status as a pervert or because of the rather noticeable bump forming in his gray hair. The teacher's shrug revealed that he wasn't too concerned with either of those. The only thing he worried about was Rin's temper and that had already died down.

But because Rin's wrath had been pacified for the moment, it would only emerge much worse later on. Kakashi cursed the green package her renewed wrath came in on, not for the first time.

"Rival Kakashi!" In unison, Team Seven groaned, slouching in their seats. Kakashi only smiled at their reaction before turning a bland eye towards the caller.

It was hard for him not to notice Maito Gai, who leaned over the table to stare at him, right in his face. He didn't notice that his elbow was in Inari's plate, or that Sakura's cup of tea(tilted slightly on it's edge because of the placement of his hand) was about three seconds away from spilling and burning his hand. As usual, he was too focused on Kakashi to notice anything else. The man had a determined set to his face, a familiar one only seen right before a fight was demanded of Kakashi.

Hoping to save himself as long as possible, Kakashi tilted his head, looking at the green clad man in noticeable curiosity. "Hm?" Kakashi blinked several times, his eye shifting from Gai to his clone(er, student), Lee, who was looking at Sasuke with a look nearly identical to Gai's. "Do I know you?"

Gai looked appalled. He pulled back so quickly that Sakura's cup shifted the other direction and spilled over the table. Inari was quickly shifted over to Sasuke's lap where it was safer. Sakura and Naruto quickly mopped up the tea before it could pour over the table and scald them.

Rin leaned over, aiding them while asking Naruto if he was alright. Naruto was the closest to Sakura and some of the tea had fallen directly on his bare forearm. Naruto waved her off, remarking that, though he wasn't fire proof, he'd live. His offhanded comment startled a smile on Rin's face. 

While this was happening, Gai seemed to just realize who was sitting with Kakashi. His students, naturally, weren't that surprising, but the appearance of a young woman that he did not know was. He gazed at her for a moment before it clicked in his mind.

"What about dear sweet Anko, you home wrecker!" Gai shouted, pointing a finger at Kakashi. His loud voice caught a lot of attention from the other customers but, upon recognizing Gai, they quickly lost interest.

"What about her?" Kakashi asked, truly confused. How did Anko fit in with him having a meal with Rin and his students? Not to mention the fact that there was no way 'Anko' and 'sweet' should ever been in the same sentence unless they were separated by 'is not'."Ah." Gai's look of anger faded as suddenly as it arrived. "I see how it is." The jonin grinned at Kakashi, his teeth flashing brightly. "You are participating in the youthful activity of dating! Kakashi, I'm so proud of you!" Tears formed at the corner of the man's dark eyes and his hand went over his chest. "You may be a late bloomer but better late than never!"

Naruto lost it. He slid underneath the table, unable to stay upright while laughing so hard. It wasn't every day that Kakashi was so amusingly misunderstood and confronted about it, after all. Especially not by one who was more than perfectly willing to make a production out of it.

"You may act like someone who's springtime of youth has long departed, but I know you!" Gai patted Kakashi's head proudly. The action was odd, considering the fact that Kakashi wasn't one of his students. And also the fact that the shape of Kakashi's hair seemed to scream 'no touchie'. Just forget the fact that the jonin himself was nearly thirty. "You are full of the exuberance of youth!"

"He's full of something, alright..." Rin muttered, glaring at Kakashi. "Who's Anko? I haven't heard of her in any of your letters..." The medic nin was a little hurt. If this Anko person was important to Kakashi, why hadn't the jonin told Rin about her? Noting this, Kakashi turned to her, about to tell her that he had no idea what was going on.

"Love letters, Kakashi?" Gai gasped, holding a hand over his chest. Kakashi looked back at him, his eye widening. The other jonin leaned forward. "My my, you are a confident one...

For the first time in his life, Kakashi wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole. He had never been so embarrassed before in his entire life. His usually quick wit and agile mind kept him out of situations like this.

Sasuke suddenly felt awkward by the sight of Kakashi's slumped shoulders. It was too weird to see Kakashi look so defeated in a conversation which was so much more like a battle than any of them were willing to admit. Wasn't Kakashi usually the one knocking them around in battle of wits?

"Quit it." Sasuke growled, feeling an odd surge of sympathy for his teacher, one that he wrote off as the beginnings of a headache. "Go be a loud moron somewhere else."

"Show respect for Gai-sensei!" Lee piped up suddenly. He had been standing there, oddly silent the whole time until Sasuke put his two cents in. _Most likely basking in the awe he feels for his teacher, the weirdo,_ Sasuke thought, sneering. "He is a much stronger ninja than you!"

"I respect Gai as a ninja." Sasuke drawled, glaring at Lee. He hadn't forgotten that he would have to fight the genin in a few days. The fact that Sasuke wasn't confident in his inevitable victory made him very irritable. "But his personality and social skills are horribly lacking."

Gai put a hand on a seething Lee's shoulder, smiling in a smug way to himself. "No no, my Lee... It is good that he defends his teacher." He leaned forward, his voice lowering dramatically, his eyes darting to Rin in a way that was eerily similar to Naruto's. "Even if said teacher only teaches his students _groping jutsus_."

There was a tense silence where Team Seven stared at each other before quickly sliding out of their seats to avoid the impending explosion. Sakura didn't even bother waiting for Naruto and Sasuke to move. She jumped over the back of her seat, landing on a thankfully empty table, in her haste to get away. Sasuke, Naruto, and a confused Inari, who was suspended from Sasuke's arms with a half eaten piece of meat sticking out of his mouth, stood cautiously behind another booth.

Rin sat frozen in shock, uncomprehending even as the genins in front of her bolted. She had, at least, some unconscious sense to keep a grip on a very nervous Kakashi's vest. "_Groping jutsus_?" Rin shrieked finally, turning on Kakashi. Kakashi shrank back in his seat.

"I have never-" Kakashi started to defend himself but then a thought arose. "Well, I guess, technically- Kohonagakure Furui Taijutsu no Ougi: Sennen Goroshi wasn't really made with that in mind..." Rin turned red, then pale in a moment.

"Huh?" Sakura murmured, not recognizing the jutsu.

Naruto grinned. "Also known as the extremely painful ass poke jutsu." he said helpfully, forgetting to keep his voice down.

"Oh, I remember that." Sasuke said, realization dawning on his face. "One of the very first techniques Kakashi-sensei showed us."

At this, Rin became livid. "You have three seconds to get away from me, Kakashi." she said quietly, her voice tight.

"Rin-" he tried to say, wanting to explain himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a gleeful little voice said he deserved this but he tried to talk himself out of it anyway.

He had forgotten that Rin knew him too well. 

"Three." Rin snapped. The two jonins disappeared in a flash of smoke.

"Whoops." Sakura said, rubbing the back of her head. "Hope he'll be okay." When Lee suddenly appeared in front of her, grinning brightly at her in such a way where she felt like she was permanently blinded, she jumped back. Sasuke immediately moved to intercept Lee in such a skillful way that he made Sakura forget that he was coming to her rescue, not to butt heads with his first opponent in the Chuunin Exam.

Ignoring them completely, Naruto jumped out of his hiding spot, awkwardly landing in front of a smug Gai. He took the man's hand and shook it enthusiastically. "I will never look at you the same way again." he vowed, his eyes dancing in delight. "My respect for you just jumped up by a million points."

Gai smiled, a little more subdued than normal, and winked at the grinning genin before going to defuse the situation between the two 'passionate youths'.

----

Of course, Naruto was no longer pleased when he realized that, with the absence of Kakashi, they would have to pay for their own meal. Naturally, Lee and Gai disappeared long before Naruto made the revelation and could pin the blame on them and make them pay.

Grumbling to himself halfheartedly (and completely ignoring a guilty Sakura's attempts to pay for herself), Naruto forked over the money for the meal. On their way out, they ran into Tazuna and Tsunami, who had, coincidentally, just sat down for lunch. Startled but happy reunions were made, with Tsunami clucking like a mother hen over everything from the clothes they were wearing to the foods they were eating.

"You look far too thin, Sasuke-kun." she told the Uchiha boy, who rolled his eyes. "Growing boys need nutrition!" Grinning at his sudden luck, Inari slid into the booth next to his grandfather and started fighting with him over a piece of meat.

"Hear hear!" someone shouted from the booth behind the foreigners from Wave Country. Tsunami glanced over her shoulder, meeting the eyes of an embarrassed jonin.

"Ignore him." the bearded ninja said with a shrug. Asuma shifted his gaze to his student. "Chouji, why don't you just-"

Outraged at being told to be quiet about his favorite subject, Chouji sat up and turned to Tsunami, his eyes flaring. "You're completely right, lady!" he said enthusiastically. "Sasuke's just skin and bones! How does he expect to regain chakra if he keeps eating like a bird? Or worse, eating like Ino?"

Sasuke glared, not liking his eating habits being discussed by people who might as well be strangers. "I just ate, Akimichi." he snapped. "And I don't think you should be the one to-" Naruto covered his mouth, knowing that there was a fat comment about to come from the irate boy.

"Don't mind him." Naruto said to the suddenly suspicious genin. "He's just annoyed 'cause I made him pay for Ichiraku's yesterday."

The Akimichi's eyes went from narrowed to dreamy. "Ah, Ichiraku's... Good ramen, that." the genin said with a fond smile.

"The best!" Naruto declared in mock outrage before grinning.

Chouji grinned back and turned to Tsunami. "You see, Naruto eats nearly as much as I do and you know what comes out of that? Super stamina!" the boy nodded as if he had just revealed a great philosophy of life. In this case, it being 'Food is the source of all strength'. Which, in Naruto's opinion, wasn't really all that far off from the truth. "Naruto's got it right." He turned to the blond. "Oh yeah, I'm betting on you, so don't lose."

Naruto's head tilted to the side. "Eh?" the blond blinked in confusion. "Why are you betting on me?"

Sakura caught on quicker. "You're betting on Naruto winning the tournament just because his eating habits mimic yours?" she demanded, completely baffled. "That's completely illogical!"

"Not really." Chouji said seriously. "He'll outlast 'em all, even your precious Sasuke." he glanced over at a blank looking Sasuke. "No offense, of course." The Uchiha shrugged. The look on Chouji's face brightened, realizing that Sasuke understood his reasoning.

"She has a point." Shikamaru drawled suddenly. "Neji and Sasuke... not to mention that weird Gaara guy... It's not exactly logical to say that Naruto will win just because of food." Chouji turned back to his friend, his eyes wide in confusion. But Shikamaru only looked at Naruto, a dry smirk on his face. "But Naruto will manage it anyway, won't you, Naruto?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Shikamaru. Something about the look on the other genin's face made him worried. Almost as if Shikamaru was as positive as Chouji that he was going to win. Not only that, but the Nara boy also knew exactly _how_ and _why_. And Naruto had a feeling that it had nothing to do with what he had already revealed to the shadow user.

His eyes widened at the realization, his hand almost reflexively rising to his stomach. Without a word said, Shikamaru's theory was confirmed just as Naruto realized that Shikamaru _knew_. There was a second long hesitation before the boys smiled at each other, both somewhat relieved. Naruto mouthed an apology for keeping it a secret but, with that faint smile, Shikamaru only shrugged it off.

"That's not something you should say, Shikamaru." Asuma said with narrowed eyes at the boys' silent interaction. But he didn't say anymore, being distracted by more pleasant thoughts, such as the vast amounts of money he'd be able to con out of people.

If Shikamaru believed that Naruto was going to win, then there was a high possibility that Naruto would win. _Hm... need to change my bets from that Neji kid over to Naruto_. He mentally rubbed his hands together. Only one or two people voted for Naruto. If the kid won, Asuma would come into a lot of money. _Hehehe..._

"Yeah!" Sakura turned to Shikamaru with a disapproving look on her face. "Especially since you're in the exam too! You should have some confidence in yourself! Even though people like Sasuke are much stronger than you."

Shikamaru shrugged, not disagreeing. "With the information I gathered, I predict that I will win exactly one battle before having to forfeit do to a lack of energy." he said mildly. "It's not a lack of confidence that I come to this conclusion, Sakura. It's a sense of _logic_."

Sakura looked a little embarrassed at having that pointed out, but turned to Ino, figuring that the blonde would have something to add, if not in her defense, but at least in defense of Shikamaru putting out more.

But the blonde was distracted. She was alternating looks at Naruto and at the bracelet she was playing with. Sakura doubted that she had heard a single word of the conversation. _What's wrong with Ino?_

"Interesting, interesting!" Tazuna said, looking up from where he was scribbling information into a small notebook. "Tell me, boy, can you tell me the possibilities of the one called 'Gaara' winning?"

"Sure." Shikamaru leaned back lazily. "He'll win all of his battles except for when he's going against Nar- hey, you're betting too?"

Tazuna, ignoring the appalled look on his daughter's face, grinned shamelessly. "You bet your ass, kid! I'm gonna buy me a boat!" he settled back in his seat, a pleased look on his face. "That ole' Great Uzumaki Bridge sure upped the trading and economics of our simple village but no, fishing is where the money is!"

"Don't act like it's ancient." Inari said after he finished chewing. "The Great Uzumaki Bridge is only a few months old!"

Tazuna scratched at his chin, bemused. "Is that so?" he murmured. "Feels like it's been there forever." While Team Ten could only blink in confusion at the conversation, Sakura and Naruto laughed.

"I haven't heard of a bridge like that." Asuma murmured. "Where is this?"

"Wave Country." Tazuna said, glancing over at the jonin. "Really cuts down on the travel time from here to my village. Was only about a forth built until Kakashi and his team arrived. That reminds me..." He looked Team Seven, his grandfatherly features pulled in a soft smile. "I don't think we've ever thanked y'all enough for what you did for us back there, even when we didn't have the money to pay for the proper mission."

"It's what we do." Sakura said, waving it off. "Besides, it made us feel good to do some charity work." The girl smiled angelically. "At least it was for me. I truly enjoyed helping you all out. Save for that whole Zabuza/Haku/Gatou situation. That part of the mission sucked."

Naruto looked wounded. "That was my favorite part of the mission." he said with a pout. "We got two good ninjas out of that, I'll have you know! But yeah, Gatou sucked." Naruto looked away, knowing that past tense was now appropriate, seeing as the corrupt businessman was dead.

Surprisingly, Sasuke was still stuck on an earlier part of the conversation and hadn't heard the rest of it. "Great Uzumaki Bridge?" he questioned, his eyes narrowed and locked on the only person he had ever associated with Uzumaki. Naruto became a little nervous at the dark look in his eyes. 

Tsunami smiled a little uneasily, remembering everyone's decision to not tell Naruto about the bridge's namesake, not wanting the boy to get an inflated head. "Um..." her mind worked wildly. "There's a story behind that..."

"Ah." Naruto smiled suddenly. "Everything came in full spiral, eh?" He tilted his head to the side. "Everything went back to how it was before Gatou, but even better. Spiral. Clever."

Relieved at being misunderstood, Tsunami nodded. Naruto glanced over at Sasuke, glad to see that the hints of darkness were replaced with thoughtfulness. There was no way in hell that he would risk Sasuke getting jealous and bitter this close to Orochimaru's invasion.

"Well, we'd better get going..." Sakura said reluctantly after her third attempt to pull Ino into a conversation fell flat. The blonde only seemed to have enough energy to either stare at Naruto or fiddle with the bracelet around her wrist.

Sasuke willingly followed her lead, already irritated with the conversation. He seemed to have little tolerance for large social gatherings. Naruto found this sad because, if one thought about it, there was only ten people there and only one conversation.

Even so, Naruto found himself habitually following the steps of his teammates before he remembered himself and walked back to Tazuna's table as Asuma's table went back to their meal. He leaned forward, keeping his voice low.

"Why did you name the bridge after me?" he asked softly. Tsunami started to shake her head but Naruto smiled. "I know you did and I thank you for going with my story without complaint." he looked over at the retreating back of his best friend. "Sasuke's a temperamental guy, I really don't wanna see him in full blown jealous mode, and, trust me, neither do you." His nose scrunched up in a scowl as his shoulders slumped. "Why couldn't you have called the bridge 'The Amazingly Awesome Bridge that Tazuna Made'?"

Tazuna smacked his hand on the table, glaring at his daughter. "See? The boy gets it!" he pouted, grumbling something under his breath about how his 'mean and evil' daughter with her 'mean and evil minions', the neighbors, refused to let him called the bridge that. "It's not like I built the bridge by scratch... not like I was the one who finished it singlehandedly... not like I have all the right in the world to name my baby!"

"There there." Tsunami patted her father gently on the shoulder. "It's just a bridge." 

Snickering, Naruto hurriedly said his goodbyes to the family, waving off Inari, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Asuma. He started to head quickly through the restaurant, wanting to catch up with his team. To his surprise, he was yanked off to the side near the bathrooms.

Not too worried about defense since the grip wasn't too strong, he let himself be pulled, unconsciously realizing that Ino had slipped from the table beforehand because she was the one yanking him around. 

Ino pushed him in a dark corner, immediately fiddling with her bracelet as soon as she let go off Naruto's wrist. She looked nervous and pale, reminding Naruto painfully of times where such feelings were frequent and necessary. That promptly reminded him that such feelings were frequent and necessary right _now_.

"I need... to talk." Ino said softly. Naruto had to lean forward to hear her.

"To me?" he pointed a finger at himself, a faintly incredulous look taking hold. Ino nodded. "But... Ino, you hate me." At the alarmed look on Ino's face, Naruto backtracked. "Okay, maybe not hate... but you definitely don't like me. In the same sort of 'you're annoying, I don't like you' way that Sakura-chan did."

Ino's expression crumpled. "I'm horrible, aren't I?" she said, nearly wailing. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise.

Ino was a strong girl who could usually get herself out of a tough situation with little effort. But this situation was still horribly familiar to Naruto, this complete lack of ability to control her emotions.

_Mood swings, much?_ Naruto complained mentally, taking a few steps back.

Kyuubi made a big production of sniffing. **But she's not breeding.** He said slowly. **Is there just something about your presence that drives females to the edge of their restraint and patience?**

_Oh, that's a knee slapper. _Naruto snapped back at the sarcasm. _But don't quit your day job_.

Ino realized quickly that she was being overemotional. She rubbed at the corner of her eyes with the backs of her hands furiously and looked up with a firm glare. "No, I wasn't mean. You're a brat." she said with a scowl.

Naruto grinned. "That's the spirit!" he said cheerfully. "Now, what did you wanna talk to me about?"

The uncertain look on the blonde's face returned. "Um..." she bit her lip, grabbing her opposite elbow with her right hand. "A-after... I say goodbye to my team... Can I meet you outside? This... really isn't the best place."

Naruto shrugged. Despite the general concern he felt for Ino, he didn't really care if he heard what she wanted to say. He doubted that it had enough to do with him in order to have an impact on what he was trying to do.

"Sure, no problem."

----

Naruto looked up as soon as she walked out of the restaurant; pleased that Ino had only taken seven minutes. She tilted her head to the side, gesturing that he should follow her. And, confused beyond all reason, Naruto shadowed her footsteps.

Ino's breath was heavy. Her hands trembled lightly at her sides. Her eyes darted everywhere, looking at anyone but him. All these gestures had to mean whatever she was going to do or say had to be bad. Naruto swallowed harshly, but stayed silent.

After a moment of quietly walking, Ino took a shaky breath. "I... have to ask you something." she admitted slowly. "And it might seem weird or odd. Hell, you might even be offended because it's kind of a personal question and I know you won't want to answer and I know you must be thinking 'Why is she talking to me?' and I can't really explain because it's weird even to me and _I _don't even understand-"

"Ino!" Naruto said sharply. Ino snapped out of it, wide blue eyes staring at him for the first time in the whole conversation. Naruto's frown gentled into a smile. "You're rambling. Just ask me, okay? I'm not easily offended you know. And if I don't want to answer, I won't."

Ino took another shaky breath and plunged right in. "Do you own orange pants and a black shirt?" she asked quickly. Naruto looked at her, an eyebrow arching. _That's the all important personal question she wanted to ask?_

"Um, yeah. I wore those orange pants almost all of the last year of the Academy, remember?" Naruto said slowly. "And I think _everyone_ owns at least one black shirt."

Ino nodded. "But it's kinda unique." she said. She started gesturing at her chest. "It has this red spiral thing in front."

"Oh yeah." Naruto smiled. It was his favorite shirt. "That's my shirt." For some reason, Ino seemed really distressed at that piece of information."And do you... wear a necklace?" she asked softly. It was the last piece of clothing that would prove that her vision could happen. Naruto was completely oblivious to the fact that she was trying to prove that he couldn't possibly die.

Naruto gave her another confused look. He unzipped his black vest, reached under the collar of his black shirt, and pulled out Tsunade's necklace. At the sight of the necklace, Ino turned pale.

_Dammit. So the vision does have merit._ Ino thought, one hand fiddling lightly with the bracelet around her wrist. Her last hope had been that her vision had been some sort of fever dream. It was unlikely but she had clung to it even as she tried to figure out a way to save Naruto.

But he owned the clothing he had worn in the vision, _the clothing he died in_... he owned that clothing. Sure, Ino was aware of the pants but she hadn't been aware of the black shirt and the necklace until Naruto admitted ownership. So it wasn't her subconscious playing havoc with her.

"When... when do you wear that clothing?" Ino asked softly, wondering if she really even wanted to know when. She was just torturing herself with the information.

"Well, orange is not a very good color for a ninja." Naruto admitted with a faint sheepish smile. "And that shirt's practically falling apart by now. I wear them to bed."

Ino stopped completely, her hand going over her stomach as it threatened to rebel. She felt nauseous. _They_, whoever those red and black cloaked men were, ripped Naruto from his very bed and killed him.

A chill went down her spine. "I don't suppose... you could burn them?" she joked weakly.

Naruto gave her a long stare. "Not unless you have... a plausible excuse as to why." he said slowly, his eyes narrowed on her face.

Ino said nothing, knowing that there had to be some sort of paradox or physics law that would _destroy the universe_ if she told Naruto that he was going to die. With her luck, anyway. It was really too bad that Ino had gotten mad at Maemi and stopped speaking to her before the older woman could tell her about things like that.

The genin scuffed her toe on the ground, looking anywhere but at the boy she knew was going to die. At least until Naruto made a noise in the back of his throat.

"Ah." he said, his confused and impatient expression clearing. "It's not that you won't or you can't. It's that you _shouldn't_." He smiled suddenly, nodding in understanding. "I know how that is."

Ino's gut twisted as she gazed at his smile. It would have been easier if he had just thoughtlessly demanded answers. Why did he have to be so damn nice about it? Why couldn't he just jump in headfirst and demand to know his fate? Why didn't he ask for information.

"You're gonna die!" Ino blurted out suddenly. As soon as the words left her mouth, she clamped her hands over her lips in a physical but vain attempt to pull back the words and stuff them into a tiny dark corner of her soul where they would never be seen again.

Naruto blinked at her, unknowingly making Ino tense. Then, suddenly like a ray of sun bursting through a storm cloud, Naruto smiled again. "Ino, everyone dies." he said, his voice soft and oddly wise. It also sounded like an older person slowly telling a small child a universal truth that the child just couldn't seem to get. "It just happens sooner to some people than others."

At Ino's crestfallen look, no doubt disappointed, he took a step forward, resting his hands on her shoulders, obvious concern (for her!) in his eyes. "I have to go train but... everything will be alright. Trust me, okay? Whatever it is, I'll deal with it when the time comes."

With one final reassuring nod, Naruto turned around and walked away. Ino feared it was right into the path where his death was inevitable and he was powerless to do anything about it. But it didn't mean that she couldn't at least _attempt_ to do something about it!

----

Haku glared at his leg with all the ferocity of a ticked off tiger. Even as he hoped that some sort of blood limit would make itself known(hopefully one that healed snake bites), he sighed in resignation when the wound only continued to look just as ugly as it had been after he was bitten.

_Well, I don't remember what it looked like back then._ He admitted to himself. _I was too busy sleeping._ With a grimace, he wrapped his leg back up, tears springing reflexively to his eyes when he accidentally wrapped the bandage too tight.

"D..dammit." he hissed between clenched teeth. The wound wasn't healing at_ all_. His whole thigh was swollen and stiff and he was almost positive that the aching stiffness was moving down to his knee. It was painful to walk.

_Ninjas need to walk. Ninjas need to run._ He told himself, repeating his inner mantra that he realized himself once he realized that the bite wasn't going away. _A ninja doesn't need a snake bite, as it makes such actions next to impossible. Thus you **don't** have a snake bite._

He hadn't told Shizune how bad the bite was. He didn't tell Zabuza or any of the healers either. If they knew, they would most likely keep him from being a ninja. They would keep him from living. Haku knew without a doubt that he would die if one of them told him that he couldn't be a ninja any more.

Most of his fondest memories were being trained by Zabuza, making Zabuza proud with his progress, defeating Zabuza's enemies, and, more recently, becoming a valued member of the chuunin forces of Konoha. If Haku couldn't be a ninja, then Haku simply couldn't _be_. A broken tool had no use to a powerful village like Konoha, nor did it have any use to a powerful ninja like Zabuza.

So he kept quiet, even as the wound grew worse and worse as time went by. Shizune, his usual healer and observer, knew that the poison wasn't completely gone from his system, but Haku had managed to keep the swelling and stiffness of his leg a secret.

It was almost exposed when Hayate, as well meaning as the sickly jonin had meant to be, dragged him to the hospital after his bad reaction to a new antidote, but Haku managed to hide it by relying on his last resort when charms and distractions couldn't get him free: running away like a bat out of hell.

Naturally, Shizune was always angry at him since she was usually the one to chase him around the village. Haku managed to avoid punishment thus far by insisting that he needed to train and had no time to lay in bed, an idea that Zabuza fully supported. Once the swordsman threw his weight behind Haku, not many were willing to argue, not even Shizune.

But Haku knew that his brief reprieve would end soon. Zabuza was starting to shoot him concerned glances, as well as making not very subtle hints to go visit the hospital whenever he had a chance. It seemed like, though Shizune knew better than to argue with Zabuza, she managed to win him over with reason.

Sometimes, Haku really hated medic nins.

Haku slowly stood, gingerly putting weight on his injured leg until the pain reached a point where Haku had to bite back a scream of pain. _This is... really bad. _He thought, not for the first time. He resisted the temptation to just go over to Shizune and ask for help, but that wasn't his style. Besides, he had already procured and used all the basic salves and creams to reduce swelling and stiffness. None of them worked.

There was no point, no logical reason why he should go to Shizune now. If his leg was exposed, he wouldn't be able to be a ninja anymore. If his leg didn't heal on its own, Haku could end up being useless in combat. Both were fates worse than death.

The door slid open suddenly, startling Haku. Without thinking, he lurched to the side, putting all of his weight on his injured leg. He let out a shaky breath as his balance was compromised and a wave of pain clouded his mind. He righted himself quickly, grabbing onto his arms in an attempt to distract himself from the pain.

"Haku...?" Zabuza stared at his younger companion, worry apparent in his eyes. Haku didn't look very well. He had bitten his lip bloody and there was sweat sliding down the side of his face. His normally straight and well groomed hair was frizzy and untamed, and the outfit he was wearing (the standard flak jacket and black pants) had several creases and wrinkles, like the boy had slept in them.

Haku turned to Zabuza, forcing a smile. "Zabuza-san." he said as in a way of greeting. Haku's eyes narrowed slightly when he realized that Zabuza was looking him up and down in a way that hinted at a heavy interrogation. He, careful in the way he distributed his weight, quickly walked by and adjusted the collar of his flak jacket. "I really must be going. I have a mission." He slid open the door and walked off, not looking back.

Zabuza watched him leave silently, a frown forming under the bandages as he locked his dark eyes on Haku's almost unnoticeable limp.

---

There was something wrong with Naruto's rasengan. Jiraiya had noted it before, but largely ignored it. After all, the chakra was controlled perfectly and never had there been such a fine example of the Yondaime's jutsu since the Yondaime himself.

But there was definitely something wrong with it. If Jiraiya didn't know any better, he'd say that there was some sort of funky chakra flow going on. Maybe Naruto was unconsciously tapping into element manipulation? 

But that couldn't be true. If it was, then Naruto shouldn't be able to control the rasengan because of it. It was simply too hard to concentrate all of your chakra while your chakra has a mind of its own and is trying to change its own form. It would have made more sense if Naruto had already known a great deal about element manipulation and was consciously trying to hold back from changing the chakra's form.

"Again." Jiraiya told the sweating boy. Naruto closed his eyes, heavy pants issuing from his mouth before he swung out his arm again and started concentrating chakra into his palm. After guessing that Naruto was well into his way of doing rasengan one handed, Jiraiya forbidded him to summon a kage bunshin to help.

Naruto, naturally, had complained. Even if he could do it one handed, it no doubt was easier to lean back on a clone and split the work evenly. Jiraiya was a little harsh when he told Naruto to stop screwing around, and quite quickly felt guilty when Naruto fell silent and started training again.

It wasn't as if Naruto whined about training till his arms and legs wouldn't work. Jiraiya was positive that if Naruto didn't have social obligations (meaning, if his team wouldn't set up a village wide alarm if they didn't see him for a week), he would train himself into the ground. All Naruto really complained about was Jiraiya's way of training.

Jiraiya liked to think that he was a great man. And he was! But his reasons for greatness didn't exactly coincide with the reasons why other people thought he was great. After all, most wouldn't consider his novels his greatest achievement.

Jiraiya considered himself an experienced ninja. Not a particularly good one, but he had been around for a while and picked a lot of things up. He wasn't a genius, but he had adapted well. And he adapted well enough to stay alive. And that was enough for him to be considered strong in this day and age.

Jiraiya watched Naruto with narrowed eyes as the boy, with a loud cry, slammed his rasengan into an already poorly abused rock. Or, if one wished to be more accurate, the hermit's gaze was fixed on Naruto's dissipating rasengan.

Though there was always something eye catching about the savage grace of the boy's movements, he was focused more on the formation of chakra. Yes, there was definitely something off about Naruto's jutsu.

First of all, Naruto's chakra was not the regular vivid blue of raw and unformed chakra. It was shaded just a bit darker, almost purple but the color change was so soft that it went completely unnoticed to the untrained eye. Jiraiya suspected that it had something to do with Kyuubi, but didn't worry about it too much.

If Naruto could harness the demon's power, well kudos to him. Jiraiya would simply need to keep an eye on his student to make sure there wasn't a bad reaction or Kyuubi wasn't trying to slowly possess Naruto.

Besides the subtle color change, Naruto's chakra acted normally in almost every other jutsu he had seen Naruto perform. But when Naruto pulled chakra out to perform rasengan, the chakra visibly shuddered, started changing, and then abruptly froze and changed back.

If Naruto was consciously controlling the form of his chakra, then he should have been mentally exhausted by now. But the only physical evidence of strain that Jiraiya could see on Naruto's face was an intense frown and a thin layer of sweat. The fact that the genin wasn't lying face down on the ground right now said a lot about the boy's endurance. Or, at the very least, the abundance of his chakra.

Jiraiya tended to disagree with others calling Naruto a genius. He, after all, wasn't the only one to note the blond's incredible progress. Even those who still looked at Naruto suspiciously had to grudgingly agree that Naruto was shaping up to be a powerful ninja with a lot of potential to become greater, though not many would agree to the idea that Naruto could be a good Hokage.

But Naruto was not a genius. He didn't pick things up with ease like one of those prodigies of the Hyuuga or Uchiha clan. Half of the time he didn't pick them up at all, choosing to manipulate the jutsu into something he could use instead of just admitting defeat. Naruto was stubborn like that.

Naruto _seemed_ to pick up jutsus with relative ease, but only because he manipulated them to his own fancy. He had difficulties learning things the right way or the easy way. Jiraiya's favorite evidence of that is the fact that Naruto could make a thousand shadow clones but couldn't manage to make one simple bunshin.

It was a pretty backwards way to work, one that Jiraiya was currently using in his favor. And one that would work well, he thought. If Naruto didn't kill him first when he found out the truth. Jiraiya smiled. He could already hear Naruto's indignant yells.

Personally, Jiraiya thought Naruto was a lot like him. Of course, Jiraiya wasn't as stubborn nor as manipulative. And he wasn't nearly as ambitious or secretive. Actually, now that he thought about it, Naruto was a lot like Orochimaru.

One would have thought that was enough to cause alarm but that wasn't so for Jiraiya. Behind the vague personality and disarming smiles, behind the stubbornness and single minded devotion to his cause (whatever it may be), Jiraiya sensed a kindred spirit.

Naruto wasn't a genius like Orochimaru. Naruto was like Jiraiya. But even as the hermit realized that, he couldn't exactly explain why or how they were similar. Perhaps it was their tendency to make tense situations light hearted. Or maybe it was their love for action as opposed to just sitting around.

Or maybe it was because they both were very experienced and adapted ninjas.

"This training session is over." Jiraiya said abruptly, a little upset by his new set of thoughts. He felt Naruto's gaze on him, and looked over. Naruto looked at him, his mouth set in a tight line before he shrugged and left without a word. Jiraiya watched him leave before turning and walking in the opposite direction.

The hermit sighed tiredly, rubbing at his eyes, imagining that it was the faint guilt he had felt because of his harsh attitude that he was rubbing away. But he couldn't help it. Unfamiliar paranoia had made itself a home in his mind. And Sarutobi, Naruto, and especially that damn Kakashi weren't helping at all.

"_There's something off with Naruto._" Kakashi had approached him the day before, concerned confusion hiding behind a vaguely indifferent grimace. "_It's not that I question his loyalties. I'd sooner question Sasuke's loyalties before I'd question Naruto's. But Naruto's just... **off**. Don't you think?_" Kakashi had gone on, explaining some of his observations, some of which Jiraiya felt uncomfortable agreeing with.

After all, if Naruto's behavior was noticed by someone other than himself, then it wasn't just a coincidence, right?

Kakashi was right, of course. One could not become an ANBU captain and not notice certain things, just as one could not live as long as Jiraiya and stay oblivious. Naruto _was_ off. And no one, save for the blond himself, could explain exactly why. But private conclusions could be made.

Kakashi and Jiraiya had tiptoed around that topic of why, simply because their own private conclusions weren't something that could be easily proved. Or accepted. But they both agreed with each other's observation that Naruto, for all of his poor scores and lack of true experience outside of a few missions, was a highly powerful and experienced ninja. Just like Jiraiya.

Jiraiya paused in his walk towards the hot springs. The only conclusions he could come up with was that Naruto had extra training on the side when he was younger or that he had come into some sort of contract with Kyuubi and had absorbed all the demon's knowledge as well as some of the demon's youki. The third conclusion was even worse than the second, which, in itself, was pretty bad.

There was always a chance that he had never known Uzumaki Naruto. Who's to say that Naruto wasn't killed during his early genin moments, only to be replaced by an enemy ninja out to cripple Konoha? It wasn't unheard of. And with the village's tendency to ignore Naruto, no one would have noticed Naruto's death and quick replacement.

Jiraiya didn't want that to be true, not only because then the village would be in danger but also because he'd have to kill one of his favorite students. And that was the only reason why he half was hoping that Naruto had joined in a contract with Kyuubi instead.

Being manipulated and changed by a demon was better than being a spy and an enemy of the village. It wasn't much better, seeing as the demon could manipulate Naruto into betraying Konoha, but it meant that Naruto at least had a fighting chance to keep himself intact.

"Are you lost, old man?" Jiraiya turned towards the call, focusing on the familiar yet alien form of his team mate. Tsunade stood outside of a bar, a sake bottle in one hand and her other placed on her hip. There was a faintly teasing smile on her face.

Jiraiya stared at her for a moment before answering. "Physically, no." he said tiredly. He resisted the urge to rub at his temples. That was something the Hokage did and he'd be damned before he admitted, even without words, that he was in the middle of enough stress to grant him a massive head ache. "Mentally, yes."

He couldn't read the look in her eyes but it seemed like her expression softened a little. She lifted the sake bottle and smirked.

"Drink with me, then." she said lightly. Jiraiya started to say no but decided that no harm could come from it. For once in his life, he preferred the company of Tsunade, however sharp tongued she may be, to spying on women.

He rubbed a hand over his face, giving her a sheepish smile. "It's not always that easy, you know." he said reluctantly, even as he moved towards her.

"Why can't it be?" Tsunade murmured, tilting her head to the side. It wasn't really a question that could be answered but Jiraiya sighed and shook his head.

Life was never easy.

----Hanabi took a deep breath, staring down at the pond she was crouched in front of. The light from the moon shimmered off of a koi's scales as they moved lazily through the water.

It was now much later. She had fought her sister several hours ago but now, even as the moon hung above her, Hanabi still couldn't let go of the bitterness in her heart. It really wasn't even about the fight that she could have sworn Hinata had won. It was the subject of Hinata in general that made the little girl grind her teeth together.

_Weak fragile Hinata_. Hanabi thought harshly, her shoulders shaking. _To me, they give me the power of respect and fear. To you, they give you the power of their hearts. Which means more to them? _The little girl scoffed, looking away from her reflection in the pond, not wanting to see her pain filled eyes. _Even someone with half of a brain could figure **that** out.._.

Her fists suddenly clenched in the material over her legs and her head bowed close to her knees, her hair moving forward to cover her face. She idly traced a figure in the dirt at her feet as she registered the sound of footsteps right behind her.

There was no need to activate her byakugan. She already knew who was behind her just by the pace of the footsteps. Slow, hesitant. More time between the steps the closer the sound was. Timid, soft. As if the walker was afraid to hurt the ground if she stepped too hard. Yes, _she_. Hyuuga Hinata.

Hanabi closed her eyes, trying to convince herself that the irritation she felt was directed at Hinata, for following her, and not at herself for losing her control over her emotions.

_Maybe if I ignore her, she'll go away._ Hanabi thought harshly. But she knew the truth of the matter. Hinata was used to being ignored. Ignoring her would probably make her feel comfortable. And comfortable people didn't leave.

The only way to make Hinata uncomfortable was to talk. But the problem with that was that Hanabi didn't feel like talking, much less to _her_. Talking meant explaining. Explaining meant exposing reasons and weaknesses. Hanabi wasn't about to acknowledge any weaknesses, most especially to her weak sister.

A sharp pang exploded in Hanabi's chest as she thought of her sister. Weak insignificant Hinata. A black sheep. A liability. A stain on the great name of the Hyuuga clan. It was nothing personal against Hinata, but she was weak and unworthy of their clan. Everything that Hanabi had been taught, everything that had been drilled in her head since day one, insisted that this was the truth.

But why did no one else realize this? Why didn't their father pull Hinata out of the genin ranks? Why did they even bother to deal with her? To a ninja, physical and mental strength meant everything. Hinata was weak compared to even the weakest person of her year.

But still...

"_Hinata-chan! Train with us!_" A confident grin and welcoming waves. 

"_Hinata-san! Come have tea with us!_" Girlish giggles and warm gestures. 

"_Hinata. Let's go._" Calm nods and firm acknowledgments.

"_Hinata-chan! I missed you!_" Happy greetings and gentle embraces.

"_Hinata... I wish you luck._" Concerned words and soft gazes.

Why did Hinata get all of theses things? Hanabi was taught that, with power and strength, nothing would be beyond her reach or her ability to receive. And, so far, she had seen nothing wrong with that. Because of her developing talent, she had the respect of all those around her. Kids her age feared her. The teachers at the Academy practically let her get away with murder. Her father showed her off to the rest of the family.

She had pride, respect, and power. But weak little Hinata had managed to steal the one thing that she wanted: love and all the emotions related to it.

Hinata may not have been powerful but people _liked_ her. People went out of their way to say hi. They smiled warmly when she came near, spoke kind words about her behind her back. Even Hiashi, as strict as he tended to be with his children, softened when Hinata was near, more agreeable and compromising when his oldest was there beside him.

Hanabi would have given away all of her talent just to have one person smile at her like they did Hinata. She liked being an idol of power. She liked the power itself. But it was a cold existence.

What was so special about Hinata that she managed to receive all the warmth? What did Hanabi have to do in order to receive just half of that warmth? How much would she have to sacrifice to get what Hinata got without even trying? Knowing that Hinata didn't even have to try in order to gain that which Hanabi desire made the little girl so mad! 

"Hanabi." Hinata whispered her name from behind her. With a flash of temper, Hanabi turned around, intending to unleash her wrath on her sister. Despite her prowess, Hanabi somehow missed over how close her sister had gotten to her.

But when she started to pull back, she suddenly found herself encased in her sister's arms. The girl froze, confused by the sound of a heart beat that was not her own.

"What... what are you doing?" Hanabi asked, all anger disappearing from her voice as she stood stiffly in Hinata's arms. Was this some sort of attack? "Release me." If it was an attack, it wasn't a very good one.

All Hinata was doing was holding her in place, her hands and arms in a position where it would be awkward to try and attack Hanabi, and it threw open her stomach as a weak point to attack and take advantage of.

"I'm hugging you." Hinata said sadly, pulling back a little bit. "You look depressed. I'm trying to comfort you."

Hanabi gave her a confused look. There was nothing comfortable about this 'hug' thing. In fact, it was downright awkward. She had heard of embracing before, of course, even if she hadn't been on the receiving or giving end of it. Hm. Wasn't she supposed to do something back?

The young girl shook herself out of her thoughts, leveling an impassive stare at her sister, who only stared back sorrowfully. "Hanabi. Talk to me." Hinata pleaded. "I need to know what's wrong."

"Why?" Hanabi said, and would have went one with some sort of scathing comment but, foreseeing this, Hinata answered quickly.

"So I can fix it." the older girl said firmly, her eyes steely and determined.

Perhaps it was that unfamiliar look in Hinata's eyes, or perhaps it was because she was tired. It could have been because her father told her to. It could have even been that Hinata's hug had done it's purpose in comforting her sister, or perhaps even it was because Hanabi felt the burning desire to share secrets with her sibling, as most siblings are wont to do.

Whatever the reason, Hanabi felt herself breaking down and revealing exactly why she had detested Hinata so simplemindedly for the longest time. 

Though releasing her emotions was therapeutic and calm, the moon reflecting in Hinata's steadily widening eyes made Hanabi felt oddly guilty. Like the driver of a car when he sees the petrified look of a deer right before he hits it. Like the driver, she couldn't stop and only after she was done could she stop, look back, and realize exactly how much damage she had done.

Somewhere inside of the house behind them, a bell tolled ominously.

----

He adjusted the dark cloak around his head to hide his vibrant hair, his fingers lingering hesitantly on the inside of his freshly painted mask. After a moment of contemplation, he slipped the mask on and secured it, glancing in the mirror to make sure that the mask hid his face and the top of the cloak hid what the mask could not.

He tapped his thighs, stomping once on one sandaled foot to make sure his henge was firmly in place. He was better at average ninjutsu than distractions and red herrings like Henge no Jutsu, even though his own special version of Henge no Jutsu was guaranteed to drop a troop full of ninjas at just one glance.

Deeming his reflection satisfactory, he reached over for the only weapon he was going to carry, a freshly sharpened katana. He ran his thumb over the blade, pleased when the steel broke through the first layer of skin without much pressure. 

He slipped the katana under his cloak, securing it on his waist in such a way where the outline of hilt could not be pressed against the cloak. He wanted to keep it hidden for as long as possible.

He looked at himself in the mirror, seeing the cold vision that his enemy would see right until his very last breath. Knowing that he was going to kill someone didn't please him, but it didn't disgust him either.

He didn't feel pleasure to know the one that he hated was going to die, but he felt, oddly enough, a little relieved. And firm in his belief that it was his responsibility to remove the obstacle in his path. With his enemy's death, all further plans and aspirations would be met all the more easier.

But there was another purpose for this death. As hated as his enemy was, he was only one small fish in the ocean surrounded and protected by sharks. And the particular shark he most wanted to get rid of was just a little too close to his shores. This shark needed to be warned that their shores did not welcome such a back stabbing traitor such as he.

A flip of a switch threw light in his mirror, to reflect on to the mask in such a way that his eyes were seen in his reflection, glinting a dull color that had nothing to do with the lamp behind him. Though hidden to the mirror, a grim smile formed on his lips.

Somewhere behind him, a figure seemed to arise right out of the shadows. The other wore a red mask and a black cloak, both not eerily similar but completely identical. He watched his companion in the reflection of the mirror, feeling happy at the sight of his success. But even such fleeting joy was silted because of the knowledge of what he was going to do tonight.

"Remember her." his companion rumbled suddenly, knowing his thoughts. "Remember them. And you will find the strength to act. You always have." His companion walked towards him, offering a strange show of comfort in the way of an arm slung over his shoulder.

Using that arm as leverage, his companion directed his attention directly at the mirror. The sight was strange yet scary at the same time. Two identical dark specters with seemingly glowing red masks.

"I remember." he admitted softly. "I remember... all of it."

"Hm." his companion tilted his head. "You almost lost this. Lost this killer... this ability. Would you have missed it?"

He felt compelled to tell the truth. "No." he said. "I could have lived happily as I was. As I was beginning to become again."

"No one would have lived if you stayed that way." the words were fairly harsh. Anyone else would have flinched at them, perhaps even moved to defend themselves. But he could hear the underlying sympathy of those words, the gentle chiding that slipped through the way that his shoulder was squeezed.

"I know." His voice shook. "I know. To save, I must kill. I've always know that. But... the ideals of my childhood... they're hard to ignore. They're so... _attractive_... especially now, in this environment. But it's not true." His head bowed. "It's not true at all."

His shoulder was squeezed again. "Perhaps..." his companion's voice was reluctant. "Perhaps once the immediate dangers have passed, you can entertain this ideals and morals once more." He was turned around by the hands of his companion. "But before then, let's send snake-boy a message, shall we?"

---

Baki made to it Suna in fifteen hours, stumbling gracefully towards the group of houses as his extra energy dwindled down rapidly. It was now dark and fairly chilly, especially when compared to Konoha's warm nights, but Baki adjusted fairly easily. This was his home, after all. He thought Konoha's warm nights when compared to Suna's cold ones was just unnatural. But, he supposed, it was called Fire Country for a reason.

He had made it home in fairly good time, considering how much distance was between Konoha and Suna. But he knew he could have made it back sooner, if only he hadn't had to shake the sound nin off his tail.

Had his stalker been from any other village, Baki would have calmly dispatched the unwanted presence but it just had to be a ninja from their tentative ally, Oto. Instead he had to deal with the arduous task of confusing and losing his pursuer.

The ninja had great stealth but Suna ninjas were better than any other. They didn't need to see, hear, or sense that someone was following them to know that they were being followed. Baki's chest swelled in pride.

"Baki! Thank the Kages! You're back!" A group of younger chuunins immediately converged on him, surrounding him in a loose semi circle. All of them, despite their relief at his appearance, looked very grim. 

"What do you want?" Baki asked, a little irritable. He wanted to finish his task and go back to Konoha. And maybe get some shuteye, not necessarily in that order. "I have something I need to do." Not only was he tired and anxious to get back, but he also found himself a little unnerved about how quickly the chuunins turned to him.

Most of the jonins (how few of them they had) were already in Konoha to be used in the invasion. Suna, at the moment, only contained the elderly, the Council, genins, and chuunins. It wasn't far fetched to say that Baki was the only jonin in Suna at the moment. But for chuunins to turn to him so quickly, looking for his leadership instead of turning to the Council or figuring it out themselves... something was wrong.

"We found something." the leader of the group said solemnly. He was a scruffy looking man who was a little younger than Baki would have wanted from a chuunin. "The Council won't let us do anything until the Kazekage comes back from Konoha but... you should see this."

Baki gauged the looks on the chuunins's faces. They all looked very grim and serious, despite the relief they showed when he arrived. Whatever they were worried about, it wasn't something he could brush off until after he had a nap.

After a brief glance at them, he nodded, following after them back out of the village and into the desert. Baki, as they ran along the dunes, recognized the route they were taking. It was the route that the Kazekage would patrol once every month to make sure that none of the nomadic desert tribes came to close to their village.

There were certain trap jutsus set up every hundred or so feet around the village that would trigger a deadly sandstorm if stepped upon. All ninjas from Suna were taught how to avoid them and any decently leveled ninja could easily sidestep them. They were horribly outdated, going back to even before Suna was much more than a bunch of nomadic clans huddling together in an attempt to become more powerful than their enemies.

The Kazekage had to check them once a month to make sure that the jutsus were still intact, though even Baki had questioned the man's logic in keeping them there when they only worked about one out of every seven encounters. But the man had insisted that it was tradition among the Kazekages before him and he would keep it, since it worked well enough for them.

The Kazekage, for all his power, was such a sheep. Baki could only hope that their next Kazekage was a little more liberal. There were many old standing laws and traditions that were out of date and needed to be replaced, such as some of the restrictions on the younger ninjas. They were overly harsh, in Baki's opinion, more effective in the acts of killing them than reigning them in.

Almost abruptly, they came upon a series of canyons carved into the earth by ancient rivers and streams. Such life giving waters were now long gone but the rocks polished and smoothed by their flow stood as a silent monument to their existence.

The canyons, naturally, were the perfect place to ambush any who dare to come so close to the village. Tall rocks with steep sides and very little brush meant that whoever was at the bottom of the canyon was vulnerable at all sides to attack. The steep sides of the canyons were nearly impossible to traverse if one was not proficient in the multipurpose art of fusing their feet with chakra.

It was not uncommon for some of their children, while learning how to become a ninja, to come to this area to stage a mock ambush in order to train. That last bit was probably why Baki was so startled to see a cluster of decomposing corpses in the middle of the canyon.

Feeling as if he had lost his stomach somewhere along the journey to this suddenly accursed canyon, Baki slowed but did not stop when the chuunins did. The younger ninjas paused somewhat reverently away from the corpses, a good twenty or thirty feet, just out of range of the heavy smell.

Baki inched closer, his steps becoming smaller and smaller once his mind started catching up with what his eyes were seeing. Dusty white robes. Slashed flak jackets. Withered skin, dried blood. Missing pieces of flesh where carnivores and vultures alike had taken chunks. The heavy smell of decomposing flesh drifted into Baki's nose. This was the unmistakable scene of a horribly violent death.

And, almost symbolically, about five feet away from the three corpses, the Kazekage hat sat almost pristinely, managing to stay almost clean from grim, dirt, or blood, save for a single streak of scarlet over the kanji.

It took Baki several moments to compose himself. Even as immersed as he was in the scene of death in front of him, he was aware of the restless shifting of the chuunins behind him. While his mind worked overtime, trying to figure out the mystery of this situation, he turned to the pale ninjas who had brought him there.

"Are you sure this is the Kazekage?" Baki asked after a long moment.

"Chiyo-sama has confirmed it." one of them said softly. He was one of the older chuunins, just under twenty. Still too young, in Baki's opinion, to be involved in such a scandal. "While it is obvious that he and his attendants were murdered, she couldn't tell exactly what had killed him, only that it was brutal. His face was even ripped off. See?" 

The chuunin edged slightly forward, pointing a shaking finger at his leader's corpse. A chuunin shouldn't have to see his leader in such a state. "The sun baked his body and the vultures wrecked havoc even more. This... complicated matters, since we couldn't see what had killed him." Baki nodded to him and, gratefully, the chuunin took several steps backwards, using the form of Baki to hide the vision of death from his sight.

"You know what this means." Baki said suddenly, directing a firm gaze at the group of them. It wasn't a question. He expected for them to figure out on their own that their Kazekage had been killed under their noses and no one had noticed a thing. No one, save for the man's only daughter. Baki was suddenly grateful to Temari for coming to him with her suspicions.

"Conspiracy." One of the chuunins spat out hotly, his fists clenched at his sides. He was taller than the others but seemed to be even more so, looming over the rest in his rage. "Treachery."

"If the council won't help, then who do we turn to?" One of the others said more reasonably. The chuunin, a whole head shorter than the other, instinctively backed off when the tall chuunin glared at him. The shorter genins raised his hands up in defense.

"Don't eat me." the chuunin said with a grimace. "I'd love to find and kill the traitor, but we need guidance to do that! Especially since this guy managed to kill our Kage and two of our jonins... Oh no!" The chuunin's eyes widened in realization and he snapped his head back to Baki. "The Kage in Konoha is fake!"

Silence rang out loudly, the words of this epiphany either merely giving voice to unconscious theory or confirming the already stated facts. After a moment of staring down at the Kazekage's mutilated body, Baki turned to them with an answer.

"We turn to our comrades... and Konoha." There were a few outraged hisses at the last suggestion. "Hear me." Baki said loudly, his voice strong. He turned to them fully, standing up tall as he glared at them all. They shifted unconsciously under the stern order, standing at attention.

"Even if the council will not lift a finger, we as a village will not stand for this. Our Kazekage was murdered and replaced right underneath our noses." Baki's voice bounced off of the walls of the canyon, making the chuunins feel as if they were being surrounded by the jonin's words. "The imposter is laughing at us as we speak." There were growls from the chuunins at the thought. Baki nodded sharply. "This is not only an insult to us as ninjas, but also a serious abuse to our trust. We will not tolerate this insult."

"What will we do then?" The first chuunin asked, eagerly stepping forward.

"Our pride had been battered, our good name soiled." Baki said, his stance widening slightly. He crossed his arms over his chest. "So what difference will it make if we ask for aid? Not only will we succeed in our revenge, but we will also find ourselves with a powerful ally."

"Not if they end up betraying us!" One of the female chuunins snapped. The others nodded in agreement.

"Konoha..." Baki sighed, trying to figure out how to explain the village to the chuunins. As chuunins, they had little to no contact with other ninja villages outside of events like the Chuunin and Jonin Exams. He had to explain a ninja village vastly different than their own. He wondered how to phrase it.

"The people in charge there right now are... _different_ than the people we are used to." Well, there was always the obvious way...

"What do you mean?" The chuunins were curious but hadn't denounced him yet. That was good news, Baki thought. Now, to figure out how to explain what he meant... Baki smirked.

"Well, there's a reason why they're called the 'jolly tree huggers'." Baki said with some amusement. There was a few snickers at that. Baki turned serious once more. "Konoha ninjas are dedicated to keeping their promises and alliances, and only betray if they feel their ally will betray them."

"So what, you're gonna go walk up to the Hokage, as casual as can be, and nonchalantly tell him that his village is going to be annihilated in a day and a half? And that half of the invading forces are sand nins?" the first chuunin asked in disbelief. "The ANBU would kill you in an instant!"

"I will sell the idea of information to the Hokage and extract some promises before I tell him of our part in this." Baki said haughtily, as if the chuunin had just severely insulted his negotiation skills. The chuunin backed up a little, his hands up in defense. "I _will_ handle this, mark my words. We will not get the short end of the stick here, not even in the name of revenge."

"So are you gonna be Kazekage?" one of the smaller chuunins piped up. He looked confused.

Baki was startled. Being Kazekage had never crossed his mind, not even during his youth where anything seemed possible. "No." he said after he had regained his bearings. "Hasn't the Council appointed a new candidate?"

"The Council didn't want us to move until we had a clear candidate for Kazekage to replace him. But the only ones strong enough to be Kazekage are in Konoha." One of the chuunins rolled his eyes. Baki suddenly understood the reasoning behind the Council's move. They couldn't have chosen a Kage from a bunch of chuunins and genins. The only ninja of those lower ranks that was strong enough to be considered would be Gaara, but he was in Konoha as well, in the same boat as the jonins. "So we're stuck."

"The Council can rule until we find a Kage." Baki said, nodding to himself. "It won't be the end of the world, it's happened before. However, we cannot allow the imposter to get away with this, not when he plans on using Suna to anger Konoha." Baki looked at them. "We act, and we act now."

He paused for a moment, drinking in the looks on their faces. These ninjas were not jonins, however skillful they may be. They were still faintly green in the experience area and the last thing Baki wanted was to let their first true experience with a wide scale battle, as such would no doubt break out in Konoha in a day and a half, to be in such unfamiliar territory with allies that couldn't be trusted.

But Baki didn't have a choice. He tilted his chin up slightly, staring down at the chuunins. _Guess we can forget about that nap... _he thought with regret before straightening. "Who's coming back with me?" He was both disappointed and pleased when all of them stepped forward without a moment's hesitation.

---

Meanwhile, on that same night but in a village a little ways away, shops were closing and people were hurrying home. It wasn't too late, just late enough so that most wished to be at home with their loved ones rather than wandering about the streets.

Despite the large crowds of tourists, the streets were still fairly bare. A Konoha at night wasn't exactly an exciting sight to see, save for a few establishments here and there. Kabuto wasn't traveling on one of the main roads so he was aware of no other presence but his own.

The road he was on led directly to his apartment, which was fairly convenient. A lesser man or ninja who take the road would have been wary of the long shadows thrown across the ground by the lack of sufficient lighting. But Kabuto was confident of his abilities and knew the road by heart so he did not fear what he could not see.

But something was different about tonight. The very air he breathed in seemed to be sparking with tense energy and it led Kabuto to be equally tense, even though he could not feel or sense anything out of the ordinary.

Kabuto adjusted the glasses on his face, glancing about in a cautious way. There was no need for caution at the moment, he realized with an annoyed sigh when he confirmed that there was no one else on the road. Well, other than the fact that he was a spy and it would be very bad if he was discovered. But he wasn't doing anything nefarious at the moment. His last order had been to wait.

Waiting was necessary. Waiting was important. Kabuto hated waiting. But it wasn't like he could complain to Orochimaru about it. No, such careless actions like that would only hasten his death. It was a good thing that he was so important to Orochimaru and was allowed to get away with a few things or else he might have found himself killed or shunted aside, like that Kimimaro.

Kabuto smirked to himself, feeling no sympathy for the sickly boy. If he wasn't strong enough to handle what his own genetics had thrown at him, then he wasn't suited to be Orochimaru's next host.

He frowned. _I can't believe he insisted on coming. Does he really think he can get back into Orochimaru's favor with his imperfection?_ The medic nin's frown increased. _Why did Orochimaru even let him come? He's interested in Sasuke-kun now..._

Kabuto stopped his walk completely. _Speaking of interests... _He pulled out one of his information cards out of his pocket, reinforcing the chakra that made the data visible, pushing enough chakra into it to make the information blaze for hours.

He scowled at the cheery face on it. _Uzumaki Naruto, age 12. In all ways, shapes, and forms, an average genin save for a slight demon infestation. Yet Orochimaru was interested in him?_ Orochimaru had never shown any interest in any demons, save for a passing respect for their power.

"_Akatsuki,_" he had told Kabuto long ago after Sasori's jutsu on him had been destroyed, "_can play with their demons. I will seek no part in it... unless one comes willingly to me._" Demon or not, Kabuto had no doubt that Orochimaru would seek to use power, in whatever form it came, to it's highest potential.

But other than that, Orochimaru only sought after power born of the human element, most likely because it was the only thing that the man was sure he could control. The mind was so easily bent and twisted to his needs. Children of bloodlines proved to be especially malleable to his manipulations.

But why Naruto? He wasn't part of a bloodline, nor was he the angsty sort that Orochimaru favored. Sure, he was fairly interesting because of the Kyuubi, but that was it. If he could actively use the demon's energy, he would be a little more interesting, but still not interesting enough to have caught Orochimaru's attention.

There was something about that kid that Orochimaru knew and wouldn't tell Kabuto. That annoyed him greatly. _He_ was the one mingling in with the pathetic excuses of genins that Konoha had to offer. How had Orochimaru gotten information about one of them that he hadn't heard of it? Kabuto resolved to find out this information by the end of the invasion.  
Of course, he only had a few hours, all of the next day, then the few hours before the exam finale before his deadline. Kabuto, however, was confident in his abilities to gather information. He just needed to make some plans and some strategies for following around that fox brat. No better place to gain information than from a first person account, after all.

It was a pity that he couldn't slither his way in Naruto's trust and become the blond's friend. The genin had proved that he was frightfully resilient to that sort of manipulation. Odd, really, since the boy seemed to make friends so easily.

Had Naruto's demon caught on to Kabuto's intents and warned the boy away? Now that was an interesting thought, but not one he could follow at the moment. _Tomorrow, then._

So, he bought himself some dinner and was making his way back to his apartment. Completely mundane and normal actions for anyone, nothing suspicious about it at all. That was probably half of the reason why Kabuto was surprised by the sudden appearance of an ANBU.

The other half was the way that the ANBU had appeared in front of him. Silent and sudden, like the ANBU had morphed from shadow into human without hardly an effort. Kabuto, even though the ninja was right in front of him, still couldn't sense the ANBU's aura.

"Ah." That was his only show of surprise. Adopting a sheepish smile, Kabuto bowed to the ANBU. "My apologies." He lifted up his bag of food and shrugged. "I had to get something to eat. Is there a curfew or something I wasn't told about?"

He knew that there was something wrong the second he saw the mask of the ANBU. He disguised his reach for his hidden kunai as an embarrassed gesture. The ANBU only tilted his(her? Its?) head, the dark cloak hiding the particulars of the ninja's form gently moving in the breeze.

The ANBU stood a little taller than Kabuto but his shoulders were not as broad. Any other hints of the ninja's form was hidden by the cloak, even the color of the ninja's hair. It seemed like the ANBU was nothing but a dark specter, standing silently in the middle of the road, judging all who passed and seeing if they were worthy to move forward... Kabuto shrugged off such fanciful thoughts.

"My, ANBU-san." It never hurt to be polite. "I don't think I've ever seen a mask like yours before." And it didn't hurt to be honest either. Well, only when the truth was less incriminating than the lies.

But what he said was true. Kabuto had never seen an ANBU mask like the ANBU was wearing. The shape and carving of it was essentially the same. But never had he seen an ANBU mask nearly drenched in the color red. The color of freshly shed blood.

It almost seemed to glow eerily out of the cloak around the ANBU. Red and black had never seemed to contrast more than at that moment. He tried to convince himself that the eerie contrast was the only reason why he felt a tinge of fear.

The ANBU only tilted their head again. The cloak parted, revealing a pair of legs (which killed Kabuto's theory that the ANBU was floating) as well as a long stretch of silver. A sharp yet fairly short katana lightly gripped by a gloved hand. Silver, red, and black. The colors of a shinobi's death.

As soon as Kabuto realized that, he jumped back, throwing his kunai at the ANBU, secrecy and stealth be damned. Orochimaru wouldn't be pleased but he'd also be angry if his best medic nin and right hand man managed to get himself killed while buying dinner.

Kabuto wasn't too worried about the ANBU. He himself was strong enough and stealthy enough to face one and live, perhaps even face the infamous Hatake Kakashi and live. The only thing about this predicament that disturbed him was he was almost positive that the ANBU wasn't an ANBU at all.

He watched the ANBU idly knock the kunai out of the way with a clash of steel and iron. That blood red mask turned towards Kabuto again in that mild manner. A silent 'You think you can get away from me with just that?'.

And suddenly all the distance Kabuto had put between them shrank down to an inch as the ANBU seemed to simply phase right in front of him. Just as Kabuto made a move to jump back, pain suddenly erupted from his lower back.

Kabuto, baffled and in shock, looked down at the piece of bloodied steel sticking out of his stomach. He looked up at the ANBU in front of him, who carried a clean katana in their right hand. _What the hell...?_ He realized that the ANBU had an ally but he didn't realize the true danger he was in until the ANBU walked closer, sliding his blade an inch higher than the blade already in Kabuto.

The pain was horrible and Kabuto couldn't get away. There was someone behind him and someone in front of him, two blades sticking out of his gut, one of them cutting dangerously close to his spine. How much worse could it get?

In unison, the two unknown ninjas flipped their blades his stomach, a tiny twitch of the wrist that sent Kabuto into a world of blinding agony. He let out a soundless scream, slouching down slightly. The pool of blood at his feet looked like a pool of condensed shadow in the darkness.

_As expected of the ANBU of Konoha._ Kabuto thought, feeling both dark humor and sorrowful resignation at this point. It wasn't like he could pull away and heal himself. If he even made an attempt, the ANBU and his ally would just strike him down.

With some effort, he looked over his shoulder, nearly groaning when he saw the same red mask and cloak. He was in too much pain to even consider what that meant. 

The grip the ninjas had on their blade was steady. The attack was delivered with pinpoint accuracy with a cold uncaring attitude that would have given the infamous Kyuubi a run for his money. As Kabuto felt his blood leave his body in steady streams, he looked up at the impassive red mask in front of him, willing for some light to be shed on his killer's identity.

Kabuto peered up at the mask, driven through his pain by a maddening desire to know who was killing him. It was a pointless endeavor. All he could see was that cold and impersonal mask and the shadows formed under the cloak.

The ANBU's grip on the katana shifted slightly and, with a sudden jerk, both katanas cut upward through Kabuto with a sickening squelch and exited easily through opposite shoulders. The movement made the mask tilt in such a way that, for a brief moment, light was shed on and revealed his killer's blood red eyes.

It was the last thing he saw before he died.

Silver, red, and black. The colors of a shinobi's death.

----

TBC

AN: I cut off, like, seven pages, and this _still_ was a longer chapter than the last one. But this seemed like the best place to start so... Know that I already started the next chapter, okay: ) And, for those who asked(demanded), fights will start either at the end of the next chapter, or at the beginning of the next.

And, Tenten lovers, she will return! Probably the next chapter as well. Yes, this means that I've set up yet another highly confusing side plot...

Preview of the next chapter:

_"Is that so?" Gaara tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing even as his expression remained amused. The humor, so obviously dark but enough to put that odd smile on Gaara's face, put Sasuke and Sakura on edge. But the demon host only had eyes for Naruto. "Well, damn. You ruined my dreams of an epic battle between good and evil."  
The sarcasm in his voice was cutting even as his tone was deceptively light. The red haired demon host was trying to get a rise out of Naruto. But no matter how much the boy tried, it seemed like his words bounced off of a wall of indifference.  
Or perhaps not indifference. Tolerance would fit in as well. Gaara's humor faded when he realized that Naruto probably pitied him because of his situation. But before he could get worked up in anger over it, he realized that Naruto's eyes were not full of pity. If anything, those blue eyes were full of tolerance and impatience.  
"Not everything is defined by good and evil, my friend." Naruto said smoothly. His eyes narrowed at Gaara's sudden scowl, ignoring the elbow at his side, not about to tell Sakura anything. Whatever Gaara had gleaned from Naruto's expression wasn't something he was going to reveal to his teammates, apparently. Sasuke was especially bitter about that.  
"Is that so..." Gaara said again, his voice quieter. He was no longer amused or even angry. In place of either emotion was a sense of child like curiosity that was out of place with the dark subject matter. "How many lives have you destroyed?"  
"Depends on your point of view." Naruto replied evasively. Sensing his teammates paying closer attention, he quickly moved to make the reference more vague. "Human beings on a general scale tend to destroy each other's lives. Some with reason, some just because they can. I cannot say that I am not guilty of this as well."   
Gaara's head tilted to the side. Sasuke realized, with a surprised jolt, that the seemingly insane genin from Suna was seriously listening to what Naruto was saying. "Would you say there was reasoning behind your actions?" the red head asked carefully, the expression on his face tense as if Naruto was about to reveal the secret of life but would not do so unless the question was proposed properly.  
"Of course." Naruto shrugged, either not noticing Gaara's attentive gaze or not caring. "I wouldn't be able to do it without a reason. I'm not fond of attacking or fighting senselessly. I may have been when I was younger, but I'm not now."  
The tense expression on Gaara's face disappeared. Amusement once again appeared on his face. "Good." he said simply. He turned away. "Then it will no longer be about good and evil. It will simply be reasoning verses insanity." Sakura shivered, wondering why Gaara seemed so pleased by that.  
"Why do you say that?" Sakura said, taking a step forward. Her voice sounded loud compared to the softer murmurs of her teammate and the red head. "You might not even fight Naruto!"  
Gaara turned around and suddenly Sakura remembered why her mouth had stayed cemented shut during Naruto and Gaara's entire conversation. Gaara's eyes were just too intense to look at for long, especially when that gaze was directed right at you.  
"Naruto and I..." Gaara drawled slowly, his eyes focusing on Sakura with an intent that made Sasuke's hackles rise. "I won't go as far as to say our fight is destined, but I will say that I will kill anyone who stands between us and our fight. Even you, **Sakura**."_  
----


	52. The Aftermath and the Beginning

Okay, two things I'd like to address right now. First, _this is not a romance story_. Too much of that lovey dovey stuff makes me sick so don't expect to see much of that in this story. And second, the Chuunin Final Exam battles are not going to be epic. _They're not important to the plot._ What happens afterward is. : )  
Oh, kudos to KerryCortez(from LJ) for giving me the idea(about a million years ago) for the scene between Naruto and Hinata. See, Kerry? I _did_ used it! XD

For the Love of my Friends  
Chapter Fifty-two: The Aftermath and the Beginning  
by Foxie

"Did you hear?" Whispers and talk like that had been occurring all morning, alternating between the usual 'Did you hear?' and 'Hey, funny thing happened yesterday...'. Considering the subject matter, the latter of the two ice breakers was rarely used, only heard amongst some jonins. The ANBU weren't the type to just allow their conversations to be over heard so Naruto had to guess on how they would pass the information around.

Knowing how sadistic some ANBU became because of their line of work, it could very easily be the punch line of a joke. _Dark humor, of course._ Naruto thought with a shrug. _Only really understood by people who had been around or involved in some nefarious plots._ Naruto felt himself smile.

The conflict between his idealistic genin self and his realistic ANBU self had come to a head. What was better, having a moral code and doing what was right, or doing what needs to be done? Naruto tried to ignore this as long as he could, not wanting to be an ANBU while he still had his friends around.

But, surprisingly enough, Kyuubi had some good input. "_It's not like you were a proper ANBU anyway._" the demon had gripped while cleaning his blade. And he was right. Naruto had never completely killed his feelings while defending Konoha as an ANBU. He had simply focused on his duty and did what needed to be done, all without turning into some angsty and dark ninja. After all, he was all too aware of how much power and moral support his smile was to his comrades.

_Why can't I be both?_ Naruto thought, peace easing his mind. _I'll hold onto some sense of a moral code while still doing whatever it takes to protect my friends. It's the perfect compromise._ But, of course, it wasn't something someone his age would be able to understand. After all, Naruto had blood on his hands and he wasn't feeling a whit of guilt for shedding it. Well, maybe just a little. But it was to be expected. Kabuto was his first truly important kill in his twelve year old body.

"One of ours was killed. With some blade." The ninja made a grotesque gesture at his throat. Naruto perked up, listening to the conversation more closely. "His neck was twisted... all.. the way... around. Scary, huh?"

"Security has gone up." another said, reporting the information professionally without a change in expression. He, apparently, didn't share the horrified enthusiasm for the mysterious murder. "More ANBU forces are patrolling the streets." In a year or so, he would most likely be a part of one of those ANBU forces. Naruto could just tell by his stance.

"Oh well." Naruto sighed, his arms crossing behind his head. He turned back to Sasuke and Sakura, who had been walking with him to one of the training areas. Sasuke, antsy and nervous even though he wouldn't admit it, had demanded a spar and Naruto had all too willingly agreed. "No way we'll be able to sneak a fight in now, Sasuke." Sasuke made a low murmuring agreement, his dark eyes narrowed at the men they had been eavesdropping on.

Sakura, having followed to referee the fight, was appalled at their lack of shock or fear. "You're going to brush it off so easily?" she hissed, her green eyes wide. Her hands were shaking. "There's a killer on the loose!"

The town square was more crowded than usual as people were undoubtedly gossiping about the dead body that had been neatly displayed on a roof. It was slung over one of the industrial buildings, on its stomach and barely in one piece, completely drained of blood from two cuts that had nearly separated the head and upper torso from the lower body. The neck of the corpse had been broken postmortem and twisted until it made an 180 degree turn.

Anyone with half of a brain could read behind the positioning of the body. It said quite clearly 'Watch your back'. And to make matters more confusing, a message had been scrawled messily on roof top with the dead ninja's blood.

It read,  
_A traitor silenced,  
An enemy turned friend,  
A revolution begins._

No one knew who the message was for, but, then again, not many people knew of it. The ANBU kept it quiet. The only reason why Naruto knew was because he had a firsthand account.

_An expected and welcome surprise._ Kyuubi said, still chewing over the conversation. He sounded caught between being amused and being thoughtful. It was his idea to send along the message, much to the annoyance of Naruto, who just wanted to leave as quickly as possible, his instincts screaming that an enemy was still around.

Kyuubi, all at once giddy at his newfound freedom, gleeful with his first kill, and annoyed with Naruto for being a killjoy, had ignored him and promptly sat down to write it. His reasoning behind the vague message was that uncertainty bred paranoia and panic. He went on a long spiel about psychological manipulations and simply subtleties of experienced master minds, clearly enjoying the sound of his voice, which was a few tones lower than Naruto's despite Kyuubi inhabiting a kage bunshin that was supposed to an exact imitation.

Naruto stopped the rant easily, complaining that Kyuubi's idea of subtlety was stomping on his enemies with all of the grace of an elephant. Kyuubi had been suitable derailed from his message, very offended by his host's opinion. He sulked, he sneered, and he stomped, but Naruto eventually got him to move away from Kabuto's corpse.

They still had a few hours to kill because they still weren't sure how to end the jutsu, so they wandered around Konoha for a while, mostly silent and contemplative. Kyuubi was annoyed that Naruto wouldn't do any more to the body, considering that his human hated the late traitor with more passion than Kyuubi thought possible. Naruto was annoyed that Kyuubi couldn't see death as it was: an end to things.

There was no sense in defacing the body of a dead man, even if there was hatred for the person that the body used to be._ "When you're dead, you're dead."_ Naruto had told Kyuubi stubbornly with a shake of his head. "_Justice- or my preemptive brand of it, anyway- has been served."_

Another reason why Kyuubi grew even more annoyed in those late hours was the lack of joy Naruto had for the kill. When the blond killed, he attached words like _duty_, _job,_ _have to, need to_, and, worst of all, _for the sake of the wellbeing of others, I must kill this person_.

Where was the passion? The thrill of the hunt? The triumph and distinct pride in finally catching the kill and bringing it down? Kyuubi had felt his pleasure in killing Kabuto turn to ash in his mouth when he felt those damn honor bound words through the faint mental link the demon still shared with his host. Only bland satisfaction and a fleeting feeling of peace before a flash of something that made Kyuubi grind his teeth together.

For killing someone who would betray Konoha over and over again, someone who would aid an enemy into immortality, someone who was probably at the forefront of turning and twisting of Sasuke's psyche, Naruto seemed bound and determined not to be happy about it. In fact, he almost felt guilty.

_Yes._ Naruto said cautiously, testing the temperature of Kyuubi's anger and finding that it was not as dangerous as the night before. _Very welcome._

**A message meant to ward off one leads to the increased defense of another.** Kyuubi, explaining again why he had done it as if repeating the same explanation over and over again could get it through his thick host's skull. **They're already calling ninjas back from their missions, aren't they?**

_Undoubtedly._ Naruto nodded, still cautious but not understanding. The demon bared his teeth in vain, feeling that Naruto humoring him was almost as bad as his look alike sealing him, the great kitsune demon, to a screaming brat. Well, he had to admit, that was a little exaggerated. 

**Think of it, Naruto!** Kyuubi pushed forward stubbornly. **Snake-boy will be expecting a hard time with just half of the ninjas here. Imagine how much harder it will be with all of them!**

_Our job will be much easier_. The blond agreed mildly, but the demon could feel Naruto already moving on to other thoughts, namely what he was going to do when Orochimaru signaled for the attack to begin. Though entertained briefly by Naruto's heartfelt whim to jump up to the Hokage box and kick Orochimaru's face in, Kyuubi frowned at some of the shaky strategies.

**Yet... you would make it harder by saving the old monkey?** He asked, genuinely confused. **He's not as good of a leader as that-**

_I'll save who I can, do what I can, and defeat who I must._ Naruto snapped, his thoughts suddenly zooming being a protective barrier. _And I will not sacrifice anyone that I don't have to, even if it doesn't bode well for the future._

**What happened to your conviction to let the old man die?** Kyuubi pressed, trying to be gentle but knowing that he was about to lose his temper. The old man wasn't worth the risk it would take to get him out of danger.

_It died when I remembered how much he took care of me even when no one else would._ Naruto said firmly. _When I couldn't pay the rent on my apartment, he paid it for me. When I couldn't afford food, he'd buy me groceries and put them in my kitchen in secret. When I was miserable, he made me feel better. I am not sacrificing the old man, Kyuubi! Not even if Tsunade is the Hokage we need. If this compromises our mission... well... then I'll defeat Orochimaru! No one close to me will die!_

Kyuubi, realizing the train of Naruto's thought, quickly grew alarmed. Did Naruto really think he could best one of the three legendary senins? Didn't he even remember the war, where he could only fight toe to toe with Orochimaru just long enough for everyone else to retreat?

If Naruto went into battle believing that he was the only one who had a chance against the snake like ninja, then Naruto was simply handing over his ass on a platter. No amount of sealed chakra or borrowed youki could save Naruto once he had caught the Sound leader's attention.

**Naruto, you can't-**

Kyuubi was shut off from Naruto's mind. 

----

Sasuke and Sakura had unconsciously gravitated to Naruto when they spied his bright blond hair in the crowd and had been surprised on each other's dependence on the blond before they both backtracked and realized that they were hypocrites.

Naruto smiled indulgently at Sakura's outburst, shaking his head at her worry. "In case you forgot, Sakura-chan..." he reminded gently. Sasuke smiled secretly, finding Sakura's worry amusing as well. The way she made it seem was like their life was suddenly a mystery novel. He wouldn't have been surprised if Sakura indulged herself in those sorts of books. 

Naruto carried on, ignoring Sasuke's inattention. "Every one of us is a killer. Most of us, already." His eyes moved to meet Gaara's. The red head was standing not too far away, his arms crossed over his chest while he listened in on their conversation without attempting to hide it. "Some of us, eventually." Sasuke and Sakura's attention turned to Gaara when they realized who Naruto was staring at.

Gaara's stern expression did not falter though Sasuke could have swore something shifted behind his eyes. "I didn't-"

"I know. Kabuto was killed with a blade, not with sand." Naruto smiled, his eyes no longer glinting of kindness but of knowledge. "Don't take credit for something you didn't do." 

Sasuke looked between the two, his hands at fists by his sides. It was rare that a strong enemy ignored him in favor of Naruto. Not only was the blond uncommonly good at hiding his true level of chakra (a level that Sasuke was embarrassed to admit that he hadn't been able to provoke out of Naruto yet), but his easy smile and cheerful features made people underestimate him.

_They don't know who they're dealing with until his gaze turns cold._ Sasuke reminisced sadly. Sasuke remembered bleakly that Naruto had killed someone the survival exam, apparently, but Naruto wouldn't talk about it nor was Sasuke there at the time.

He hadn't seen shift from happy blond to ruthless ninja in a long time, probably since the mission in Wave Country, but Naruto had seemed unstable back then, more prone to coldness than the warmth that Sasuke was used to. Everything back then seemed so fake about Naruto, from his smiles to the way that he dealt with his longtime friends.

Naruto had just seemed so... _uncomfortable_.

As Sasuke mused over Naruto's past behaviors with only a half of an ear on the conversation at hand, Gaara faced down his prey, cold green eyes fixed with a calm blue stare that dared him to try something in public. Gaara, at least, knew better. Too many of Konoha's ANBU force were patrolling around, even in broad daylight.

Gaara stared at Naruto for a long moment, his eyes fixed on Naruto's face. He seemed to see something in the other host's eyes that amused him, for a brief smile broke out on his face, startling the two standing with Naruto.

"Is that so?" Gaara tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing even as his expression remained amused. The humor, so obviously dark but enough to put that odd smile on Gaara's face, put Sasuke and Sakura on edge. But the demon host only had eyes for Naruto. "Well, damn. You ruined my dreams of an epic battle between good and evil."

The sarcasm in his voice was cutting. The red haired demon host was trying to get a rise out of Naruto. But no matter how much the boy tried, it seemed like his words bounced off of a wall of indifference.

Or perhaps not indifference. Tolerance would fit in as well. Gaara's humor faded when he realized that Naruto probably pitied him because of his situation. But before he could get worked up in anger over it, he realized that Naruto's eyes were not full of pity. If anything, those blue eyes were full of tolerance and impatience.

"Not everything is defined by good and evil, my friend." Naruto said smoothly. His eyes narrowed at Gaara's sudden scowl, ignoring the elbow at his side, not about to tell Sakura anything. Whatever Gaara had gleaned from Naruto's expression wasn't something he was going to reveal to his teammates, apparently. Sasuke was especially bitter about that.

"Is that so..." Gaara said again, his voice quieter. He was no longer amused or even angry. In place of either emotion was a sense of child like curiosity that was out of place with the subject matter. "How many lives have you destroyed?"

"Depends on your point of view." Naruto replied evasively. Sensing his teammates paying closer attention, he quickly moved to make the reference more vague. "Human beings on a general scale tend to destroy each other's lives. Some with reason, some just because they can. I cannot say that I am not guilty of this either."

Gaara's head tilted to the side. Sasuke realized, with a surprised jolt, that the seemingly insane genin from Suna was seriously listening to what Naruto was saying. "Would you say there was reasoning behind your actions?" the red head asked carefully, the expression on his face tense as if Naruto was about to reveal the secret of life but would not do so unless the question was proposed properly.

"Of course." Naruto shrugged, either not noticing Gaara's attentive gaze or not caring. "I wouldn't be able to do it without a reason. I'm not fond of attacking or fighting senselessly. I may have been when I was younger, but I'm not now."

The tense expression on Gaara's face disappeared. Amusement once again appeared on his face. "Good." he said simply. He turned away. "Then it will no longer be about good and evil. It will simply be reasoning verses insanity." Sakura shivered, wondering why Gaara seemed so pleased by that.

"Why do you say that?" Sakura said, taking a step forward. "You might not even fight Naruto!"

Gaara turned around and suddenly Sakura remembered why her mouth had stayed cemented shut during Naruto and Gaara's entire conversation. Gaara's eyes were just too intense to look at for long, especially when that gaze was directed right at you.

"Naruto and I..." Gaara drawled slowly, his eyes focusing on Sakura with an intent that made Sasuke's hackles rise. "I won't go as far as to say our fight is destined, but I will say that I will kill anyone who stands between us and our fight. Even you, _Sakura._"

Her eyes wide at the dangerous tone directed at her, Sakura backed up rapidly, jumping when Sasuke's back appeared right in front of her. The shape of the clan symbol soothed her with it's familiarity. She stepped up closer to Sasuke's back but didn't move to get out from behind Sasuke.

"You think too highly of yourself." Naruto murmured, his calm and easy posture at odds with the varying battle ready and extremely nervous feelings of his team mates behind him. Despite that infuriating indifference to the threat of the red head, Sasuke couldn't help but notice that Naruto had very firmly planted himself between them and Gaara, the fingers of his right hand loose in the position where it would only take a fraction of a second to whip out a kunai. Sasuke relaxed a little.

"Ninja culture as a whole is viewed to be somewhat insane. You alone don't hold the title." Naruto continued, ignoring his team in favor of Gaara. The red head simply stared at him frigidly, his eyes holding no spark of warmth.

"Hmph. Ninja culture... is something that I plan on eradicating from the continent. Along with every living person who is not myself." Gaara's flat words were chilling in more ways than one. Sasuke could understand the desire to have an ambition. He could even understand wanting to kill someone.

_But, to desire to kill everyone? What for?_ Sasuke was irked by this irrational idea. And, if he would just admit it, he was afraid as well. _He's twelve, maybe thirteen, and he already has that kind of blood lust? What kind of village is Suna, anyway?_

"I have yet to see someone worse than me." With that parting shot, Gaara disappeared in a flurry of sand. His retreat could not be followed by the human eye, not even the sharingan, as Sasuke was annoyed to figure out.

Sasuke turned to Naruto, his red eyes narrowed on the deep rooted sorrow in his friend's eyes. "Why is he so interested in you?" the Uchiha demanded quietly, making it very clear he wasn't going to let Naruto dodge this question like he had been doing with the other ones.

Naruto glanced over at him and Sasuke remembered suddenly that Naruto didn't care about tones, subtle threats, or obvious demands. If he didn't want to say something, he would and could keep his mouth shut about it and no amount of cajoling could get it out of him.

But it seemed like Naruto wasn't going to clam up this time, as evidenced when Naruto dropped his gaze in submission and ran a hand through his hair. He was quiet for a moment, the air tense all around him.

"I'm... his prey." Naruto admitted finally, looking up with a pained look. "I have been for a while now." He shifted his gaze from Sasuke to Sakura, his eyes becoming a little frantic as he moved forward. Odd, Sasuke mused, that Naruto would only start worrying about Gaara once one of his friends was pulled into the mess. "Listen, you guys, stay away from him. He spoke the truth. He really is insane!" His eyes locked with Sakura. "He'd normally ignore someone who's not a challenge to him-" Even with Naruto's panic coating the words, Sakura still felt annoyance at the slight against her strengths or lack thereof. "-but he knows your name, Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke flinched, turning to look at Sakura with wide eyes even as Sakura stared at Naruto with incomprehension. He knew what Naruto meant without the other boy having to clarify. "That bastard followed you?" he snapped at a bewildered Sakura. 

"I don't... know." Sakura said with a shrug. "But who said he did? I mean, he could have picked up my name from anywhere, Sasuke-kun." She glared at Naruto for putting her in this position but Naruto did not waver.

"Yes, he could have picked up it anywhere." Naruto said softly. "But would he remember it?" He answered his own question with a rough shake of his head. "Not if you stood out in his mind. And, Sakura-chan..." Naruto bit his lip worriedly before he continued. "The ones who stand out in his mind usually are the ones who die first."

Sakura rapidly paled, realizing why Sasuke was so angry and Naruto was so panicked. Sasuke had been wary and Naruto had been vaguely cautious, but when Gaara had focused on her, their stances abruptly changed.

_My name... was a subtle threat._ Sakura realized slowly, starting to shake. _Would that boy... really use me to get at Naruto, or Sasuke, for that matter?_ She wasn't sure but Gaara had come across as a ruthless person. _Has he been following me this whole time, just so he'd have a weakness to exploit in Naruto?_

Various emotions fought for supremacy. One was terror that she had somehow gartered the attention of someone so dangerous. Another was shame that she would eventually end up helping Gaara bring her team down by simply existing, breathing, and continuing to be their greatest weakness.

"Sakura-chan." Sakura was jolted out of her thoughts when her shoulders were firmly grasped. She looked up, wondering if Naruto's eyes had always been so blue. They had, she remembered fuzzily, but she had always been staring at Sasuke and ignoring Naruto to the best of her ability.

Sakura realized, with an ashamed gulp, that she barely remembered Naruto from the Academy at all, the only memories of him coming forth was when he was making a fool of himself in front of the class. But, with those few instances aside, Naruto might have just as well not even been there, for as much attention Sakura paid to him.

And yet, all of that attention, that gaze she knew she didn't even deserve, was focused on her, sincerity, concern, and protectiveness so clear on his face. _Gaara wants to kill him._ Sakura realized, starting to shake. _And I... I'm still so horrible, and now I'm this huge burden on him! _

"Sakura-chan." Naruto murmured again when he realized that Sakura was drifting off again. He tightened his grip on her shoulders, trying to control his own instinctive reaction to the threat on his friend while trying to comfort her at the same time. He decided to tell her the truth. "I'd die for you." Her head snapped up and a soft exhale passed her lips at the words.

Naruto smiled sadly at her, then glanced at Sasuke over his shoulder. The Uchiha stood still, his expression giving nothing away. The blond turned back to Sakura. "You're the sister I never had." he said firmly. "And if something happened to you... I... I wouldn't know what to do." For the first time ever, Sakura heard vulnerability in Naruto's voice. It shook her to the core. Naruto straightened, letting go of her shoulders even as a look of stubborn determination took over his face.

"I don't want to kill Gaara, Sakura-chan." he said bluntly. "I don't really even want to fight him. I... _understand_ him. I could wish no more harm on him than I could wish harm on myself." Naruto's eyes narrowed even as his mouth pulled into an unhappy frown. "But, to save you, I'd kill him without a second thought." He glanced over his shoulder again. "I do it to save you too, you surly bastard."

Sakura watched Sasuke blink rapidly and felt a wave of empathy. The Uchiha, however, took this in much easier than Sakura had, simply nodding in response. "We can't let that guy intimidate us with threats." Sasuke murmured, scowling at the area where Gaara had stood. 

"Yeah." Naruto turned back to Sakura. "We're a team. Whether it's one of us out there, or all of us... we're still all in this together. We're friends, family, and a unit, forever and ever until death rips us apart." The blond's softly spoken words echoed in the silence between them, the words wrapping their way into the genins' brains and hooking in savagely.

"...you utter _sap_." Sasuke said after a whole minute. At once, the tension left. Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke while the Uchiha simply smirked. Sakura sighed shakily and gave them a weary smile.

"I don't know how I put up with you guys!" She tried a scolding tone but it was out shined by her growing smile. Her team mates turned to her, identical looks of relief and fondness on both of their faces. Sakura felt true happiness burst inside of her.

_I never want this to go away._ She suddenly thought, awakening a fierce desire to protect this fragile sense of unity amongst the people that she cared about the most. _Naruto, Sasuke... I would be lost without you. And Gaara or no Gaara, I won't let this slip through my fingers. Not now, not ever._

Sakura had no idea how closely her thoughts paralleled the true desires of Naruto, the only person who knew exactly what their friendship would have to endure in the future.

----

Baki stopped ten miles outside of Konoha, glancing over his shoulder with a frown. Several minutes later, the chuunins caught up with him, all looking weary and worn out. Seeing time to rest, they immediately took it, some even dropping down to lie on the grass.

"H-how... can you do this, sir?" one of them asked, panting as she looked up at the jonin. Her voice was tinged in awe. Baki inclined his head slightly, allowing this distraction.

"I went a lot slower yesterday." he admitted quietly, not mentioning that his pace the day before would have put a marathon runner to shame. The best way to deal with younger people was to not discourage them about their limits. "I'm pushing you guys right now because I want to get back to Konoha. I apologize, but there's no time. I would give you all soldier pills but I do not have enough."

"And you, sir?" The murmured concern was almost a solid thing. The jonin couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable with it. It had been a long time since someone had bothered to care.

Baki's glance shifted over to the one who spoke. "I'm still effected from the pill I took last night. I need to rest, but I can do that later." He deliberately ignored the looks of concern that the chuunins shared with each other. As far as he was concerned, they should be more worried able their own welfare in the battle to come than whether or not he was tired.

_I can be tired later_. Baki thought stubbornly. With that thought, he was suddenly reminded of Gaara during one of their earlier missions. Gaara had no sympathies for his sibling's fatigue, merely saying that rest was for the dead. _That certainly stopped their whining._ Baki thought with a sad smile.

He straightened, new energy running through him. He had to make it back to Konoha, even if the chuunins had to crawl there in an attempt to follow. Their village's wellbeing rested upon it as well as the wellbeing of the genins he had left behind in enemy territory.

"I'm going." he said softly, his words almost carried away by a gust of wind. The chuunins, as a group, rose in response, making no attempt to hide their fatigue but not complaining about it either.

"As are we, sir." The chuunins looked at him with newfound enthusiasm and a determination to carry on even though the trip could carry them into the ground. Baki struggled for words but none would come. There was nothing he could say to soften the blow of betrayal still stinging in their veins, nor was there anything he could say to bring their spirits up.

What ever happened would happen and, outside of their own small contributions, there was little they could do in the long run. However, as does every lonely person staring into the abyss of the unknown, Baki knew it was comforting to know there was people by his side.

---- 

Hinata slipped on her shoes, mindlessly following the routine she followed everyday. _First left foot, then right foot. Stand and tap feet to make sure the sandals completely on._ Her sandals were several sizes too big but Hinata didn't want to trouble anyone by complaining about it. _Adjust forehead protector. _It always twisted around her neck awkwardly when she leaned over.

_And then..._ She stood, frozen for a moment when she couldn't remember what she had to do next. A brief surge of panic ran through her. _No, don't think._ Thinking was bad, thinking made her remember things_, oh no, Hanabi really hated her and wished that she would die already didn't she? _

Hinata stiffened, forcibly calming herself by wrapping her mind in a thick cocoon of ignorance and denial. _Just forget about it_. She told herself soothingly. _The less you're around to be hated, the less you'll be hated, right?_ It was sad logic but Hinata clung to it desperately.

_Walk out the door, Hinata._ She commanded herself, and did, closing the door behind her with a firm snap. She paused as a breeze tossed her short hair up in the air and, once the last strand of hair had settled down, started walking away from the Hyuuga home.

Her arms wrapped around her midsection in a paltry attempt to sooth herself, one of the loneliest hugs Hinata had ever been a part of, topped only by the hug she had tried to give her sister. Just the reminder of Hanabi made Hinata's shoulders sag.

It hurt so much to know her sister hated her, and for a reason that Hinata could scarcely understand. _She hates me because of the attention I receive?_ Hinata shook her head, a bitter smile on her face. _What attention? No one notices me. When they think of a Hyuuga, they think of Neji or Hanabi, people with boundless amounts of potential. I'm the bad seed, the weak link in the chain. I receive no attention because people would rather ignore my presence and pretend my weakness hasn't stained the honor of our clan_.

Hinata thought about the battle to come where she would have to stand face to face with Naruto, the one person in the world that she valued more than anything, and felt even worse. And she would have to watch his confusion, his rising indignation, then his outright anger. _Perhaps he would learn to hate me, just like Hanabi._

In through her self pity, the light of reason burned through her emotions. Hinata shook her head with a soft but sad laugh, wiping at tears at the corners of her eyes. _No, I won't allow this to taint Naruto._ She thought, immediately banishing all thoughts of Naruto hating her for her weakness. _He might be irritated that he has to waste his time with me, but he won't hate me for it. At the most, he'll pity me._ She wondered why the thought of his pity irritated her more than the thought of his hate saddened her.

Her hands clenched tightly and her back stiffened. With some effort, she forced her arms away from her body, her posture straightening immediately. _I will not forfeit._ She vowed firmly in her mind. _Not at Temari's suggestion, not at the face of my own trepidation, and definitely not at the face of the unknown. I will do this and I will show Naruto, one way or another, that I am strong and that I am not someone to be pitied. _

_I will not be shunt aside, not this time. This time, Naruto, I will have your full attention and I plan on taking advantage of it._ Her eyes narrowed. _And I don't intend on waiting for tomorrow to show you this.  
_  
She took a determined step forward and paused when she heard a curious growling noise coming out of nowhere. Hinata promptly blushed, her hand rising over her stomach. _That's all good and well._ She thought sheepishly. _But perhaps breakfast should be my first priority._

----

The current heir of the Hyuuga clan, the youngest daughter of Hyuuga Hiashi, and possibly one of the most talented children of her age aspiring to be a ninja, stared moodily at the wall and was tempted to eat with her mouth open, if only to get a reaction out of her father. Hiashi was being more silent than usual.

Or maybe Hanabi just wanted to believe that he was being more silent. She wished he was the talkative sort, one that would chatter about inane things to distract her so she didn't have to think about being guilty. But Hiashi said what was needed and nothing more.

With a soft sigh, Hanabi's shoulders slumped, an action she knew had caught the attention of her ever silent father but he again said nothing, giving her nothing to use to pull away from the memories of the night before.

_Always, 'Let's hear what you're feeling, Hanabi!' or 'How are you, Hanabi?'._ Hanabi scowled. _Yet the one time I let out what I am feeling, I end up feeling bad about it! What was the point of admitting to it at all?_

Of course, she didn't _really_ say how she felt. No, if Hinata knew that Hanabi was _envious_ of her... well, Hanabi wouldn't be able to look at herself again in the mirror. So she moved around the topic, explaining _why_ she was envious of her sister, just not what she was feeling at all.

Hanabi had a feeling that her deliberately vague admission, though it had made her feel good for a fraction of a second, hadn't really helped at all. Everyone was still going to act like she was a snake to be admired but never touched while Hinata couldn't have more people liking her even if she was a sweet eyed and fluffy bunny.

_Snakes eat rabbits_. Hanabi thought viciously for a moment before that thought too began to hurt her. Irritation at feeling guilt for the smallest things stirred up in her chest before it died down to a low calm, allowing Hanabi to drift back to the source of her quickly changing emotions.

Hanabi couldn't believe how much her admission had hurt Hinata. Her sister's eyes had gone wide and dull, her face slackened and paled. Then she had nodded at Hanabi, her eyes shuttered and blank as she walked away.

By not admitting to her jealousy, Hanabi, with a moment of heart wrenching agony, realized that Hinata probably thought that Hanabi hated her. _And that's not it!_ That was the only only positive thing that came out of yesterday's meeting. Hanabi now knew that she didn't really hate her sister.

Hanabi knew her harsh words had not been forgotten. Perhaps swept underneath the carpet for now, but not forgotten. This was why she was so surprised to see Hinata at the table during breakfast.

"Good morning, Father, Hanabi." Hinata said softly as she walked in. Hanabi looked up in surprise but Hiashi nodded towards his daughter silently. This indifferent reaction reminded Hanabi suddenly of her jealousy.

Had it been she who had been late to breakfast, she would have been scolded about the correct behavior of a privileged child of an elite clan. She would have been put down and then ordered to do extra training. All Hinata got in response to her bending of the rules was a simple nod.

Before Hanabi could get worked up about it, she realized that Hinata was sending Hiashi a nervous look, almost as if she was expecting Hiashi to say something. Though aware of his daughter's gaze, Hiashi said nothing.

It set a very tense mood for the rest of breakfast.

The awkwardness of the meal was do to the fact that Hanabi had become accustomed to only dining with her father. Hinata rarely showed up for meals nowadays, choosing to either eat out with her friends, or eat at another time. Of course, there was still Hinata's several week long absence that had gone by unexplained.

"May I be excused?" Hinata asked softly after she had poked at her food for a moment. With that same worried frown Hiashi had worn all morning, he gave her permission to leave. 

Somehow, even with Hinata's absence and the return to normalcy, the tense mood only worsened. Hanabi refrained from cringing. Hiashi had most likely overheard their conversation last night.

After a moment, his voice crashed through the silence. "The reason why I let your sister have leeway is because she has proved her independence." he said quietly, putting his chopsticks down. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked over at her with very stern eyes.

"What?" Hanabi asked stupidly, confused at the sudden words. She blinked, quickly remembering Hinata but still bewildered at how her meek sister had shown her independence.

"When you told her to leave, she left." he said simply. Sensing her confusion, he explained more. "She did not try to argue your command, since she had already labeled you as the true heir in her mind. But she did not grovel for you to change your mind. Even though she obeyed your order, which you had no grounds to give by the way, she followed it without bending her head to you or begging for help, thus showing even in her obedience that she is quite capable of taking care of herself."

Hanabi remembered wanting her sister to grovel and flushed red with embarrassment. After a moment of watching his youngest daughter squirm, Hiashi continued. "She lived on her own for several weeks, perhaps depending on the kindness of a friend for a while, but the important thing is that she lived independently of the Hyuuga clan and proved to have little need to demand things of the clan." he said calmly. "I am willing to compromise with an adult, but I will not compromise with a child."

"An adult!" Hanabi looked up, her eyes flashing. "She wasn't being mature, she ran away-" Hiashi cut in.

"It is not rebellion that gives her leeway, it is independence. You follow my every order, my every rule. You have yet to even once break curfew." Hanabi was proud of this. She was a good daughter. "And this is a good thing for a ninja. But... you are a puppet. A puppet is dependent entirely on it's master." Hiashi slowly shook his head. "Hyuugas are not dependent on others to be strong. Hinata may have listened to your order, but she proved her independence. Thus I give her more privileges."

Hanabi was speechless. Somewhere inside of all the confusion and disbelief clouding her mind, there was a brief stinging pain to her pride. She didn't want to be known as a puppet. She just wanted... Her thoughts trailed off when she realized that she didn't even know what she wanted.

Hiashi allowed her to take this in, sedately drinking his tea. "When the time comes, I want my daughters to be able to function without me dictating their every action. _She_ reminded me of that. I realize you may think I favor Hinata over you." His eyes clouded over with nostalgia and his voice softened. "She looks so much like her mother. She acts like her mother as well. It's... hard not to be fond of her. She is a sweet child." His eyes cleared and focused on Hanabi. "I am proud of you. You are shaping out to be a powerful ninja that will make the Hyuuga name synonymous with greatness in the future. I have little doubt in your potential." 

Hanabi flushed with pride. She sat up a little straighter at the praise. This did not go unnoticed by Hiashi. His eyes narrowed a little in thought as he contemplated saying more. By the way he shifted, Hanabi could tell that he decided to go on.

"I... love you both." Hiashi said simply. Hanabi's eyes grew wide at the unfamiliar words, the declaration of love almost as alien as that awkward hug Hinata had imposed on her last night. "I could ask for no better set of daughters than you two and I do not want either of you to change. Thus I ask for you to help one another so you do not have to change." the hard look in his eyes softened. "Perhaps a... compromise is in order. Give Hinata some of your steel spine and let Hinata give you some of her softness... I will not live forever." He stood suddenly, looking down sternly at his daughter. "Learn to depend on few, if not just one. If you can manage to limit it to just one, then let that one be your sister."

Hanabi stared down at the table in silence for a moment, her shoulders hunched nearly up to her ears. Suddenly, as if all of the tension had flowed out of her like a stream of water, she stood, her eyes blazing with determination as she looked at her father.

Correctly guessing at his daughter's mindset, Hiashi smiled for the first time in a while. "Make me proud, Hanabi."

----

The jonin glared with indifferent anger at the two Konoha chuunins that barred his path. If someone really wanted to assassinate the Hokage, what difference would two chuunins do anyway? At least the Kazekage had surrounded himself with two of the strongest jonins in Suna.

Baki's anger flattened abruptly when he remembered that the Kazekage was dead while the Hokage was not. Perhaps it is best not to mock the one who lives. He admitted grudgingly.

He supposed that he could forgive the slightly condescending looks that the chuunins were giving him. He knew he wasn't looking his best. Baki was covered in a layer of sand and dirt, and he was fairly certain that he had a leaf stuck on the collar of his flak jacket. He was also swaying slightly on his feet, exhaustion born from hauling his way from Suna over to Konoha, making it over in a record of nine hours.

Baki, with some regret, left the sand chuunins behind, ordering them to disperse and quietly inform the other sand nins of their leader's murders, once they reached Konoha. As the highest ranking ninja that knew of the murder and coming attack, it was Baki's sole duty to inform the Hokage. Once that was accomplished, Baki would allow himself to keel over but not before them.

"I need to speak to the Hokage." Baki said humbly. Before they could question him, he spoke again. "It's a matter of life and death." The chuunins looked at him for a moment, their eyes darting distrustfully towards his forehead protector before one of them relented and went into the Hokage's office.

He was back in less than a moment, making Baki thank all the powers that be that the Sandaime of Konoha was a benevolent man. Just a day ago, Baki would have sneered at it. "He will see you now."

Baki walked into the office, his footsteps sounding heavily against the floor. He was so tired. The worried look of an elderly man swam in and out of his vision before Baki got a hold of himself and straightened. He hadn't even registered the sound of the door closing.

"Do you need a medic nin?" the Hokage asked softly, his eyes concerned under the wide hat marking a powerful Kage. Baki stared at him for a moment, wondering if the man was senile enough to not notice that he was from Suna and not from Konoha. Sarutobi's next words promptly killed that thought. "I don't doubt that Suna has powerful medic nins of your own, but Konoha has medic nins right here. I could fetch one for you, if you like."

Baki stared at him again, this time in incredulously. He shook his head lightly, as if to purge himself of his shock, then took several steps forward until he was right in front of the Hokage's desk. "What I need, Hokage-sama, is for you to listen to what I have to tell you. I also need for you to realize beforehand that all of my people were simply following orders. Please do not blame them for this."

The Hokage's gaze sharpened. Baki could now see the powerful ninja behind the grandfatherly appearance. "You sound if there has been some crime committed." Sarutobi said slowly, his eyes narrowing. "Was it an order to kill Yakushi Kabuto?"

Baki blinked. He didn't know Kabuto was dead. "Hokage-sama..." He started a few sentences and stopped them midway. He shook his head. "Hokage-sama, you should thank whoever kill Kabuto. He did you a big favor."

"Kabuto was a genin, not much more than a child. He did not deserve to have his life snuffed out so early." Sarutobi's voice was chilling with just enough warning to make Baki pause a moment. But only a moment. Baki was more committed to his cause than he was worried about what the Hokage could do to him.

"Kabuto was a traitor. He was the liaison between Suna and Oto, and for that, I could tell you he was not loyal to your village." Baki said quietly. "He fed information to our ally, Oto. Oto seeks to... liberate Konoha of as many powerful ninjas as possible, mostly by getting them young." He could see a look of incomprehension forming just underneath Sarutobi's cold stare. He dangled the bait. "I heard that one of Oto's goals was to liberate a child called Uchiha Sasuke from you."

Sarutobi's eyes widened. Baki knew he had the old man snared. "Tell me what you know." The jonin had to admire that the Hokage could demand without even seemingly like he had made one. But he wasn't so easily swayed.

"Before I do, I want a promise that Konoha considers Suna as an ally." Baki said firmly. "What I am about to reveal to you might deal a blow to Konoha's pride, but it could totally _destroy_ Suna. I don't want that to happen to my village." He waved a hand dismissively. "This also would put us at odds with Oto, but I'm not so worried about them as much I am worried about their leader."

The Hokage gazed at him for a long moment before pulling out a fresh piece of paper. He scribbled something out before stamping it with the Hokage seal and then passed it over to Baki. The jonin watched this with wide eyes. He hadn't expected for the Hokage to actually make a contract. Contracts were legally binding, after all, and that would require that Konoha stay true to it.

_Well, I'm not against that at all_. Baki read it over closely, knowing that he wasn't exactly the right person to negotiate alliances but also knowing that their village was weakening, wavering without a true leader. If that meant he had to, at least in a small way, act as Suna's leader, then so be it.

Finding it satisfactory, he signed it and gave it back to Sarutobi. The Hokage took it back without a word, performed a few hand seals, then handed Baki the copy created with the jutsu. _I have to learn that_. Baki watched with wide eyes, finally realizing why they called this Kage the 'Professor'. He knew a lot of jutsus, apparently even ones that could copy a message from one paper over on to another with little difficultly and no signs of being temporary.

Baki looked up from the copy, nodding seriously towards the older man and feeling his respect for him rise a notch. The Hokage leaned forward, his dark eyes serious.

"I fear I might have already guessed as to who the leader of Oto is." Sarutobi began, something like regret passing over his eyes before they hardened in resolve. "But I'd like for you to tell me anyway."

"According to some of my contacts in Oto, their leader is a powerful ninja who calls himself Orochimaru." Baki said simply and watched how the old man's face crumpled. The jonin swallowed, having no idea how much a name could effect a person.

The Hokage abruptly stood, walking over to the window, where he gazed over Konoha. Baki shifted nervously. The man stood with his back to him, which could mean one of two things. Either Sarutobi trusted him not to attack while his back was turned, or it was a subtle gesture to show that Sarutobi was strong enough to not have to worry about exposing his weaknesses to a potential enemy.

"Tell me more." the Hokage asked softly. And so Baki did, starting with the death of their true Kazekage, and following up with the equally devastating blow of the revelation of the upcoming attack. He went into detail, revealing each and every one of the plans he knew of the invasion and naming traitors, such as the late Kabuto, who had aided their cause.

And Baki was too tired to care that the Hokage's shoulders hunched over every time Baki revealed another betrayal or another angle of attack. His duty was complete and, once he had recited everything he could think of, he welcomed the darkness that crowded his vision and dragged him into the world of slumber.

---- 

It was surprisingly hard to find Naruto. Hinata rubbed the back of her neck, wondering why she had thought it would be easy. With a sheepish smile, she promptly remembered that Naruto was a loud boy and noise traveled far. But she had neither seen nor heard the blond. She was almost on the verge of giving up.

Then Hanabi, seemingly randomly, rounded the corner, heading straight for her. Hinata instinctively looked for a hiding stop but there was no point. They were on one of the roads to the gates of Konoha, at an inactive part that rarely saw more than three people at any time of day. 

Hinata sighed, turning to her sister with an unconsciously wounded look that made her younger sister flinch, then harden with resolve. The little girl stopped right in front of her, barely two steps and an arms length away.

Hinata watched her sister warily, her hands up against her chest in an instinctive defensive position that she had perfected long ago. Hanabi looked back at her, her chin raised proudly.

It was the younger of the two who broke the silence. "I'm envious of you because everyone likes you." Hanabi began strongly, her words coming out fast. It was better to rip off a band aid quickly rather than pull it off slowly, she had reasoned. "I don't hate you. It was wrong of me to make you think that." After a moment of silence, Hanabi realized it wasn't enough. "I really don't hate you! I don't think anyone could. I..." Here, Hanabi scowled. She didn't want to come out like Hiashi had and say it, but she _did_ love her sister. "You're okay, I guess." She turned her head away and crossed her arms over her chest, her nose up in the air. "You could have been worse, I suppose."

Hinata stared at her sister, trying very hard not to smile. It would only insult her proud little sister and that wouldn't be right, not after the girl had put aside her ego to apologize. Even though she never really did say 'I'm sorry'. Hinata's grin threatened to split her face.

Hanabi glanced through the corner of her eye, immediately suspicious of the other girl's amusement. "Why are you smiling?" she demanded, her arms dropping to her sides. "Do you dare to laugh at me?"

Hinata couldn't help it. She started to laugh. Hanabi glared at her heatedly for a moment before shifting her gaze away. A small unhappy frown formed on her lips.

"...it's alright." she whispered, her hair hiding her face. "It's no less than I deserve, after how I've treated you." That immediately stopped Hinata's helpless amusement.

"Oh, Hanabi." Her voice, if not her eyes, could not have spelled out her concern any clearer. "You really felt bad about this, didn't you?" Hinata moved forward slowly as Hanabi nodded. "It's alright, you know. Siblings fight all the time." Very carefully, she settled two arms around her sister's shoulders. Instead of fighting it this time, Hanabi leaned forward and pressed her forehead against Hinata's shoulder.

"I'm sorry." The words came easier when she didn't have to look in her sister's eyes. "I really am. I don't hate you, Hinata. You're my sister." Her arms trembled, as if she wanted to raise her arms and wrap them around her sister but she refrained against that odd impulse. "I am brat and you should smack me around. Even Father was disappointed in me."

Hinata made a soft noise of reassurance, cautiously running a hand through her sister's dark hair. When the girl didn't kick or bite, she did it again. "You spoke to him?" Hinata wasn't surprised. Hiashi could talk anyone into reason, yet he was completely blind to the lack of reasoning behind binding the Branch members with the seal. "What did he say?"

"He said that he l-loved us." Hanabi fumbled over the odd word. "He said that we should rely on each other." Hanabi thought it was safe to look up from her sister's shoulder. Hanabi was surprised to see Hinata smile sadly.

"I wish I could have had that sort of conversation with him." the genin murmured wistfully. "He doesn't like to talk like that too often. You're lucky to have been the focus of one of those instances." Hanabi felt lucky too, now that Hinata had pointed it out. She had never thought that Hinata could feel jealous over something like that.

Hanabi rushed to share as much of the conversation as she could with Hinata. She wished she could have turned back time and put Hinata in her place so that Hinata could have heard the reassurance that she had long desired from her father. But such an act was impossible so Hanabi was limited to describing it in words. "He said that you acted like an adult so he treats you like an adult. He sounded really proud that you were so independent. He also said that... I should give you some of my steel and you should give me some of your softness?" She hadn't understood what Hiashi had meant by that.

But, apparently, Hinata did. She pulled away, grabbing her sister's hand and tugging her back towards the center of town with a soft smile. "I think it's about time to show you that 'warmth' you're so envious of."

----

Hinata thought it was rather odd coincidence that the second she started thinking about friendship and happiness, Naruto appeared. She tried to feel irritated about it but every time she tried to grasp at the emotion, it flowed through her fingers, refusing to take hold. She was simply too pleased to see him, even while she felt uneasy while this close to their fight.

Naruto, within a few moments, had noticed here and, with a bright smile, started walking with them. He had greeted her with much enthusiasm and, without seeming to notice her unease, went on to ask who Hanabi was, even though Hinata was almost sure that Naruto knew exactly who the prim little girl was.

"This is my sister, Hyuuga Hanabi." Hinata said to him, lapsing into formality when she realized that familiarity was simply too uncomfortable. "Hanabi, this is my um..." Here, Hinata blushed, all noble thoughts of formality shattered, and Naruto, realizing why she was embarrassed, grinned widely and winked at her. "My f-friend... Uzumaki Naruto."

Trying to mimic Hinata's loose and non-defensive posture, Hanabi looked up at Naruto with solemn eyes. "Nice to meet you, Uzumaki-san." she said, a little stiffly. "I've heard much about you from Hinata." Her voice was low and very monotone.

Hinata sighed, figuring that Hanabi couldn't sound more like a robot even if she tried. Hinata had gently attempted to explain that some of Hanabi's mannerisms turned people away from her before they even got to know her but it seemed like the eight year old hadn't understood.

Naruto looked down at her, his head tilted to the side as he blinked slowly at the little girl. Hanabi stared back, unwilling to back down from anyone but too uncertain to say anything. Suddenly, Naruto grinned. "Aw, you're so cute!" he said, messing Hanabi's straight dark locks with one of his hands. "Like a little mini girl Neji! Only a hundred times cuter."

Hinata knew how much Hanabi hated to be treated like a kid, especially being related to the word 'cute'. According to Hanabi, 'cute' wasn't a Hyuuga word. Cringing at Naruto's oblivious actions, she waited for a cold retort from her sister. But it never came.

Hanabi stared up at Naruto, no longer as stiff as she was before. Several strands of her hair, messed up by Naruto's hand, fell in front of her eyes. Her pale cheeks were no longer the color of unmarked paper. They were, instead, a rosy red. Hanabi, for the first time in her life, was blushing.

"Um... well." If Hanabi was trying to imitate Hinata's nervous stutter, she was doing a very good impression. The sad truth of it was that the little girl wasn't really even trying. "That's... Thank you." 

Naruto smiled merrily at Hanabi's response. At that moment, a loud voice announced the arrival of one of the other students. An Inuzuka, characterized with the unique slashes down his face, was running to the Academy, laughing and jeering with another student.

Hanabi stiffened and glared. In a moment, the stiff and uncertain girl turned into the vision of a cold and perfect Hyuuga heir. Hinata was surprised and saddened by the sudden change but Naruto only looked on fondly.

The boy stopped right in front of them, a frown replacing the grin. The other student stopped behind him, curiosity in his gaze as he watched the Inuzuka glare at the younger Hyuuga. The younger Hyuuga, in response, sent the Inuzuka the coldest look on this side of the Arctic.

"Um…" Hinata discreetly elbowed her sister, smiling uncertainly at the Inuzuka. He looked up at her, his expression instantly clearing. "_Scowling isn't a way to endear someone to you._" Hinata remembered telling Hanabi on their walk. "_Neither is glaring, sneering, or acting superior._" Apparently, Hanabi hadn't remembered that particular lesson.

The Inuzuka's eyes brightened when they landed on the genin. "Oh, hiya Hinata!" the boy said warmly. "How are you?"

Hinata tilted her head to the side, wondering how the boy knew her. Then, with an embarrassed laugh, she remembered Kiba dragging her and Shino back to the Inuzuka home to meet his large extended family. "Hello." She said, smiling at what had to be one of Kiba's numerous cousins. "I am well. And you?"

The boy's eyes shined in excitement. "I'm gonna get a puppy soon." He said with a wide grin. "Just like Kiba's! We're gonna become hella strong, yeah!" Hanabi watched them converse with the sort of intense concentration of a spectator at a ping pong match.

In an attempt to do as Hinata instructed, she inserted herself in the conversation. "Is that so." She didn't phrase it as a question and it came out a little harshly. The Inuzuka narrowed his eyes, his hackles raised/

"Yeah! He'll be my best friend, best tool, and greatest ally all in one." The boy said defensively. "And everyone will have to watch out!" He swung his arm out in a sweeping half circle. Hanabi refrained from informing him that the movement was wasteful and unnecessary.

"That's nice." She said quietly, going for a neutral topic. "I like dogs." Hanabi pushed all of the sincerity into her words as she could, wanting the boy to see that she wasn't belittling him. After a moment, the boy's gaze softened. 

"Well, it is." he said, nodding several times. "Of course, if you want a puppy too, go ahead but I don't think any clan except the Inuzuka clan can bond with their dog like we can." The feral looking boy looked at Hanabi critically. "'Sides, I'd figure you more to be a cat person anyway."

Hanabi nodded solemnly, looked over her shoulder at Hinata as if to ask 'Am I doing this right?'. Hinata nodded with a wide smile. "I think... dogs have more uses than cats, anyway." the little girl said, keeping her voice mild as she carefully inserted her opinion.

The Inuzuka boy grinned. "Damn straight!" he said merrily, crossing his arms behind his head. "Cats are useless!" Hinata twitched. She liked cats.

A soft bell like sound chimed from the Academy, which was just up ahead. The Inuzuka boy and his friend turned to the sound. "Oh no, class is starting soon!" he shouted, starting to walk to the door. He glanced over his shoulder as an after thought. "Come on, Hyuuga!"

Hanabi slowly detached herself from Hinata, gazing up at her sister solemnly. Hinata smiled softly, patting her sister on the head. "Everything will be alright." she told her soothingly. "Just remember; not everyone will want to be your friend at once. Some of them you might not want as friends, some you might have to work at. But you will have friends, Hanabi. You just need to open your heart a little more."

Hanabi nodded slowly. "I want to have friends like yours." the girl said softly. She took a step back. "Good bye."

Hinata took a step back as well, understanding that her sister wanted to distance herself from her so she could find her own friends. "Good luck." Hanabi nodded again, then turned around and quickly walked towards the Academy doors. Hinata, with a heavy sigh, watched her go.

"She's an uptight little girl, isn't she?" Naruto mentioned softly, breaking the tense silence. Hinata jumped. She had forgotten that he was even there. Naruto pretended that he didn't notice. "She has the same look as Sasuke. You know, the vaguely uncomfortable look at having a stick shoved so far up your ass that you have trouble finding it?"

"Naruto-kun..." Hinata groaned, hiding her face in her hands. It was mostly to hide her smile, which she was certain was highly inappropriate. "She's my sister!

"And Sasuke might as well be my brother." Naruto said mildly. "It certainly doesn't mean that I don't like him." He looked over at her, smiling gently. "Even if he is the biggest jackass since the phrase was first coined."

"Hanabi is trying." Hinata defended softly, directing her gaze down again. Naruto glanced over at her, smiling a little at her bowed head.

"That's good." he said mildly. "Well, caring too much about people can drive someone crazy, but it's better than being apathetic, right?"

Hinata nodded, her eyes shifting away and locking on the sight of Naruto's old swing, barely two feet away. It was easy to forget her anxiety with facing and fighting Naruto while in the blond's presence, just as easy as it was to remember it. His familiar voice had her mind assaulted by a feeling of peace and content while the shadow his body cast reminded her of the next day's upcoming events. She didn't dare look at him directly.

"Hm..." Naruto stretched out his arms even as he made a contemplative noise, seeming to notice the swing at the same time she did. Her eyes betrayed her, darting to look at Naruto only to see the blond staring at her with a serious look, his eyes nearly piercing hers.

"What is it?" she asked, immediately worried. Hinata only tilted her head in confusion when Naruto suddenly laughed.

"My 'Hinata-is-uptight' senses are tingling." he said lightly, running his fingers over the frayed rope of his old swing.

Her reply was delivered in the most disgruntled voice he had ever heard from her yet. "Oh really? What gave you that idea?" As soon as the words left her mouth, her hands slammed over her mouth, a dark blush tainting her cheeks.

Naruto laughed, doing an impression of an angry cat. It only served to make Hinata even more embarrassed at her lack of tact. "I didn't think you knew the meaning of sarcasm." he bowed towards her, a smirk playing on his lips. "Thank you for proving me wrong."

Hinata felt miserable. She shouldn't have snapped at Naruto, it really wasn't his fault. Even though it kinda of _was_. "I'm sorry. Please, forgive my lapse in manners." she murmured, her hands tangling together in front of her.

There was a long moment of silence. "Hm... okay." Naruto reached out, pulling her hands away from each other. "On one condition." His grip tightened briefly on her wrists before he let them go to fall to her sides. "You have to tell me what's wrong."

"Why?" Hinata bit her lip. It could have been a question about anything but it also gave the one questioned the luxury of deciding how and what to answer. 

"So I can fix it." he said in a singsong voice, grinning widely. Hinata's eyes widened, then clouded over. She looked down, clasping one of her hands over her elbow.

"It's not something you can fix." Naruto looked a little hurt by that so Hinata rushed to explain. Naruto could ask her anything and she would answer, and she would do it to the best of her abilities, no matter what the situation was. She didn't see why that had to change now. "It's my fight... I don't think I'm ready to fight... _that_ person."

At the mention of the fights, Naruto seemed to perk up a little. "Why not?"he asked, genuinely confused. Hinata doubted that he ever felt nervous about going into battle. The way he was, he was probably unhappy without a conflict or two to make his life more colorful.

"I'm... not strong enough." Hinata mumbled. Her shoulder was poked, almost annoyingly so.

"Beep! Wrong, try again." Naruto announced in a singsong voice. Hinata smiled in spite of herself. Naruto was so silly sometimes.

"I guess... It's like this." She took a deep breath, careful not to look at Naruto, knowing she was essentially telling him why she didn't want to fight him. He didn't even know they were going to fight! "I respect this person more than _anyone_ else in the world. While I don't exactly mind the idea of fighting him, I'm scared that... he will laugh at me." She looked down at her shoes, feeling miserable at having to admit it out loud.

"Hinata-chan..." Naruto murmured. But Hinata didn't stop. It was like a dam had been released. Now that she started, she just couldn't stop until it was all out.

"I thought he knew he was going to fight me but apparently this fight means so little to him that he didn't even bother to check who he was going to fight." Hinata sounded downright miserable at this point and her words became more hurried. "If I lose, he'll look down at me for being that little girl who lost at such an easy stage. If I win, he'll hate me for pulling _him_ down. I... just don't know what to do!"

Naruto 'hm'ed for a moment. _That guy she has to fight sounds like Neji._ Naruto thought unhappily. _I thought she had gotten out of having to fight with him. Neji's a mean bastard when he wants to be._ Neji hadn't meant to but, with his fight against Hinata, he had closed off so many opportunities for her by weakening her inner coil system.

She had never properly recovered and that was half of the reason why she had died the night she pulled the poison from Naruto's body. Naruto had blamed Kabuto and, to a lesser extent, himself, for killing Hinata but had surged on, knowing that the girl had died so that he could live. He wasn't happy about it, sure, but he wasn't going to ignore her sacrifice by dying.

Neji, however, blamed himself solely for his cousin's death, even after Naruto tried to 'encourage' the moody ninja that it was better to hate Naruto than it was to hate himself. He had smiled sadly at Naruto then. "_You are a kind person, Naruto, to try and ease my suffering. But if there's anything I've learned from Hinata-sama, it is that it's not right to take my anger and revenge out on an innocent_."

Naruto sighed, tapping his foot against the ground. The only way to get her out of a fight like that would involve some risky maneuver that would end up getting himself disqualified from the exam. It wasn't so much that he didn't want to be disqualified, it was that he was afraid of what would happen in the event of his disqualification. _Gaara would be so pissed._ Naruto would rather have Hinata at the tender mercies of her cousin than at the feet of an insane demon. _At least I'm certain that I can beat Neji without too much trouble._

Wait. A sudden thought pulled him out of his worrying. _If she's fighting Neji, then who the hell am I fighting?_ He hoped it was Gaara._ I'd love to get that mess out of the way really quick._ Naruto realized that Hinata was looking at him oddly, so he moved to answer.

"The only way to win in a situation like that... would be to do nothing." Naruto said with a shrug. Hinata stiffened. Did he want her to forfeit? His next words answered that question. "But this is a fight, you simply can't back out, right? Your pride as a ninja and as a person is at stake. You want to impress this person but you don't want this person to hate you. You don't know whether to win or lose." Hinata nodded, glad he understood. To her surprise, Naruto suddenly pulled her around, sitting her on the swing she had spied him on so many times when they were younger, kneeling on one knee so she was forced to face him. 

"Wrong!" he announced again, before he turned serious. "Hinata-chan, since when has it ever been about winning or losing? Who cares! Fight to impress this person! Don't fight to win. Fight to win this person's respect, if you must, but no matter who the examiner calls out as the winner at the end of the fight, this is _your_ time to shine. People will be _watching_ you. You'll be in the spotlight. They'll look at you and see you as a potential chuunin." Where Naruto had sounded almost gleeful at all the attention, Hinata rapidly paled.

"I.. I d-didn't... oh my..." Hinata had completely forgotten that they were going to be watched by a large group of people. A bad situation suddenly became a lot worse. Her shoulders hunched over and she grasped firmly at the ropes holding the swing up, only to avoid fiddling with her hand because Naruto hated when she did that.

"Yes, I'm aware this is a little daunting." Naruto waved his hand dismissively, completely unconcerned. "That's why this match is so very important. But, if you think about it, it's not the end of the world. The lords? The Kages? The people deciding who's gonna be a chuunin? Hell, even this guy you're fighting?" he jerked his head, a wry smirk on his face. "Screw them. This is about _you_. It's about what you want to do. So, no matter what, don't regret it, okay? Do what you want to do and nothing less." He smiled at her brightly.

Hinata wasn't sure whether to laugh or to sob._ Come on, tell him!_ Her conscience raged. _He'll be mad if you don't tell him_. _And now he'll know that you knew! Tell him that you're fighting him tomorrow._ Hinata tried and tried to summon the words but they withered her throat.

Naruto frowned at the miserable look on her face. _Think think think_. He scowled inwardly. _What makes girls happy?_ He could only think of three things.

"Girls like the fluffy, right?" Hinata stared at him in bewilderment. "Well, it's either the fluff, the flowers, or the chocolate. I don't wanna go get flowers 'cause Ino's acting like I'm gonna keel over or something, and I don't have chocolate on me... Actually, chocolate sounds good right now." He was distracted for a moment before he pulled himself back to the present.

He smiled at the vague look of confusion on her face. "Fluffy it is." His hands rose in front of his chest, making rapid hand seals. "Henge no Jutsu!" With a puff of white smoke, Naruto disappeared. Startled, Hinata started to stand only to sit back down heavily when her lap suddenly became full of a bundle of fur.

She slowly started to realize the meaning behind Naruto's words, even as the fox shoved his head under her fingers, demanding to be petted. The fox was an adorable creature, all fluffy tan fur, a wagging tail, a dark black nose, and unusually blue eyes. Her fingers ran numbly through his thick fur just as she realized that she had Naruto in her lap.

Before she could have an unfortunate reaction, such as jumping up without thinking and dumping the fox to the ground, a low growl met her ears. Naruto must have heard it too because his ear flattened against his head.

It took a moment before Hinata could decipher the growl, which was actually quite human. "_Na-ru-to._"

Naruto yelped, his fur standing on end as Sakura rounded a corner, where she had evidently been watching them. Within moments, she had crossed the distance, picking up the fox by the scruff of his neck before Hinata could think to protest.

"Damn you, you pervert!" the genin shouted at the subdued fox. "Don't start trying to get _fresh_ with Hinata-san!" Without any warning, the jutsu dropped, forcing Sakura to let go of Naruto or to fall to the ground with him.

"U-um..." Hinata leaned forward, her hands shaking. Sakura was really scary when she was mad. "H-he wasn't... I mean, we-"

Sakura turned back to Hinata, her glare dying in a sweet smile. "Don't worry, Hinata-san." she said soothingly. "I'll protect you. I know about this perverts. You can't let them get away with anything." She turned back to Naruto, her fierce glare renewing itself. "Naruto, how _dare_ you try and take advantage of a sweet girl like Hinata-san!

The blond had a distinctive look of rebellion that Hinata could recall clearly from their Academy days; all pout, puffed cheeks, and scowl. "You're just jealous that I won't let you pet me." Naruto declared with a sniff. "But I told you already; you're just not my type." Sakura's disapproving glare turned murderous.

She sputtered for a moment before she came back with a retort. "Ew! Why would anyone want to date you?" she snarled. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sakura could have sworn that Naruto was playing her but she was too angry to listen to that warning.

Naruto made a big production of running a hand through his hair. "Because of my good looks and my charming personality, of course." Sakura was fun to piss off. At least until she got her brute strength involved. Then it was no longer fun. Then it really hurt.

"You've got the personality of a deformed toad with two heads." Sakura snarled angrily, her eyes flashing.

"Two heads are better than one extremely large forehead!" Naruto said, edging into dangerous territory. Sakura's eyes seemed to gleam an ominous red. As if he seemed to realize his mistake, Naruto got to his feet quickly from his sprawled position on the ground. "Oh shit..." As if a gun had been shot off to signal the start of a race, Naruto bolted away, running for his life. And, quick on his heels and screaming his name, Sakura chased after him, her fist raised threateningly.

Hinata watched in numb shock. Still, she shouldn't have been so surprised to see Naruto's form suddenly pull itself free of the tree trunk right by her. Naruto rolled his neck. "Man, my genjutsu sucks." he complained. "She almost noticed me." He smiled winningly at her. "Are you alright, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata stared. "But you... she..." Her brain grinded to a halt.

"Oh." Naruto gave one sharp nod. "That was a kage bunshin. She'll catch up to it, eventually. By then, she'll be less angry, I guess." He smiled, waving his hand dismissively. "Don't worry, she's quick to anger but quick to forgive too. She's always been like that. But..." He took a step forward, lowering his voice. "I think it's best to let her run her anger out, don't you agree?"

Hinata nodded rapidly, her eyes wide. "She's scary." she whispered. Naruto laughed.

"Are you going home?" he asked. Hinata nodded. Since the exam was tomorrow, she didn't dare train anymore, in fear of pulling something or injuring herself before the big match. Naruto's smile was understanding. "Then I'll take you home." He winked, anticipating her response. "Your house is on the other side of the village, _way _away from Sakura. I think I can manage."

Though she hadn't been able to tell him about the match, she felt as if her day was already a lot better than it had seemed this morning. She had been able to tell Naruto about the match, if not specifically that he was going to fight her, and Hanabi really didn't hate her. Hinata almost didn't want to put a name to the emotion that filled her then, in fear that naming it would make it go away, but Hinata, for once, was truly happy.

---- 

Hyuuga Hiashi was a powerful man who showed his strength without moving a single muscle. It wasn't just his eyes that made people quail, it was also the way he carried himself. He was the sort of person who made fools realize their foolishness instantly, the sort of person who made men of the weaker quality toe the ground in embarrassment.

Naruto wondered why he had ever thought Hinata's meek personality was weird. Living with such a man had to have a humbling affect on her. Naruto bet his whole wallet that if Kiba lived in the Hyuuga Manor for a single month, he would come out humble, soft spoken, and extremely respective of authority. Naruto swallowed a snicker, not wanting the powerful ninja to think he was laughing at him.

"Uzumaki." the man said quietly, nodding to him. Tucking away his feeling of surprise at the aristocratic man knowing his name, Naruto nodded back.

"Hyuuga." he said with the same mild tone. He turned back to Hinata, his formerly impassive face melted into a smile. "I'll see you tomorrow, Hinata-chan." Biting back a smile, she nodded, her eyes alight with warmth.

Just as Naruto moved towards the gateway, Hiashi took a step forward. His eyes were blank, a sight that immediately made Naruto's hackles rise. Hyuuga eyes were creepy in general (save for Hinata's, for some reason), but Hiashi and Neji's eyes especially were creepy because of the way that they resembled blank walls.

"A moment, if you will." Hiashi murmured. Naruto knew enough of the man to know it wasn't a request. Briefly clenching his fists, Naruto spared a smile for Hinata, who watched the both of them worriedly. Hiashi gave Hinata a look, and the girl was suddenly scurrying into the house, stuttering a goodbye to Naruto.

Naruto turned his attention back to Hiashi, making no attempts to hide his glare this time. Hiashi only inclined his head at that, acknowledging that he saw that Naruto didn't like the last exchange, but didn't say anything otherwise.

For a moment, Hiashi looked over his shoulder, most likely making sure Hinata was out of hearing range. When he was satisfied with the distance between them and the girl, he turned back to Naruto.

Hiashi dropped all pretenses of being polite as well, diving right into what he believed was the heart of the problem. "I trust that your intentions are true?" Naruto stared at Hiashi for a moment, floored by his absurd question.

"Well yeah, of course." he answered when Hiashi's eyes narrowed a bit. "But, uh, Hyuuga? Your daughter is _twelve_." Never let it be said that Naruto had no respect for the Hyuuga head, because it would not be true. Naruto had a lot of respect for his power but he personally thought that Hiashi had been way out of his league when the powers that be gave him children.

Hiashi had the old fashioned belief that children were simply smaller adults and treated them as such, leaving them no margin for error and no leeway for _anything_. It had only been when he was faced with Neji and the unexpectedly powerful force of a childish urge of revenge that he had begun to realize the errors of his way.

Hiashi blinked. "And that changes things how?" he asked imperiously. Naruto fought the urge to roll his eyes.

"We're kids, we're not gonna be-" he choked off what he was going to say when Hiashi's eyes seemed to blaze while still retaining that look of freshly chipped ice. He quickly reworded his answer. "Not gonna be doing anything _nefarious_ or _name tainting_, so don't get your underwear in a bind."

"Excuse me?" Naruto supposed it was kind of funny, in a sort of 'Oh crap, he's going to kill me' way to be talking to a man who commanded the utmost respect from others about his underwear. Luckily, Hiashi seemed to be too confused to take much offense.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, deciding to move away from that dangerous topic for his own health's sake. "Look, Hyuuga..." the blond said tiredly, rocking back on his heels to look right up at Hiashi's eyes. "I know you know what I am, and I really don't care about your opinion of it. But Hinata-chan's a good girl so don't get any funny ideas."

"She is." Hiashi said softly, crossing his arms over his chest. "With that in mind-" Naruto cringed, anticipating anything from a stern lecture to a downright demand that he never come near Hinata again. "Do your best to make her happy." With that, the Hyuuga head turned around, a clear dismissal if Naruto had ever seen one.

Naruto gaped at the older man's back, smiling softly once the shock wore off. "I'll... do my best." he said quietly before turning around to leave. Hiashi watched over his shoulder as the boy left and walked back to where ever he held his residence, his eyes not leaving Naruto even when the genin was out of eyesight.

---

"Tomorrow's the Chuunin Final Exam." Sakura said wistfully. Her chin was propped up on her hand as she stared vaguely into the small apartment she was in. She still was a little surprised to find herself in her teacher's home, of all places she expected to be that day, but the company was not lacking. Her green eyes were a little glazed as she spoke. "I know I'm not in it but..."

"The anxiety is still there?" Rin finished, smiling sympathetically. She was sharing Kakashi's apartment until she left back for the mountains. She was going to rent a room at a hotel but found it to be without vacancies, most likely due to the Chuunin Final Exam. When she had seen her friend's student, who had been angry for some reason, they had stopped to chat (mostly because Rin feared for the health of whoever Sakura was _hunting_, for a lack of a better word) and Rin had invited her in.

It was strangely sad that, outside of Kakashi, her only willing contact was a child. But that child was no ordinary child. Sakura had been vaguely polite when she and Rin had crossed paths once more, until Rin had shown some interest in medical jutsu. Then, it seemed like Sakura had come alive and eagerly started up a more in depth conversation, completely forgetting about her hunt because she was too engaged in arguing some abstract theory of medical jutsu. Feeling more lighthearted at the sight of such enthusiasm for her favorite type of jutsu, Rin had bonded with Sakura immediately.

With a faint grimace, Sakura nodded. Rin swirled her tea around in her cup, smiling gently at the liquid. "Well, your teammates are in it. It's natural to feel worry for the people you care about." she said easily.

Sakura looked up. "Do you think they'll be okay?" she implored, her eyes shining with worry.

Rin shrugged, keeping her gaze down. "I can't say I've seen either of their fighting ability." she responded reluctantly, not wanting to make Sakura's hopes too high but not wanting to crush them either. "But if they have even half of Kakashi's stubbornness, they should be just as fine."

Sakura smiled softly. "They give a whole new meaning to stubbornness." she said fondly. She frowned to herself, biting her lip. "Those two... I don't think I've ever been... so attached to two people before in my entire life. You know, outside of my family. But... in their own way, they're my family too." Sakura laughed suddenly, a little embarrassed. "Does this make any sense?"

Rin smiled sadly, looking up from her tea. "Yes, it does." she said softly. "The bond of friendship between you three is strong. Never doubt it."

"Oh, I don't." Sakura said firmly. "I mean, I might want to kill Naruto sometimes and I kinda wish I could just beat Sasuke over the head with a book when he's acting dense, but that bond between us is one of the few things I'm sure of lately. I'm more certain of that than I am of gravity." Rin grinned. Jutsus tended to make the concrete vague and the cloudy solid. The law of gravity, for a ninja, was made just to be broken. "But that's what scares me, Rin." Rin's amusement faded when Sakura turned sad eyes to her. "I don't know what I would _do_ without them."

For a moment, there was silence as Sakura chewed over her quiet revelation while Rin winced at the painful memories evoked by Sakura's innocent words. The silence wasn't tense or awkward, seeing as both were absorbed in their own minds, but it was far from comforting.

That questionable silence was broken by Rin. "You move on." the woman said, a tad harshly. "You live. Day to day. Find distractions. Eventually you'll learn how to survive without them."

Sakura glanced up, her eyes narrowed slightly. "That's a lonely existence." she said carefully.

Rin deflated, her whole body sagging. "It is." she whispered. "It's so very _lonely_..." Sakura wisely did not say any more on that topic.

"So, Tsunade-sama's now teaching me how to make a diagnosis." Sakura said, seeking to change the subject.

"Is that so?" Rin said, immediately brightening up. "I always found those to be very easy."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Are you kidding me?" she asked in shock. "Mending broken bones or healing severed veins is _much_ easier than that!"

Rin grinned secretively. "Ah, but that's the beauty of Tsunade-sama's teachings." she said, mock sagely. She winked, destroying that illusion. "Theoretically, mending bones and healing severed veins is much more difficult than simple examinations. Yet the theory of diagnosis is much more difficult than the theory of healing. So, in making you study the two and only having you practice the healing, she's actually made you stronger a lot faster than you would have been if you had started with just the diagnosis."

Sakura leaned back, looking at the older woman suspiciously. "That makes sense." she said slowly. "But that doesn't change the fact that it's really hard."

Rin smiled angelically, tapping her temple with a finger. "You're thinking too hard, Sakura." she said in a sing-song voice. "Diagnosis jutsu is only composed of two things: the chakra to do it, and the ability to read what the chakra is telling you. When you heal, you have to worry about the amount of chakra, the force of it, the wavelength, where to apply it, how to heal it... It's mind boggling, really."

"Read the chakra..." Sakura echoed, looking confused. Rin waved a hand dismissively.

"It's really only something you get with practice." she said airily. "But even regular ninjas who couldn't manage to heal a paper cut could do a diagnosis jutsu. How do you think ninjas can tell when another has been poisoned?" When Sakura scowled, Rin laughed. "Don't feel bad. The fact that you're able to heal is really something. Diagnosis jutsus will eventually become easier. Here, let me demonstrate. How about a full over examination?"

Rin scooted her chakra over to Sakura, smiling at the sight of Sakura's instinctive slide backwards. "A full over examination?" the girl questioned distrustfully. Rin's smile widened.

"It's fairly simple but it requires firm chakra control and an ability to form the chakra in such a way that the person being examined does not attack unconsciously." The older woman explained gently. Sakura leaned forward, eager to be a guinea pig now that she knew what she was offering her up for. "Allow me to demonstrate." Rin ran a glowing green hand over Sakura, her hand about three inches away from touching her. Her eyes closed and her face was fixed in a look of concentration. "Hm... You need more vitamin C. Your cells are slightly dehydrated. And there's strain on your chakra system, but that can't really be helped since you're training so much." Rin's eyes opened. "You had only a few hours of sleep last night, didn't you?"

Sakura stared, her green eyes wide. "Wow." she whispered, blinking owlishly. "I know this might be five years too late for me to realize, but chakra is really _amazing_." Rin laughed.

"It truly is."

---

It was the next day already, about twenty minutes before the Chuunin Final Exam would commence and, in some illogical twist of reason, that was the exact time Jiraiya decided that he needed to talk to Naruto. With an irritated frown, Naruto waved off Sakura's questions, choosing only to mutter that she should go get Sasuke or otherwise the boy would be late. Sakura, knowing as well he did that Sasuke was with Kakashi and that the jonin was _always_ late, gasped in response and ran off in the direction of Sasuke's home.

Only after the last swish of her long pink hair disappeared from Naruto's gaze did the blond turn back to his teacher. Jiraiya then guided Naruto to a room in one of the buildings close by, which, upon the boss recognizing Jiraiya, was offered up generously. Naruto, with a heavy frown, closed the door behind him. 

"I think Sarutobi's biggest mistake with Orochimaru was not acknowledging the problem." Jiraiya murmured without further ado. He glanced at the corner of his eye at Naruto. "You know who Orochimaru is, right?"

_Do I ever. _Naruto nodded. "Biggest threat to Konoha, barely upstaged by Uchiha Itachi." he rattled off blankly. "Strongest student under the present Hokage and the team mate of you and Tsunade."

Jiraiya's eyes closed. "Yes." he sighed. "I'll make no attempt to hide the fact that Orochimaru was Sarutobi's favored student. And that you, having me as the teacher, are in the same position as he was." His dark eyes opened and pinned Naruto to the ground. "An unfair position where you could do damn near anything and I'd risk _everything_ to make sure you get through it okay, even at the expense of my reputation or my life."

As always, Naruto felt a stinging pain of resentment at being compared to Orochimaru. He had always taken comfort in the fact that he was in Jiraiya's position of the ever repeating trinity of sorrow. "The Yondaime was your favored student as well." he pointed out. "And he sure as hell wasn't a traitor like Orochimaru."Jiraiya looked almost apologetic. "Yes but... I don't _understand_ you." he smiled sadly, then turned away. "I could tell what was on the mind of that student of mine. I could even predict that exact jutsu that he used to seal Kyuubi, even if I didn't get here fast enough to stop him. I understood him better than even his own parents did and, as time went on, viewed him as the son I'd never have." Naruto was the one to look away this time. There was too much pain in that voice for him to stay angry.

"I'd hate to disappoint you but not all of your students are going to be like the Yondaime." he said slowly, gently shaping the harsh words into something softer. "He was one of a kind."

Jiraiya nodded, sighing heavily as he sat down on a crowded desk. He distractedly ran a hand through his white hair. "That and you aren't nearly as transparent as he was." the old man admitted softly. Naruto's head snapped up in surprise. "He... was forward. Direct to a point where it often got him in trouble with the elders." Noticing the look of surprise, Jiraiya chuckled. "Oh, trust me. He was respected for his finesse on the battlefield but he was _horrible_ at politics. Within the first month of his govern, several Elders started revolting. It was only some reluctant compromises and shaky negotiations that kept a civil war from breaking out here in Konoha."

Naruto blinked owlishly as he shifted through his memory for any mention of this in the Academy (not that he would have been awake during any history lectures), but couldn't find anything. Even so, it started making sense. The Yondaime had died as a martyr and a hero. No one could want to stain that image by mentioning that the Yondaime had been a horrible politician. Kyuubi was just _dying_ to say something rude but Naruto ignored him, still mad that the demon wanted him to let Sarutobi die.

The hermit shook his head, realizing that he was veering off topic. "Well, anyway, he was straight forward, honest, and direct, making it very easy for someone who knew him, such as myself for an example, to understand his way of thinking without even knowing the topic he was deliberating on. He was... _simple_." Jiraiya slumped slightly, giving Naruto a half accusing stare. "You... not so much."

Naruto acknowledged that with a nod. "I'm not as complicated as you might think." he said, and it was the truth. Strip down everything there was about him and one could find a basis, a single unifying fact about Naruto that made understanding him and his actions and motives all the more easier. 

_Protect the people precious to me._ He thought. _Not that complicated at all, really._ He frowned suddenly. _Is it really that hard to see? Should I be making clearer announcements of it?_ Somehow, stepping in front of attacks meant for other people, getting rid of dangerous obstacles in his way- for he had long abandoned the idea that any Sound nin was more than an obstacle- and keeping dangerous secrets, and fighting the bad guys wasn't making him seem very trustworthy.

Naruto tensed suddenly, the truth hanging in front of him like bait. _Oh crap, no wonder why Jiraiya's worried_. He felt a sudden rush of understanding and sympathetic fondness for his teacher. _I have power, intent, and mystery. I lie, I wait, and I strike. He thinks I'm a miniature Orochimaru._

**Extra emphasis on miniature**. Kyuubi managed to get through his shields. Naruto raised them even higher, set on ignoring the demon until he apologized.

Naruto straightened, ruthlessly shredding all of his rage and fury at being compared to the that vicious snake, thinking about it instead through Jiraiya's point of view. His teacher had been through the pain of having someone betray him- something he had tried to tell Naruto before but had been largely ignored because Naruto didn't want to give up on Sasuke- and was wary that something like that could happen again. Such a betrayal was the last thing that one would want to think about coming from people closest to their heart, but it _had_ been known to happen.

_He's wary because he cares._ Naruto summed up happily, feeling warmth build up in his chest. _He doesn't want to lose me like he lost Orochimaru._ He walked up in front of Jiraiya, firmly holding the man's gaze with a determined seriousness that stunned Jiraiya.

"I guess I'm not as obvious as some keep telling me I am." Naruto said in acknowledgment of Jiraiya's hesitant and reluctant fears.

**Someone with two braincells to rub together could have clearly seen your motives, had they possessed the attention span to actually look.** Kyuubi grumbled thoughtfully, once _again_ managing to get through the shields. Naruto ignored him.

"So I guess a direct approach is in order." Naruto sighed, clasping his hands behind his back. He could tell Jiraiya the truth and not be afraid that the man would walk away or, worse yet, get him in trouble, but that did not mean that Naruto was going to spill his soul out to his teacher. He wasn't that stupid. "I have very few desires right now. Becoming Hokage is a secondary desire and is only something I look forward to in the future. But for now..." Naruto trailed off, realizing that he had broken the stare with Jiraiya and was staring at the leg of a chair. He redirected his gaze up quickly. "I want to protect Konoha, but I have an ambition that's far more important than that."

The word ambition always made him shudder, simply because of how he related it to Sasuke. Sasuke, as he put it when Kakashi had asked, didn't have a dream. Instead, he had an ambition and it was deeply involved with blood, both in the metaphorical and literal sense.

Naruto thought it was only appropriate that he use the word ambition to explain himself because he was aware of the blood that needed to be shed in order for it to be reached. Just as Sasuke hadn't been hesitant on the idea of his brother's death, Naruto wasn't going to quail at the thought of killing Sound nins.

"This ambition..." Naruto shook his head. "If you want it in pretty words, I can tell you it's a dream. My dream is for my friends to be happy, healthy, and live prosperous lives." Naruto supposed that it shouldn't have shocked him to see Jiraiya's surprise but it did. "However, my ambition is to _make sure_ that they can attain that, any way possible." He paused for a moment, chewing over his words before he decided to add more. "I'd cut off my left hand before I'd betray Konoha- and no, I don't think Kyuubi can heal a missing limb so don't even go there- but if something were to happen, say... the fates of Konoha and my friends were at risk and I could only save one of them... To hell with Konoha. I'm saving my friends."

Jiraiya swallowed, trying to figure out why he was both worried and heartened at Naruto's declaration of allegiance. _Caring for someone else is a great thing but in the ninja world... obedience to every order and command is sacred. Look at what happened to Kakashi's father._

"Why do you say that?" Jiraiya said carefully. Would Naruto really sacrifice the needs of the few over the needs of the many? Again, it was another idea he was conflicted over. He abhorred the idea of sacrificing one person so that everyone else could live well but he didn't think the needs of the many should be sacrificed for the needs of the one either. And Jiraiya knew, with a soft sigh of sadness, that favoring one group of people over a larger group of people was not the mark of a true Hokage.

Naruto smiled serenely. "Konoha is just a place, Jiraiya-sensei." he said simply. "It can be destroyed. It can be rebuilt. But if you kill a person, they're dead for ever." A knot in Jiraiya's chest unloosened in relief.

_He's not talking about sacrificing people._ The old man realized with a tinge of awe. _He's talking about priorities. He's acting like a true Hokage._ Pleased and relieved beyond belief, Jiraiya smiled and rested a hand on Naruto's spiky hair, making the boy stare at him in bewilderment. But there was one more thing Jiraiya wanted to address.

"Who are your friends, Naruto?" he asked softly. It was possible that he had read Naruto's meaning wrong. It seemed so naïve and... well, _ambitious_ to declare that he would chose to save the people instead of saving a place. Of course, that choice was a no brainer. People meant more than places, as Naruto had said. But there was a vast difference between people and friends.

"Anyone who's not my enemy." Naruto said, his eyes wide in what was not innocence but yet not deviousness either. Jiraiya wondered what it was even as he chewed over Naruto's answer, and then it hit him. It was blatant honesty, unlike anything he had heard out of Naruto before.

"That's... ah, kind of you." Jiraiya stumbled, not having a response for that. "You have a... very loose definition of friend, I see." Naruto's eyes darkened for a moment, not in anger at Jiraiya but at something he was thinking.

"The world is divided into two factions, as I see it." he said softly, his voice almost so low that it teetered into the realm of silence. "The ones who want to destroy me and everything I care about, and the people who don't. I think that the latter group, at least, deserves my support." Naruto paused before he reluctantly added what Kyuubi wanted him to. "As long as they prove to be worthy of such support, of course."

Jiraiya pounced on it, just as Kyuubi wanted him to. "And how would they prove that?"

Naruto grimaced, rewording Kyuubi's response so it fit him better. "To not infringe upon the free wills of others and to not harm others who do not deserve it." Considering Gaara for a moment, he added a little more. "Or, at least, if they have done that, show some desire to turn around and make up for their past wrongdoings. I am not above forgiveness."

**No, you're not.** Kyuubi said in disgust. **You drown in it, reek of it, and pour more of it out than sap from a tree.**

_If I could not forgive, would I even be talking to you?_ Naruto countered smoothly, giving up on trying to shield against the demon. The fox knew Naruto's mind as if it was his own. Kyuubi was silent for a moment, shifting uncomfortably.

**What we have is different.** He said finally, stubbornly putting his paw down.

_Not really._ Naruto said mildly. _Forgiving a demon isn't much different than forgiving a human. It just tends to be a lot harder._

Kyuubi seemed to rise in his mind, straightening haughtily as he stared down his muzzle at Naruto. **I don't need forgiveness from you.** He said, his pride stung as soon as he realized that was what Naruto was talking about.

_Yes you do._ Naruto said sadly. _Otherwise, you would have ended up breaking my will, possessing my body, then having your merry way with destroying the world. If you didn't want forgiveness, you wouldn't have approached me with a partnership all that time ago._

Kyuubi said nothing, the heat pressing at that back of Naruto's mind easing as Kyuubi retreated back behind the tatters of the seal to his cage, most likely to sulk. As wise as he pretended to be, Kyuubi never liked having truth being thrown back in his face. Naruto felt a brief pain of guilt for making the demon angry enough to leave but ruthlessly squashed it.

Just like the fire that Kyuubi revered, the demon's temper was hot, burning, distinguishable, and, most of all, fleeting, much like a easily distracted child's attention. Only cold rage and pain had allowed Kyuubi to carry on with his ambition of eradicating the human race. 

He shook his head, focusing back on the conversation, only to see that Jiraiya was staring at him thoughtfully. "You must have a lot of enemies then." he murmured. Naruto sighed an agreement. Jiraiya frowned. "Who taught you this way of thinking?"

Naruto opened his mouth, then closed it with a frown. Finally, he shook his head. "I don't know." he admitted. It could have something to do with fighting for so long. One tends to lose distinction between the diversities of each side while they're trying to fight for their life. "I just do."

Jiraiya kept frowning. "You're what, twelve?" Naruto winced at the reminder. "This isn't a healthy way for you to think."

"But it's the truth." Naruto said firmly. "If they aren't my enemies, then they're my friends. Simple as that. I don't need to be taught anything to know that."

"So rigid." Jiraiya complained. "Some would say that knowledge of a situation could-"

"Jiraiya, perhaps you misunderstand me." Naruto said slowly, shaking his head. "Perhaps the word _friend_ misdirects you. What I basically mean is that I'm not going to fight against someone who's not my enemy and also that I'll protect any who's not my enemy with all that I am." Naruto shrugged. "I don't want to come across as self-sacrificing or anything silly like that but... I want to protect people. Is that _really_ so complicated?"

Jiraiya frowned, but slowly shook his head. "No, I guess not." he admitted. "It's just your... _enthusiasm_ for fighting your enemies is a little strange."

"I wouldn't say enthusiasm." Naruto said, and knew he was telling the truth. He did not find joy in killing someone. He only found peace in knowing that they could no longer do harm to the ones he cared about. "I'd say acceptance.""Then, beyond knowledge of jutsus, there isn't much I can teach you, since you're going to be stubborn and view the world this way. Trying to teach you to think differently is like telling a river to move the opposite direction." Jiraiya rubbed a hand over his face. "There is much knowledge and wisdom to be taught and learned, but there is only so much that would actually be heeded." Naruto considered him for a moment, a faint smile on his lips.

"The old man told you that, didn't he?" Naruto's smiled broadened. "Sarutobi?"

"That's Hokage-sama to you, brat." There was a teasing lilt to his voice now, one that had been absent during their entire meeting.

Naruto felt a need to reassure Jiraiya. He briefly tussled over a few ways to word, then pounced on the one he thought was the truest. "I'm not going to leave you." he said softly. Jiraiya's head snapped up in surprise. Naruto had to smile. "Or anyone else for that matter. I'll stay, I'll fight, and I'll make damn sure that I'll be right there in the middle of things. I will not back down as a coward and I will not step away from Konoha, lured by power. My roots and my people are in Konoha, and here I'll stay." He took a deep breath, grabbing Jiraiya's arm. "I am not the Yondaime, but I'm not Orochimaru either. I'm a hellva lot more selfish than Yondaime but I'm a hellva lot more selfless than Orochimaru. You would do best to remember that and quit worrying."

Then, surprisingly, Naruto beamed at Jiraiya with a smooth satisfaction that startled the old man, but he could not help but smile in return. Jiraiya felt much better now than he had going into this conversation. Though he had not found any hard proof that Naruto wasn't being controlled by Kyuubi or that Naruto wasn't Naruto at all, Jiraiya was struck almost dumb with a firm belief in all that Naruto had admitted to him.

_I haven't felt like this since I was just a kid, looking up to Sarutobi like he was a god or something._ Jiraiya shook his head. He didn't think of Naruto that highly but his belief in the genin had been boosted tremendously.

"You're a very difficult student, Naruto." Jiraiya murmured. Naruto laughed, a self satisfied smirk on his face. A smirk crept on Jiraiya's face as he glanced over at a clock. "And you're going to be late."

Naruto's smirk immediately fell as he whipped around to look at the clock, his eyes widening when he saw he only had two minutes to get to the arena. "Shit!" he yelped, turning to glare at Jiraiya even as he raced for the door. Jiraiya made no attempt to cover up his cackle of glee. "I'll get you back for this, you jerk!"

As soon as Naruto had disappeared from view, Jiraiya's smirk gentled. He gazed at where his student had stood before standing up himself. "No matter how adult he tries to be, he's still a kid." Jiraiya murmured to the silence of the room. Making his decision, he nodded briskly, leisurely following Naruto to the arena.

_And as long as he is in need of aid, which he will need if he views so many people as enemies, I will be at his side._ Jiraiya's eyes hardened. _I will help him the way I wasn't able to help the Yondaime, or even Orochimaru. And, what ever may come, this time around, I will at least die knowing that I tried my hardest to help._

Jiraiya realized something and slowly started to laugh. "Ha! I knew it! The brat's just like me!" He grinned. "No miniature Orochimaru would have such 'jolly tree hugger' tendencies. Wants to protect people? Ha! Orochimaru couldn't even protect a flower without killing it." 

--- 

Naruto bounded up to the gathered group of eligible genins, landing right next to Shino. Several of them flinched at his sudden arrival, but Shino stood calm, even though his foot had been two inches away from being smashed.

The door in front of them started to open, displaying the crowds of cheering people in the stands. Naruto panted, trying to control his breathing, ignoring the various amounts of attention he was receiving from the other genins.

_I guess my indifference to the time pisses them off._ Naruto mused as he realized that Kankurou and Temari were staring at him intensely. Gaara, of course, stared straight ahead, completely ignoring everyone. Shino, of course, had no reaction but a nod towards Naruto while Sasuke smirked at him, as if to say 'And you were worried _I _was going to be late?'. Naruto smiled back sheepishly, then glanced at the other genins.

Hinata was staring at her hands, her shoulders alternating shaking and tensing with her thoughts. Lee, in contrast, was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, looking supremely delighted at getting this far. Shikamaru was slouched over, for all matters and purposes, extremely bored of this affair. The taller genin noticed that he was being watched and turned, offering Naruto a weary smile.

"Fun fun." Shikamaru muttered under his breath. Naruto grimaced, remembering that he told Shikamaru that something was going to happen later on that day, if not the specifics of it.

"Not exactly as relaxing as watching the clouds, huh?" Naruto murmured sympathetically, wishing for not the last time that he hadn't panicked and told Shikamaru the future. The only aspect of the situation that soothed him was that Shikamaru looked much better now than he had a few days ago.

"Hardly." Shikamaru snorted in disgust, glancing around at the crowds with distinct tension. "They have no idea what's going to happen, do they?"

"They have some." Naruto argued. "An ANBU may have dropped a tip or two." Shikamaru frowned, about to ask what he meant by that, but Temari suddenly stepped away from her siblings, about to walk to the stands. Naruto remembered that she wasn't in the exam because Hinata, of all people, had beaten her.

Before she made her way to the door, she paused a half of a second next to Naruto. "A village also might have changed alliances." she said cryptically, not stopping to explain it. Naruto's eyes widened in realization.

Sasuke stepped closer to Naruto, planning on picking his friend's brain because Naruto seemed to know everything. "Why was she here?" he grumbled, scowling at her back. He was disgruntled by the fan she wore on her back, knowing all too well it was a weapon but also knowing there was no reason for her to be wearing it unless she planned on fighting.

"Oh, sisterly concern, you see." Kankurou chimed in lightly, not bothering to look back at Sasuke. "She wanted to make sure we were alright." He dared to clamp a hand on Gaara's shoulder. "Isn't that right, Gaara?"

Gaara only had to narrow his eyes at his brother before the puppet user rapidly backed off as if his hand had been scalded. When the older boy moved, Naruto suddenly got a full dose of the Gaara Death Glare of Doom. "It doesn't change anything." Gaara said quietly, reminding Naruto of a conflict in the dead of the night where he had said nearly same thing. "It doesn't change anything that matters."

Naruto slowly shook his head. "It changes everything." he said, feeling the rising tension in him, a fierce thing that had woke him up early that morning, ease slightly. So they wouldn't have to fight Suna. That was excellent news. It meant that Naruto didn't have to kill future allies.

Gaara turned away from the sight of Naruto's blinding smile, trying to convince himself that he retreated because the sight of such unwarranted happiness was disgusting, not because he was uncomfortable knowing that he might have helped along that happiness. Not particularly mad, just uncomfortable. He found it easier to listen to the angry mutters of a demon thirsty for blood, despite knowing that his thirst for the red life sustenance was growing dimmer and dimmer the less and less he let the demon take control.

The genins moved forward, standing in a line right in front of the jonin overseeing the exam. Hayate looked down the line critically, as if he was making sure that there was no imposters in the group. Apparently, they passed the test because he coughed, a sure sign he was about to speak.

"The Chuunin Final Exam has started." he said with little excitement, yet the crowd went wild. Naruto wondered just how many of them were betting their whole incomes away on a fight between children. The oldest of them was Kankurou and he was still just fourteen. A very dangerous fourteen year old but still, not even an adult.

Naruto, for the first time, actually looked up at the crowd, observing them with apparent disinterest. What he was actually looking for was a sign of any Sound nins already gathered to strike, yet was unsurprised to find none. Orochimaru didn't tolerate stupidity, despite the many stupid ninjas he had devoted to his cause. He punished those who pushed the limits of it and, if they didn't shape up, he killed them.

Naruto wouldn't lie to himself and say that he wasn't sorry for them. As much intolerance he had of Sound nins, he knew that most of them were mostly misguided kids. _Orochimaru so loves to have them young._ Naruto thought bitterly. And one advantage to that was their blind loyalty. _You can't talk a Sound nin into leaving Orochimaru any more than you could get Haku to leave Zabuza's side._

The random thought reminded him that he hadn't seen the older boy for a while. _Hm. I hope that means he's doing okay. He was so happy to make chuunin, even though the rank really doesn't do him justice._ Naruto still thought that Haku was stronger than some jonins. Of course, being just a kid himself, he still had some weaknesses that could be exploited but hadn't Zabuza himself admitted that Haku was more powerful than him?

"The first match of the Chuunin Final Exam is..." Hayate looked directly at Naruto. Naruto lifted his chin up slightly in rebellion. He realized now that he probably wasn't fighting Neji but he was fairly certain that he could beat anyone else that he paired up with.

He really hoped it was Gaara. Naruto wanted to get than mess over and done with. But Gaara staring off in genuine boredom, meaning that he wouldn't have to fight for a while. Gaara, before a match and no matter who he was against, tended to stand stiffly and glare more often.

"Between Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata." Naruto sucked in his breath as if someone had dealt his a blow to his stomach without any warning. His eyes, wide in shock, darted over to Hinata instinctively, searching her out as if seeing her would make what Hayate had said false.

He knew the second he locked gazes with her that it was true. Naruto really had to fight Hinata. _Oh... shit_. He thought rather belatedly. He remembered the things he had told her the day before and the things she had said in return. He remembered with startling clarity how uncertain and fragile she had seemed, and how much she was afraid for the battle because she was worried that her opponent wouldn't like her any more.

Naruto abruptly felt like the biggest ass in the world.

---

TBC

No preview this time. And please, don't beg for a faster update. I purposely make these chapters long to make up for the time between chapters, even though I really only have time on the weekends to write. All my other time is monopolized by massive amounts of school work.


	53. Friends and Enemies

Sorry about the wait, you guys. I was going to post this up a couple of days ago but FFnet decided that it didn't want to accept the document.  
Again, the fights aren't epic and a few of them don't even go into that much detail. And, uh, if you're extremely squeamish, I guess this and the next might be uncomfortable chapters for you. But not that much more uncomfortable than the Naruto series itself.

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Fifty-three: Friends and Enemies

by Foxie

Naruto had never been the sort of person to think too hard over his various mistakes. He usually noticed them (or had them pointed out), sulked about them, then eventually accepted them. He tended to think forwards and not backwards, so he never begrudged himself on what he should have done or could have said. It was not in his nature to whine and sulk about the ifs and maybes of his life.

But at that moment, Naruto had a blinding urge to go find a desk and slam his head into it repeatedly. He couldn't believe how _stupid_ he was. Really, even if someone had knowledge of the future, who wouldn't check to see who they were fighting in an important exam? Apparently, he wouldn't because he was too arrogant and too _stupid_.

_Oh hell, Hinata._ He thought suddenly and with feeling, stuck between raging at himself and feeling sympathy for her. _I saw it coming but I ignored it. I'm so sorry, Hinata-chan_.

He had wondered, with all of Kiba's jeers, Sasuke's sarcasm, and Hinata's nervousness, if his first opponent, instead of being Neji, was Hinata herself. He had immediately dismissed the idea, however, simply because he couldn't stomach the thought of bringing harm to Hinata.

Of course, that was before the mission, where he learned that no one could simply 'bring harm to Hinata' unless they planned to get their asses kicked. Naruto grinned, suddenly at ease, his state of mind abruptly doing a one-eighty.

So he was going to fight Hinata. Big deal. She already proved to him that she wasn't a little girl that needed to be protected. Of course, it was hard to remember that when faced with her childlike eyes and soft mannerisms.

Suddenly remembering her anxiety, he grinned even more. _Talking about her discomfort with the very guy she's uncomfortable... she's a sneaky one._ He thought proudly. _Now I feel guilty as all hell. Nice one, Hinata-chan. But that isn't gonna effect me **that** much..._

Hinata had a slightly pinched look on her face, as if she was afraid he was going to be mad at her. Like a mask had slid over his face, Naruto's grin suddenly straightened in a firm line.

"Hinata." he said, his low voice slightly deeper than usual. Hinata tensed, biting her lip. Her hands twitched at her sides, no doubt fighting the urge to press together nervously. Naruto purposely relaxed his shoulders and mind, staring at Hinata with calm and unreadable eyes. Hinata shifted in nervousness.

Hayate and the rest of the crowd only watched in confusion.

"You're a tree, not a flower." Naruto said suddenly, the corner of his mouth hiking up. "You're not some weak little thing that needs to be protected, but a protector yourself, just like a tree." Hinata blinked for a moment, confused, but then understanding suddenly rushed to her. She laughed, a look of relief on her face.

"I think that a s-shrub would fit more in my case, Naruto-kun." she said almost apologetically. Naruto swiftly shook his head.

"No way, Hinata-chan!" he said with an easy grin. "I've seen you fight. You kick ass. You're no damn shrub. If anything..." he looked over her appraisingly, making the girl blush. "You're a sapling, but nothing less."

Naruto's grin fell, his expression easing into seriousness. He shifted his weight back, moving into a defensive stance. Hinata's eyes went wide at this, fear flitting in her eyes. Naruto smiled sadly.

"But a fight is a fight, Hinata-chan." he said calmly, gently pointing this truth out. He frowned. "Personally, this is hard for me to accept. I like you too much to fight you. Fighting you is much different than fighting Sasuke or Kiba. So... let's put conditions on this fight." he looked over at Hayate, frowning when he thought Genma should have been refereeing, but quickly brushing it off. "That's not against the rules, right?"

"No." the sickly jonin stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "This is basically a free for all match where anything goes. State your conditions and I'll see if they're accepted under the rules."

Naruto nodded to him, then turned back to Hinata, his face instantly grim. "You were kidnapped as a child, weren't you, Hinata-chan?" he asked softly. "Because you are so valuable to the Hyuuga clan?"

Ashen faced, Hinata nodded. "N-numerous times. I... was weak." she admitted, her eyes clouding over.

Naruto nodded again, not refuting that. There was a small smile playing on his lips this time though. "A condition for this fight, then, is that, no matter what, you have to fight to keep me from capturing you." Hinata's eyes snapped to his, widening slightly. Naruto's expression didn't change. "Fight the way you were unable to before. Show me how much you've grown. Defend yourself against me without second thought or any mercies. Fight me as if I was your worst enemy."

Hinata rapidly paled but, to Naruto's utter delight, her eyes hardened with determination and she nodded. "A condition for you..." she said softly. "When you find yourself unable to use any chakra, you have to forfeit."

Naruto grinned, mouthing 'ooh, a threat', too pleased to act serious. "That's fine. Show me what the Hyuuga clan can do." He leaned forward a little, his eyes warming. With the Hyuuga fighting style, it would be ridiculously easy to restrict his chakra usage. "But I wanna see what Hinata can do too, you know." Hinata gaped and blushed. Naruto pulled back with a smirk, putting space between him and Hinata. He turned around. "If I capture you, you have to forfeit."

Hinata nodded to those terms, her eyes already starting to gleam with her blood limit even though she hadn't used the correct hand seals yet. She slid down into a stance that even the weakest ninja in the stadium recognized as being jyuuken style, glorified as the style of Hyuuga clan.

Naruto didn't bother with any formal stances, choosing to square his shoulders and widen the span between his feet. He'd have to defend, mostly. He wouldn't be able to use any sort of offensive measure that he would normally implement.

Ninjas weren't just mindless fighting machines. They had to capture their objectives as much as they had to eliminate them. Like most things, it was significantly harder to figure out how to keep your objective alive than just simply killing them. This would be an extreme test of Naruto's patience.

**At least this will be able to make you think first about diving in headfirst offensively.** Kyuubi sniffed, mockingly imitating heartfelt sorrow. **You kill any sense of subtlety and tact once you start fighting.**

_Shut it, furball._ Naruto growled playfully in response. _Or I won't let you out._ The genin was surprised how quickly Kyuubi retreated, his youki waving in a way akin to someone raising their hands in surrender.

"The first match of the final match of the Chuunin Exam, between Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto." Hayate looked at the both of them critically, coughing in his hand as he seemed to make sure that they were who they said they were.

Naruto suddenly remembered his vow to kick the ass of Hinata's opponent, which was actually himself, and he smiled at Hinata sheepishly. No doubt remembering the same thing, Hinata smiled back, looking much calmer that she had been five minutes ago. Naruto silently cheered.

Hayate took a step back. "Start!" he shouted, with a sharp wave of his arm. A tumult of noise rose from the crowd, but neither of the genins heard it over the loud beating of their hearts.

----

Sasuke leaned over the railing, his sharingan blazing red as he watched the match between his team mate and the Hyuuga that no one could help being fond of. He frowned, feeling a sense of sympathy for Naruto.

It was a good match. Hinata was a Hyuuga and, thus, had a certain level of power and potential that even someone like Sasuke could appreciate. Though it was clear to him that Hinata's potential lay somewhere outside of causing pain, he could recognize that the girl would be a powerful ninja one day.

He trailed a finger against the arm guards that Naruto had gotten for his birthday, his eyes narrowing. He could tell that Hinata was strong the same way he had seen it in another. He had claimed that person as his rival even as others laughed at his rival's pitiful attempts. They couldn't see the strength that the boy had underneath a layer of stupidity and delinquency. They couldn't see his _will_.

_Naruto's determination and strive to move forward... has somehow appeared in Hinata._ Sasuke made a soft contemplative sound, his eyes following Hinata as she doggedly followed Naruto's retreats, striking out with her jyuuken when the blond was least expecting it.

Sasuke's attention abruptly shifted from the fight to the room from which they watched the match, all because someone dared to step next to him. He glanced to the side, relaxing somewhat when he realized that it was just Shino.

_Well, not just Shino._ Sasuke amended, glancing at the heavy coat that the other boy wore as if he expected bugs to suddenly come bursting out. _But better than that guy Gaara._

"Hinata is doing well." Shino offered, directing Sasuke's attention back to the fight. And that observation could not be disputed. The girl was doing well, abnormally so. She had already disabled Naruto's left arm, rendering most jutsus useless because of the uneven chakra distribution.

Naruto was already having a hard time trying to figure out which Hinata was real, since the girl had already performed multiple bunshin jutsus in a successful attempt to keep Naruto off guard. It would only be a matter of time before Hinata had successfully blocked all the chakra in his body.

"It seems as if she's doing well." Sasuke said guardedly, not willing to admit to too much. He was aware that Naruto and Shino got along pretty well, but that didn't mean he was obligated to be friendly to the bug user. He didn't trust Shino at all, mostly because of the boy's all too silent nature. Who knew what he could be plotting behind that coat of his?

Shino inclined his head, making a paranoid Sasuke wonder if it was in agreement with his thoughts, or in agreement with the last thing Sasuke had said. He, after a moment of rationality reasserting itself, realized that it was the latter of the two. _Of course, Shino can't read minds._ He relaxed a fraction, though not nearly enough to keep him from watching Shino out of the corner of his red eyes.

"She's doing well." Shino murmured. He shifted his shoulders and, after a moment, Sasuke realized that the boy was shrugging. Then Shino turned to him, no expression visible behind his collar. "But Naruto is doing better." Sasuke couldn't decide whether to smirk or scowl. Shino had picked up on the signs that he had noticed as well, even though the other genin didn't have sharingan eyes. Sasuke nodded, a neutral gesture, while turning back to the battle.

"No sweat, strange chakra aura patterns, and a subtle color change whenever she touches him." Sasuke summarized quietly, closing his eyes for a moment. Shino made a low murmur of agreement, his shoulders tensing and then releasing as he let out a small sigh.

"She's fighting a kage bunshin." Shino said, his head tilting slightly to the side. "You know this. But I am... a little confused." Sasuke looked over, unwittingly staring into the dark sunglasses of the only Konoha genin that unnerved him enough to make him more surly than usual. "How is the kage bunshin keeping its form? If I am not mistaken, it usually only takes one hard tap for the jutsu to lose its form."

"Naruto... changes jutsus." Sasuke admitted, closing his eyes once more. His eyes were burning from absorbing all the information. "He added more chakra to the jutsu but didn't allow for more than one clone, thus making the single clone stronger and more resilient to blows. It's fairly simple, actually. At least in theory." Sasuke opened his eyes, a thunderous scowl on his face. "He called it his... _prelude_ to his Super Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." The brat still hadn't shown it to him yet.

"Naruto..." Shino murmured underneath his breath. Sasuke could have sworn he heard a tinge of awe. "Now there's someone I'd love to fight." Sasuke, as he was finding was common when conversing with Shino, was conflicted between being angry that Shino didn't consider _him_ good enough to fight, and just simply agreeing. He settled for silence.

Shino smiled, a small twitch of his lips that went entirely unnoticed behind his high collar. _Silence is golden._

---

Hinata wasn't dumb. She had known something was wrong the second that Naruto's chakra shifted. She was also fairly sure that she knew what was going on, if not the real Naruto's exact location.

_He's hunting me._ She thought with a faint shiver, an old fear of being kidnapped renewing itself despite her willing it to stay down. _He's distracted me with this clone until I slip up. Then, he'll catch me._

An odd wave of despair rushed over her. She had known long before this day that she was nothing compared to Naruto and that he would eventually win the battle. _But... _she bit her lip, even as she jumped over the clone's low swiping kick. _I haven't shown him **anything** yet!_

Just as quickly as she felt despair, she also felt anger. Not at Naruto, of course, but at herself. She had thought that she was faster than this, smarter than this, and better than this. _Why am I just blindly attacking?_ She questioned, pulling herself away from the fight for a moment. _It doesn't work. The clone may have a inner coil system, but he's not my target. I must get him out of the way_.

Hinata, with only the slightest twinge of guilt for being manipulative, paused, breathing heavily as if she was near the end of her limits. The clone came closer, lunging towards her like a fox. However, unlike the fox, she knew he'd stop a few feet away from her. Even in the heat of battle, he really didn't want to hurt her.

Hinata held her hand at her stomach, careful to not press too hard as she gathered chakra slowly into her palm, refining and shaping it sharply, just as the medical jutsu scrolls had explained the chakra knives used in delicate surgeries. The genin held her breath for a moment, watching under her lashes as Naruto paused, barely an arms length away. And then she struck.

The clone barely had the time to blink before he exploded in a poof of smoke, the sharpened blade of chakra doing more damage to it than Hinata's jyuuken could and more damage than Naruto had created it to absorb.

Clinging to the shape of the chakra in her hand even as she instinctively ducked back down in a jyuuken stance, Hinata's eyes, blazing with her blood limit, scoured the arena for any signs of her opponent. Nothing to the left.. right... up... Everywhere she looked, there was no sign of Naruto, nor any sign of his chakra.

She paused, the situation oddly familiar to her though she could not remember why. If he's not up, right, or left... then... Her eyes widened and she immediately jumped out of the way, just as the ground at her feet burst out in a shower of small rocks and dirt.

Hinata jumped twice more, putting more distance between Naruto even as she watched him warily. _That was... an excellent move._ She admitted in the confines of her mind. Hyuugas rarely ever extend their eyesight into the ground. Hinata had to wonder, with a helpless smile, if her father, somewhere up in the audience, had noticed that.

Hinata nearly swallowed her next breath, causing her to cough heavily. Naruto was grinning, even as he dusted off his vest and shorts. He was pleased with her. Hinata glowed with pride.

"Nice, Hinata-chan." he called out, very nearly gleeful. He raised his arms in the stance that Hinata knew wasn't the graceful style of jyuuken or the powerful style of taijutsu, but was actually a rather bland style of street fighting with no set stances or styles. Despite being taught that such a hand to hand combat style was barbaric, Hinata felt herself smile again. _Why fix something if it isn't broken?_

He came at her faster than she thought he could move. Hinata wished, in that split second between her anticipating his move and her dodging it, that she could just step back and admire the way that Naruto moved. He never stepped down too hard, yet it couldn't be said that he glided over the ground. His movements weren't elegant but they were refined and precise with experience. The way he moved was unique but Hinata could still think of something it reminded her of, thanks to the events of the day before.

Naruto moved like a fox. Or, she amended, reminded of the sneaky movements of real foxes, if a fox had been able to live as freely as it wanted to. A fox that could move like water and attack like fire.

Hinata was all at once awed and determined. Did anyone else see what Naruto was right now, in all of his savage grace? Did anyone else see what he had the potential to become? She wanted to share what she could see with the rest of the world, force Naruto's power under the noses of the few that hated him and the many that feared him.

"_See?_" she would say with a disgruntled scowl. "_Do you see what you have cast aside in your ignorance?_" It was times like this, while watching Naruto move, that she did not think that it was at all impossible for the blond to become Hokage.

Pleased and humbled beyond all words to be able to be a part of this dangerous dance, Hinata pulled back the final layer of restrictions on herself and _attacked_.

---

None of the battles Naruto had ever been involved in since he had come back to this time had been, in any way, completely normal. Either they were interrupted right in the middle, halted many times due to his enemy's incessant need to talk, or he had to retreat.

But this battle topped it in all ways. First of all, it was _Hinata_ he was fighting, so that automatically made this a significant battle. But not a especially important one because he knew he was stronger and he knew he would win.

In the few seconds he had to plan, he had decided, ignoring the snickering of his inner beast, to poke and prod at Hinata's defenses in a subtle way to make her move to fix her weaknesses and, perhaps if he was really lucky, understand a need for an 'absolute defense'. The sooner she rediscovered her version of an absolute defense, the better.

Naruto, once again, forgot that the world didn't turn just because he thought it should. Because, just as he started to moved around Hinata's slender glowing hand that sought to close one of his chakra points, the girl moved unexpectedly, the blade of her hand suddenly balling up into a fist and slamming into the side of Naruto's face.

More startled than hurt, Naruto jerked back, reflexively touching his now bleeding lip. "You hit me." he said accusingly as he pulled back.

"So I did." Hinata murmured, her face flushed but her eyes determined. "A ninja must use every weapon in her arsenal."

Naruto quickly realized that when she said every weapon in her arsenal, she _meant_ every weapon in her arsenal. He found himself jumping and dodging out of the way of multiple projectiles as they were hurled at him. As soon as he landed and turned back towards Hinata, he was suddenly assaulted by seven different versions of her.

_Bunshin no Jutsu!_ He thought as his elbow fazed through an illusion. Naruto never accomplished learning the art of picking out the true ninja amongst the bunshins. In the past, he had simply summoned the same amount of kage bunshins as bunshins and had him and his clones punch all copies of the enemy in hopes that one of them would say, "Ow".

Just as he was about to follow that tactic, a nearly invisible strand of tough wire wrapped around his body, binding his hands uncomfortably tight against his chest. He grunted, falling to one knee as he was abruptly yanked by wire.

He told his heart to stop beating so fast, telling it that there was no way that the wire was going to catch itself on fire, that that tactic was such a _Sasuke_ thing, and he was actually facing Hinata and that he highly doubted she knew any fire jutsu-

The wires snapped, broken in his strength born from desperation, slicing into his clothing and skin in several places. Vaguely, he heard Kyuubi mentioning that the wire salesman was probably weeping in the crowd right then, since the wires were practically guaranteed to hold anyone, just as long as they didn't replace themselves with a jutsu right away.

_Okay, so I'm not completely over Sasuke's betrayal_. He admitted to himself as he turned and been surprised at the sight of a slightly shocked Hinata and not the cold smirk of his living but long dead best friend. _Big deal._

And it was a big deal. But Naruto ignored it, shoving it far below all of his other fears and denials. Hinata was more important right now. Especially since she was starting to make the seals for a new jutsu.

He lunged towards her, hoping to spook her out of her technique with some well equipped speed, planning on hooking his leg behind her ankle and pushing her down to the ground so he could end the fight.

She did not spook, however, revealing swiftly that she had masked the reformation of the small chakra blade that had been used to destroy his enhanced kage bunshin. Hinata moved forward just as Naruto stopped, swiping at his chest with the blade that was sharper than any manufactured hunk of steel. Naruto ended up using the foot he planned on attacking her with to brace against the ground as he jumped back.

He managed to dodge the worst of the blade but now his vest was bisected in the middle with a precise and straight horizontal line. Even the zipper had been sliced through. Naruto sweated nervously. That would have done him damage but nothing fatal, as she had aimed below any vital areas. _But still... that was close!_

The glee of the battle returned as well as the roar of blood in his ears. Adrenaline raced through his veins as he promptly forgot about Sasuke, Orochimaru, and even Kyuubi. The world narrowed down to him and Hinata.

_She is going to be such a great ninja someday. She's going to emerge like a butterfly and shock the world with her beauty._ Naruto thought, a strange combination of embarrassment over his poetic thoughts and giddy pride over Hinata's achievements making him grin oddly. At that precise moment, Naruto felt such a longing desire to _live_ that he nearly collapsed to his knees under the force of it. _I can't wait to see her. I want to be a part of that transformation._

_Will you be my butterfly, Hinata-chan?_

---

The battle ended abruptly for the audience, but probably not as abruptly as it had ended for the two combatants, or so Sasuke reasoned. Hinata was still panting for breath, her head bowed, while Naruto stood awkwardly, his hands fluttering up and down as if he wasn't sure if he should still be in a threatening stance or if he should relax now that the fight was practically over.

The other Naruto, the one that had suddenly burst from the ground (rather loudly revealing that Naruto did think as far as two steps ahead, Sasuke grumbled to himself) and had placed Hinata at kunai point, stood silently behind Hinata, smiling sheepishly as he waited for his captive to speak. The girl, realizing that she hadn't checked the ground throughly for other kage bunshins other than the one she had fought, resigned herself and stood still.

"I forfeit." she said, looking up at the jonin overseeing the matches. Of course, since Sasuke was so far away, he couldn't hear her but, thanks to his sharp sharingan eyes, he could just barely make out her lips moving.

The real Naruto finally decided on resting his hands at his sides, even as the crowd cheered at the jonin's announcement of the blond's victory. The clone murmured something that made Hinata smile, and then vanished with a pop.

Even Sasuke, who knew that the two were fond of each other, was shocked how quickly they gravitated to each other. Hinata's hand hovered over Naruto's torso, right over the slash in his vest, her lips moving quickly with some sort of worried question that Sasuke couldn't keep up with. Naruto, in his typical way, laughed it off, casually looking the girl up and down to make sure she wasn't injured.

"Not a surprising victory." Shikamaru said with a sleepy murmur, one eye on the couple walking back into the building. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the shadow user. Here was another person that Sasuke couldn't believe Naruto was friends with. The lazy bastard had slept through the entire match.

"But a very informative one." Shino murmured, crossing his arms over his chest. Despite his dislike for Shino, Sasuke had to agree.

One of the reasons why he detested the Hyuugas, and Hyuuga Neji in particular, was the way that they acted in battle. In most situations, they used nothing outside of their own family techniques, as if they thought that anything that normal ninjas used were not worthy of their notice.

Sasuke knew that the Hyuugas knew many basic jutsus and styles, especially from having to attend the Academy, but never once had any of them, in the few battles he was privileged to see a Hyuuga in, used anything other than their byakugan and their blasted jyuuken. And what pissed him off the most was that their bland approach to fighting was usually enough to assure them of a win.

But Hinata, especially in the last moments of the battle, used her blood limit, Bunshin no Jutsu, some high level chakra manipulation, taijutsu, and jyuuken interchangeably, making her attacks nearly impossible to anticipate. Sasuke smiled. He liked the girl, he really did.

She reminded him nothing of a Hyuuga until he looked into her eyes. She was a nice and humble girl who didn't talk too much. She was fairly decent and, as a bonus in Sasuke's eyes, lacked the inflexibility of the rest of the Hyuuga clan. Or at least had enough common sense to realize quickly that jyuuken just wasn't working against Naruto.

Either way, Sasuke's respect for Hinata jumped up a hundred points. He just hoped Naruto wasn't going to be an idiot and end up hurting the poor girl's feelings with some extremely ill placed comment. He had a tendency to do stuff like that.

---

Hinata's heart was still pounding in her ears, two beats for every footstep that echoed in the room. Naruto paused right in front of the staircase that would take him up the balcony with the other genins.

This would be where they would have to part ways, since Hinata had to turn a corner and find a door that would led her to the stands. She was pretty sure she could find Kiba, and that the boy had saved her a seat. He had strange moments of perception when it came to things like that.

Naruto turned to her, the smudge of blood on his chin still visible even in the low light. Hinata felt a twinge of guilt mixed with delight. Her knuckles still throbbed from landing that hit. Naruto's vest gaped open oddly, since it was not supposed to open horizontally. Hinata could see through the slice that she had managed to slice through his shirt too, though Naruto had insisted earlier that she had just barely missed the skin underneath.

"Are you absolutely sure you don't need to go to the infirmary?" Naruto murmured one more time, his concern nearly a solid thing.

"Not any more than you do, Naruto-kun." she said faintly, starting to feel the pull of exhaustion on the edges of her mind. "Actually, I-"

"Hinata!" Naruto and Hinata turned to the call, both surprised to see Sakura, Ino, and Tenten. Tenten smiled sheepishly, mouthing something about mob mentality while Sakura swiftly hugged the smaller girl, ignoring Hinata's squeak as Ino sent sad looks off in Naruto's direction, a gesture only visible to Hinata.

"You should have punched him harder." Sakura told Hinata as she pulled away. Naruto, when Hinata caught his eye, grinned and shrugged.

"Come on, we saved you a seat, Hinata." Tenten said from over Sakura's shoulder. She glanced at Naruto. "They're starting the next match but first they have to settle down the crowd first. That last match... uh, excited them."

Naruto laughed, the joyous noise echoing loud off of the stairs. "Ha! A lot of people lost their bets, huh?" He nodded twice, knowing it was the truth. "That should teach them better than to bet simply because of a last name."

Sakura suddenly sent him a scathing look for what had the potential to be a hurtful comment, but Hinata knew Naruto too well to view it as an insult. "You're right." she said with a serene smile. "Just because I'm a Hyuuga doesn't mean I'll automatically win. Though..." she bit her lip, suddenly looking very worried and small. "All of those people depended on me, and the clan..."

"Don't worry, Neji will lose too." Naruto said confidently. "No worries about tainting the 'good Hyuuga name' when the heiress and the prodigy both lose, right?" Hinata decided not to point out that she was the ex-heiress, only nodding at his words. If Neji lost too, then she wouldn't feel so bad.

_Actually, I don't feel bad at all_. She realized with a jolt of shock. Despite feeling a little guilty for being the cause of so many people losing money, she was glowing inside, as if she had won a victory even as she lost.

Naruto was _pleased_ with her. And shocked and bewildered, but mostly pleased and proud of her. Hinata had to force herself to not giggle childishly.

Ino wrapped her hand around Hinata's elbow. "Come on, or else Chouji will end up letting someone else have our seats." she said with a faint sound of exasperation. Naruto nodded, starting to walk up the stairs as he called out his goodbyes.

Hinata stared after him with longing for a moment, before looking back at the girls, only to find that they all were looking at her.

"W-what?" she stuttered, blushing under the scrutiny. "What is it?"

"Aren't you going to do something?" Surprisingly, as the one who knew her the best, Tenten spoke first.

"I mean, it's no secret that you like him." Sakura said at the wide eyed look Hinata sent them.

"Even if he isn't as cool as Sasuke-kun." Ino added, unable to resist. Hinata had a stray thought of what she'd like to do. It must have shown on her face with her blush.

"We'll wait here." Tenten said, suddenly coy and smirking. Hinata was disturbed to see Ino and Sakura with the same shark like smirks. _Mob mentality indeed._

Gulping, Hinata turned to the stairs, where Naruto had yet to make it all the way to the top. "Naruto-kun." Her first call was a soft rasp that even she had a hard time hearing. Her second call was stronger and was loud enough to get the blond to turn around, his eyebrow arched in askance.

_You fought him, you even **hit** him, and yet you can't talk to him?_ Hinata yanked up all of her courage and quickly walked up the stairs, stopping at the step below him. Naruto was about an inch or so taller than she was and the step only emphasized that but she couldn't bring herself to share the step that Naruto was on.

"What's wrong, Hinata-chan?" he asked softly, his head tilted to the side. She looked up from his feet and promptly turned a darker shade of red than ever before.

"I, um... well... you see..." Hinata stuttered, her eyes darting around before they fixed on his face. Her shoulders straightened slightly with determination even though her eyes didn't shift from being locked on his jaw. She finally rushed out what she wanted to say. "Good luck with your next match."

And then, pushing up on the tips of her toes, she pressed a kiss on his cheek and promptly fled, the swish of her blue hair registering in his mind before he started to realize what he did. Only the sound of giggling girls (most likely the three who had accosted them had spied on that little exchanged interaction) broke him out of his stupor as he very slowly raised a hand to his cheek.

Perhaps, if Hinata had seen Naruto's rising blush, she would have felt much better about her embarrassment. But, as it was, Naruto's blush remained a secret of the now empty staircase.

Naruto couldn't make head or tail of his thoughts but he knew that it had next to nothing to do with fighting, wars, or ninjas, instead centering around one tiny ninja who managed to throw him off balance with one gesture of affection.

**Imagine if she had done that during the match.** Kyuubi chuckled, his amusement tickling the edges of Naruto's mind like a feather. **You would have ****_lost_, brat.**

That was all the push Naruto needed to get himself out of that dangerous territory. Love could wait until the bad guys were dead, right? He tugged on his hair. "Stop thinking like a stupid girl." he scolded himself as he turned to walk up the stairs. "Keep your mind on track and your eyes forward."

Even reciting the entire rule book of universal ninja laws, backwards, could not pull the silly grin of content off of his face.

---

"The next match is between... Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Neji!"

There was no love lost between Shino and Neji. Shino disliked Neji because of the way that he treated his cousin for seemingly no reason at all. And Neji... Well Neji didn't know who Shino was (very few people were intelligent enough to notice him) and, frankly, Shino didn't think it would make much of a difference.

_At least one can count on him despising the unknown world with the same amount of animosity that he feels for everything else._ Shino frowned deeply, the closest thing he had ever managed to a scowl. There was a reason why he disliked people like Neji and Sasuke. _Needless angst and unfounded demand of attention. Hmph. **Pretty boys**._

The bugs underneath the surface of his skin buzzed urgently. Shino bowed his head, knowing their message and knowing that he would have to ignore it. His pride ached in the knowledge that he was not the stronger of the two ninjas, but he would be honest with himself.

He knew Neji was a better ninja than he was. Shino also knew that Neji would win. Even Hinata on a good day could beat Shino. Bunshins were useless because the byakugan could pick out numerous differences between the patterns of bugs and use it to determine which one was real and which one was not. His bug bunshin was even more so since his bugs, though they could mimic an inner coil system, could not mimic the organ system or veins.

The only thing that Shino had to rely on way draining chakra and even that would be hampered by Neji's infamous absolute defense. Shino had a vague idea how the absolute defense worked, but he hadn't come up with a way around it yet. The bug user suppressed a helpless smile. _Absolute defense, indeed._

Shino knew he was going to lose before he even started walking down the stairs.

Shino, unlike Naruto, had looked at the lineup and done a lot of calculations. Shino had realized that, if the lineup worked like he thought it would, then Naruto would have to fight Neji in the next round.

_I'm not fighting for myself. I'm fighting for my friend._ The bugs were simple minded creatures without hidden motives or double meanings and Shino loved them for that. But they couldn't understand the idea of fighting for a friend.

Was this friend so useless that he couldn't fight for himself? This, the bugs wondered. Was he born defective and thus had to rely on the efforts of others to protect himself?

Shino smiled. _No. I don't have to fight for him. I **want** to fight for him._ The bugs buzzed in confusion but settled down, turning their full attention to the stoic boy walking slightly behind him.

_Hyuuga Neji._ Shino thought with a frown. _He is a dangerous person._ But the faster Naruto won a victory over Neji, the more energy he'd have to spare when he had to fight that other demon host, who stank of blood and dark intent.

Shino didn't know enough about either Sasuke or Lee, or even Shikamaru and Kankurou, to know which one of them would lose in the next matches, but he knew none of those four had what it took to fight a demon host. Only Naruto could beat Gaara.

The bugs buzzed in understanding. Shino would sacrifice his well being and his desire to make everyone see how strong he was, simply to make sure that one of his own could stop the predator before he killed too many. Shino nodded, ignoring the pale eyed boy's stare as they made it out of the room and into the open space of the arena.

His sacrifice. His choice. His loss. And, if everything went well, his victory.

---

Naruto winced, his hands tightening over the rails that lined the balcony. The match between Shino and Neji had been short and brutal. Within seconds of the beginning of the fight, they went all out, revealing techniques of their respective clans that most in the audience had never seen, or at least hadn't seen in years.

Neji lashed out with his jyuuken, startling the more knowledgeable members of the audience with his ability to perform both Hakke Shou Kaiten and Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou, two techniques thought to have only been conquered by select members of the Main Branch. The latter of the techniques ended the match abruptly after Neji managed to seal all of Shino's chakra points.

Neji's constant use of his heavenly spin attack made it difficult for Shino's bugs to get close, but, somehow, Shino did manage to drop a bug on Neji's shoe. Naruto wouldn't have been surprised if he had done it while they had been walking out to the arena. Shino was honorable but he wasn't stupid enough ignore an advantage like that by being noble.

Shino knew exactly where Neji was during the entire match and, by stealing Naruto's tactic, used the ground underneath Neji, ruthlessly taking advantage of the weakness that Naruto had revealed by sending a large group of his bugs through the dirt to settle under Neji's feet.

When Neji realized why his chakra was steadily draining away, he abruptly took to the offensive, lunging forward and tapping all of Shino's chakra points closed. Naruto felt bad for the bug user. Shino knew a lot about the Hyuuga clan through Hinata, but he knew little about techniques that she herself did not know, which meant that Shino had little idea of what to expect of the more advanced techniques of his teammate's clan.

Yet, as medic nins carried him off the scene, Shino smiled, raising a hand in silent salute towards Naruto.

It could have been towards anyone else, Naruto reasoned, looking around the box. But he didn't know anyone else who had the same kind of relationship with the usually silent boy that he did. So he looked at Shino and nodded in approval (of what? Even he didn't know), knowing that at least one of the bugs would pick it up.

Shino's faint smile grew, then disappeared as his hand abruptly dropped back down. Naruto winced. The boy was finally unconscious, he realized sympathetically. Not many people could withstand having their whole inner coil system paralyzed without passing out.

Despite his flawless victory, Neji, who just made it up to the balcony, was scowling thunderously at anyone who dared to catch his eye. Naruto very quickly realized, with an amused snort, the reason why. Half of the boy's energy, used consciously and absorbed without his knowledge, was drained. Neji hadn't planned on using so much of his chakra on one fight.

**You shouldn't plan for the future battles when you have yet to get past the one in front of you.** Kyuubi cajoled, his voice breaking through the mental barrier again. Naruto's head dropped with a heavy sigh, giving up on trying to block that annoying voice. His faint scowl fell to reveal a small unhappy frown.

_That's why Shino was smiling._ Naruto could have hit himself over the head. He might not have been able to win the battle, but he managed to it impossible for Neji to get through to the finals. It was such a _Shino_ thing to do that it made Naruto's heart hurt.

_Stupid Shino._ He thought, grief and annoyance warring for control. _Don't you know that's what got you killed the last time around?_ Realizing that his chakra was spiking out of control, he yanked on the grief and sorrow and shoved it towards the back of his mind, forcing himself to turn to Shikamaru.

"Who does Neji fight next?" he asked, pitching his voice low so that the angry genin wouldn't hear him. Sasuke, standing close to his right shoulder, shamelessly eavesdropped. Shikamaru's gaze flickered to him.

"You." he said tonelessly. Naruto's eyes widened.

After a moment of stunned silence, Sasuke was the one to voice the blond's thoughts. "I guess Shino likes you." he drawled, his eyes showing how little he thought of that. "To make your next match so much easier."

"He probably thinks you need all the help you can get." Shikamaru murmured. At first, Naruto thought this was a jab at his skills but the look on Shikamaru's face was far too serious for that kind of teasing. When Naruto gazed at him questioningly, he jerked his head towards the side. Naruto's eyes followed the movement, landing on a stoic demon host.

**The bug boy knows of me**. Kyuubi purred, something like vanity in his tone. It suggested that he was pleased to be noted and cautiously respected, even by someone as low in the food chain as Shino. **He must then know of Shukaku.** The demon snickered, his blood lust rising in Naruto's mind. **Much fun we will hav**e.

The irritation he had with Kyuubi that Naruto thought he had buried after killing Kabuto suddenly rose once more as a wave in his mind. _Gaara won't have any time to pull out Shukaku, if I have anything to do with it._ Naruto snapped.

Kyuubi respectfully pulled back, that now familiar confusion dancing along the foreign yet familiar feel of his mind pressing against Naruto's. **Seriously, you take the fun out of everything.**

----

"The next match of the first round of the Chuunin Final Exam is between... Nara Shikamaru and Kankurou of Suna!" Shikamaru closed his eyes, letting out a low breath. He thought the whole match up of the exam was rigged.

_Random my ass._ He thought. _Naruto was paired off with someone with a last name that should have guaranteed his loss, Shino was matched with someone who **did** beat him, and now I'm matched with someone who should beat me. It's like they're deliberately trying to get rid of the rookies._

Shikamaru smiled dryly. _And they made sure that Gaara won't fight anyone till the third round because he'd just slaughter any of us weak rookies lucky enough to be in this stupid test_. He imagined that it must have been a harsh blow to the other villages, who sent in their best ninjas, to know that Konoha's rookies were much better than their own strictly trained ninjas. _Their egos must be in **agony**._

The only match up that Shikamaru thought might have actually been random was Sasuke with Lee. Though Lee was not a rookie, Sasuke was the prodigy of the rookies. It wouldn't be too bad for if Sasuke won, simply because his last name was so well known, but it wouldn't be too bad if he lost either, since it would only support the foreign representatives' sullen complaints that rookies shouldn't have been accepted in the exam.

It wouldn't have mattered much if Hinata won either, since her last name was even more infamous than Sasuke's, but she hadn't. Naruto managed to get by her but he'd have to fight Neji in the next round. _He has the worst luck._

"Hmph." Shikamaru's attention was caught by the small sound, his thoughts freezing over as he met the gaze of another. "I have to fight you?"

Shikamaru didn't know whether to feel annoyed at the older genin's superior gaze, or to indulge the cold anger that revived itself when he remembered Ino. He decided to sneer at the genin, the gesture oddly comforting. It wasn't healthy to hold back anger.

"Yes, me." he snapped, his eyes narrowed. "You have a problem with that?"

Kankurou's smirk widened, deliberately looking him up and down. "This shouldn't take too long." With that, he jumped right over the rail of the balcony, landing on the arena below. "Then let's fight!" he shouted from below. "Unless, of course, you're too scared."

"Troublesome moron." Shikamaru breathed between his clenched teeth. He saw Sasuke giving him a strange look. "What do you want, Uchiha?" he snapped. Sasuke smirked.

"I've never seen you this awake, Nara." the insufferable brat told him, daring to look amused at his own observation. Shikamaru had to check his temper, realizing that it was getting out of hand when he felt an urge to punch the smirk right off his face.

_I'd tarnish the reputation of the Nara clan._ Shikamaru thought, finding a serene idea and clinging to it. _I'd be the first Nara to fight in hand to hand combat in three generations. Father would be **so** disappointed._ The idea made him smile as he turned to walk down the stairs. Jumping off the balcony was too much effort.

Shikamaru relaxed further, able to separate his anger from his mind now that he couldn't see Kankurou's infuriating smirk. He barely noticed Naruto falling into step behind him.

---

Naruto walked down the stairs with Shikamaru, biting his lip the entire way down. Should he tell Shikamaru more, or should he let the genin go off to fight blindly? The very least he could do would be to tell Shikamaru to beware of Kankurou's puppets.

Naruto started to open his mouth but Shikamaru suddenly gave him a quick glare, knowing that Naruto wanted to tell him something and knowing that he didn't want to know what it was. Naruto let out an impatient noise.

"You could at least let me talk." he complained. Shikamaru smiled at the sullen tone, watching in faint amusement as Naruto's arms flapped up and down in his annoyance. "I mean, I know lots of stuff about him! I was his ally, remember?"

"And you still are." Shikamaru said gently. Naruto winced, his arms falling back down to his sides. "Allow me to ease your conscience by ignoring any and all advice you have to give."

Naruto scowled, somehow managing to feel both annoyed and grateful at the same time. Shikamaru sighed, pausing at the end of the stairs for a moment before he turned around to face Naruto. Naruto's gaze was hesitant and worried. If Shikamaru allowed himself to analyze further, he would have noted that there was also mild fear in his eyes.

"I'd hate to disillusion you but I'm not fighting for a noble reason." Shikamaru admitted flatly. Naruto gave him a crooked grin, still worried but also wondering if Shikamaru thought that Naruto would actually condemn him for it.

"Since when have I been a shining example of nobility?" the blond shrugged indifferently, his eyes moving away. "Fight for whatever reason you want to, Shika. I'm not going to hate you for it." Suddenly, sharp eyes were on Shikamaru again and an unhappy look graced his face. "But this is revenge, isn't it?"

Shikamaru was silent for a moment before he nodded. "For Ino." he said simply. "That guy could have ended the match in seconds, but he _played_ with her." The shadow user's eyes darkened impossibly. Taking a quick glance around, Naruto realized that the already heavily shadowed staircase was darkening with them, shadows barely quivering at the edges as if they were responding to Shikamaru's emotions.

Naruto bowed his head for a moment, unable to separate Sasuke and Shikamaru in his mind. Both were angered for their loved ones, both wanted revenge, both of them trained hard to reach their goals (for Naruto could not ignore how much Shikamaru had to have trained for his power to rise so quickly), and now that the day of reckoning, the time of the casting of their final vengeance, had come...

"Don't let your anger take over you." Naruto said so quickly that his breath ended in a gasp. His heart beat quickly in his ears, overpowering the soothing voice of Kyuubi promising that they could deal with another Sasuke without any trouble, if the worst memories of Naruto's life played out once more.

Shikamaru didn't say anything, giving Naruto a moment to try and get his emotions under control. Or, at least, separate the image of Sasuke and Shikamaru in his mind. Of course Naruto would start to feel such anxiety. It was around this time that Orochimaru lured Sasuke away from Konoha. Naruto had tried his best to lead Sasuke into a better path towards to the future, but who knows? Maybe he had accidentally led his best friend down an even worse path.

When the shadow user could see that Naruto had calmed down, he spoke. "Revenge... it's a stupid thing, really." Shikamaru turned away from Naruto, his hands burrowing in his pockets. "Troublesome and annoying." He started to walk away. "I'm not Uchiha Sasuke, Naruto. And I never will be."

With that, all of the tension in Naruto bled away, easing with every step Shikamaru took away from him. Relief flooded him. _Shikamaru, not Sasuke._ Naruto thought with a wide grin. _Shika, you haven't changed._

Shikamaru would take advantage of having the opportunity to fight the person who angered him but the anger would not last after the fight. Holding a grudge, as Shikamaru would say, would be too troublesome. His brief revenge would not control his life, twisting his mind until he snapped under the pressure.

_Revenge itself isn't such a bad thing. It's a normal human thing._ Naruto couldn't stop smiling, even when Shikamaru turned around for a moment, rolling his eyes at the glee in the blond's eyes. _It is how you let go or don't let go of your revenge that makes it acceptable or not. _

For someone who was supposed to be older than he looked, Naruto still acted like an immature child. Shikamaru frowned, suddenly relieved that the boy was so childish. He couldn't imagine how life would be if Naruto was prone to angst and brooding. Sasuke was bad enough all on his own.

---

Orochimaru sneered down at the people below him, the effect lost to the crowd as most of his face was hidden by cloth. He resisted the urge to sigh irritably and shift around in boredom in the confines of his seat, only because his old teacher was sitting next to him, watching him out of the corner of his eye.

_Ah, Sarutobi-sensei._ He thought fondly. _Could you have guessed, in all your infinite wisdom, that our relationship would degenerate into this? Two enemies, divided only by your fear and your sickening moral code. _A faint smirk twisted his lips. _I could have led this village into greatness, but you just had to pick that stupid idiot for Hokage instead of me._ A surprising burst of bitterness made his hands clench. _You're my sensei. The one I respected in all matters but in matters of the heart. You know nothing of true sacrifice._

"Who do you believe the proctors will choose to become chuunin?" Orochimaru asked, his voice already pitched at the real Kazekage's normal tone. He leaned forward, injecting fake mild enthusiasm in his voice. "I wish the very best for Gaara and Kankurou, of course."

"There is a lot of potential in this year's batch of chuunin hopefuls." Sarutobi said benignly. The smaller man smiled. "It could be any one of them."

_As slippery as usual._ Orochimaru assessed the Hokage, a strange stirring of annoyance and nostalgia in his mind. _Addressing the question without giving a true answer._

There was also the off chance that Sarutobi was just trying to stop himself from favoring one ninja over another. Heavens knows that he had learned the folly of that. Orochimaru smirked, wondering how many of his teacher's precious ninjas would die this day, slain by the combined forces of Suna and Oto.

_It would positively kill him._ Orochimaru thought with relish. _That is, if I don't get to him first._

Orochimaru would have thought that Sarutobi would have learned to detach himself from his subjects instead of viewing them as offshoots of his own family. But, given how the Hokage's eyes would soften when focused on the genins (especially the ones from his village), Orochimaru knew he had not.

_It might please you to know, sensei, that I've at least learned one thing from you._ Orochimaru turned back to the arena. _I've never favored any of my subjects_. He frowned, thinking of his potential bodies. _Not in any emotional way, of course._

His ninjas, those weakling fools who stared with him in adoration or in awe of his power, were little more than distractions, forever trying to seek his favor only to fail each time, never getting that it was blood limits that Orochimaru was most interested in, not hard work and strength.

_Silly little fools..._ Suddenly he thought of Kabuto and his untimely death. _Tragic, I suppose._ He thought indifferently. _But he isn't the only medic nin in the world._ Orochimaru could think of one at the top of his head, a female who had more medical knowledge than Kabuto could ever hope to gain in two lifetimes. _I wonder if Tsunade is still pining hopelessly for her dead brother and her dead lover?_

No, the only thing Orochimaru was concerned with was that odd message left with his minion's dead body. It was too vague to pull any meaning out of but it was clearly threatening, if he was correct in assuming that it was addressed to him.

Sighing softly, he propped his chin on his palm. Traitor obviously meant Kabuto, which also meant that whoever killed him had ties to or was loyal to Konoha. That part, at least, was clear. However, the reference to allies and revolution confused him.

The change of an enemy into a friend could have been referring to anything from Konoha making friends out of one of the many villages who hated them, to a demon host making friends with their inner demons.

Orochimaru snorted at the last thought, amused by the idea of Shukaku and Gaara working together. Shukaku was too blood thirsty for even Gaara. Eventually the cross little boy would have a shock of conscience and would, in the worst case scenario, become a good guy, or in the best case scenario, kill himself.

_Revolution... again, too vague._ Orochimaru closed his eyes halfway, holding back a yawn and showing how little he thought of that. _Kabuto's killer probably was talking out of his ass._ Orochimaru's eyes flashed open all the way, a scowl forming unseen on his face. _'Watch your back'? I understand that threat. I will congratulate Kabuto's killer on besting him before I kill him for threatening **me**._

"Does this bore you, _Kazekage-sama_?" Orochimaru glanced over, certain he had heard an emphasis on his stolen face's title. But there was nothing suspicious to be seen on the old man's face. The look was mild and blank yet faintly uptight. Orochimaru smirked.

"I'm afraid so, Hokage-sama." Orochimaru murmured, inserting regret in his voice as he leaned towards the Hokage. "The petty fights and violence between children is beneath me. Certainly it is beneath you too?"

Sarutobi's eyes flashed. "Hardly." the old man replied. "The petty fights and violence between children, as you so charmingly put it, tend to shape our future. I find it very important to pay attention to." He looked away. "It's is the duty of today's generation to make way for tomorrow's future."

_Tomorrow you'll be dead, old man._ Orochimaru thought childishly.

"More philosophy, sensei?" Orochimaru scowled suddenly at the familar voice, his temper worsening at the light laughter that followed. "You should put it in a book and sell it." He tilted his head, glaring at the sight of Jiraiya, who had just entered. The snake-like man's former teammate was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Orochimaru's eyes widened at the person who came out from behind Jiraiya.

Tsunade, sweet moping Tsunade-hime who couldn't win a bet to save her life, didn't look a day over twenty. For a moment, Orochimaru knew true anger. Had Tsunade, with her vast amounts of medical jutsu knowledge, figured out the path towards immortality? He burned with jealous rage until he realized that it was just an elaborate genjutsu or ninjutsu.

"Ah, Kazekage-sama." Sarutobi turned back to him, a smile on his face. "Have you met my old students, Jiraiya and Tsunade?" He looked at them, fondness lighting up his eyes. "They're my two best students."

"I've heard of them." Orochimaru grounded out, his pride stung, despite his best efforts at indifference, at the words 'best students'. _**I **was his best student._ He reminded himself. _I just decided that his curriculum wasn't working for me._

"Aw, sensei, you're making me blush!" Jiraiya said, grinning widely. He turned towards the arena, a hand cast over the tops of his eyes as he peered out. "So, what did we miss? Tsunade had to go pretty herself up."

"Shut up, you liar." Tsunade snapped, her arms crossed over her ample chest. "We're late because you took a detour into the ladies hot springs, you old pervert. I was the one who dragged you out of there." She looked around, her brown eyes hard. "Chair?"

Two chairs were immediately procured for them by one of the ninjas on guard. She nodded at the ninja before lightly sitting down. Jiraiya followed her movement with much less grace, taking up the left side of Sarutobi while Tsunade sat on the right, between the Hokage and the Kazekage.

_This makes everything much easier._ Orochimaru mused, going back to his earlier thought of how he should get the blond haired woman on his side. _Just a quick flash of those fools' corpses and she'll be eating out of my hand._ He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye._ She was never as morally strict as they were._

"Details, details... Who needs them?" Jiraiya brushed off her words with an idle hand, turning to Sarutobi. "So?"

"I would think a writer would be in need of details, Jiraiya." Sarutobi said, amused at his student's antics. "You missed two matches. One was a match that your student was involved in, I'm afraid."

Orochimaru had started to tune them out, but at the interest Tsunade was showing in the conversation, he turned back in. _What could she possibly be interested in?_ He listened, hoping to learn a new angle into forcing the woman to join his side.

"He didn't..." Jiraiya trailed off, looking crushed. Sarutobi didn't say anything, choosing to rearrange his robes instead of giving an answer.

Tsunade made a tsking noise, settling more firmly into her chair. "Of course he won. How could he not?" she said disapprovingly. She turned to Sarutobi. "Don't be so mean, old man."

Sarutobi looked up and smiled. Seeing the lighthearted expression, Jiraiya's expression turned sour. "You're mean, sensei." he groaned, covering his face with a hand. "And here I was, worrying if my poor student was laid up in a hospital somewhere..." He pulled his hand away, his face suddenly pulled in a look of concentration. He turned to Tsunade. "Wait, how did _you_ know he'd win?"

To Orochimaru's surprise, a smile lit up Tsunade's face. "Because he is Uzumaki Naruto, because he's already informed me that he was going to be Hokage, and because he's still wearing my necklace." she said promptly and with some affection.

In what would be a difficult task to recruit Tsunade to his side, Orochimaru suddenly was handed a foolproof plan B on a silver platter, and his name was Uzumaki Naruto.

----

Meanwhile, the third match of the first round of the Chuunin Final Exam was about to begin. Kankurou waited impatiently next to a stoic Hayate as Shikamaru, his hands in his pockets, slowly approached.

"I see you took your sweet time." Kankurou sneered at the smaller boy, whose eyes finally landed on him, though in a lazy manner. "Did someone have to hold your hand on the way down?"

"I had to comfort a friend, actually." Shikamaru said mildly. He tilted his head, a faint expression passing over his face. "A friend? You know what that is, right?"

Kankurou's smirk slipped. His eyes narrowed. "You're an overconfident brat." he snapped. He hated overconfident brats and was stuck with one nearly all the time that he didn't dare to touch. "I won't even have to break a sweat while I'm wiping the floor with you." This Nara Shikamaru, however, wasn't exempt from his wrath.

"Say that after you beat me." Shikamaru's eyebrows arched high. He adopted an innocent look. "You _heathen_." Kankurou growled but it didn't phase Shikamaru. After all he had been through lately, little could actually shock him.

_Well, figuring out that Naruto is a demon host was a little shocking_. Shikamaru thought. _But, really, I should have seen it coming. It was so damn obvious, especially with the way the villagers treat him. Most of them fear the very air he breathes while the foolish ones hate him._

How anyone could ever fear Naruto was beyond Shikamaru. The blond was too much of an idiot, too much of a do gooder, and too much of a damn hero to _ever_ inspire fear in Shikamaru.

Kyuubi, however, is a different story. Shikamaru shuddered._ People should learn to remember that Naruto and Kyuubi are vastly different people, even if they are wearing the same face._

Hayate gave the genins a concerned look, sensing that there was no love lost between the two. He glanced over at Shikamaru, a little more concerned for the thinner and smaller younger genin than he was for the sand genin.

_It's like Nara is begging to get his ass kicked. _He thought with a frown, knowing how offensive the word heathen was to a sand nin. It was almost as much of a slur to them as tree hugger was to leaf nins.

"Are you ready?" Hayate murmured, looking at each of them in turn. Shikamaru looked bored while Kankurou had a deadly scowl on his face, his fingers flexing threateningly. Receiving no answer, Hayate bowed to what their expressions were telling him. "Very well. Begin!"

---

Temari stood behind the highest seats in the stands, rolling her eyes at some of the bets she overheard, and not just between the non-ninja members of the audience, though the foreign lords themselves were the worst. She couldn't help but smile when she heard someone complaining about losing half of their life-savings on the very first match of the exam.

_You shouldn't judge people by their name._ Her eyes flickered over to where the Hokage and Kazekage were sitting. _Or by their looks._

A sand nin appeared next to her suddenly, as if he had been standing there all along. Casually, Temari leaned against the wall, putting herself a little closer to the ninja and just in earshot of his low voice.

She recognized him almost immediately, not surprising since everyone from Suna knew each other very well. He was one of the jonin leaders, besides Baki, that led the forces; in this case the one led the forces that the Kazekage wanted to attack the walls of Konoha. The fact that he was here and not there meant that something very big was on the horizon.

Both satisfied and bitter at once, she crossed her arms over her chest, glancing around the arena. There should have been more ANBU forces posted but only half of a force was there. _They must be posted at key attack sites so that they might be able to counterattack the sound invasion with more ease. That means Baki-sensei managed to get the information to the Hokage._ Temari thought with a heavy frown. _I don't like this. Why didn't the Hokage just cancel this stupid thing? No matter how much preparation, there's still going to be massive amounts of casualties. _

The jonin next to her sighed, shifting from one foot to another. He looked like the average tired Konoha civilian who just barely made it in to watch the exam. No one, not even the Kazekage, would have given him a second glance, save for the flash of a Suna forehead protector with three etches across it, three slashes for every Kazekage that he had rebelled against.

The third slash was new. _Faithful to Suna but rebellious against its Kazekages. _The only reason why he wasn't expelled from their village was because he was continuously aiding the village, despite his constant insubordination to leaders that he did not like. He was a fairly interesting character. _And a fairly dangerous one too.  
_  
"There's a sandstorm coming." the ninja murmured regretfully, watching Kankurou attempt to pummel the leaf genin. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. Temari wasn't paying much attention. She already knew her brother was going to win. "We predict that it will be a bad one."

Temari nodded. She already knew that as well. "Can we weather it or should we head back?" she asked after a moment of deliberation.

The ninja shook his head slowly. "It's far too late now. And, besides, if we did go back..." he turned to her, frowning lightly. "We would never be able to outrun it. It would catch up with us eventually and destroy us."

Temari grimaced, realizing that was why the Hokage didn't cancel the exam. The invasion was going to happen, whether they liked it or not. Canceling the exam at last moment, especially when there were so many people in Konoha at the moment who wished to see it, would only cause more panic and hysteria than need be. That and they'd end up tipping the imposter off.

"You know..." the ninja shifted again. He was a nervy yet paranoid man, a strange combination in a man such as he. "You and your siblings are exempt from having to fight with us." He glanced over, his voice careful. "You guys are just kids."

Temari frowned, a little off balanced by the shift of double speak to conversation. "I would love to back out of this." she said truthfully. "And so would Kankurou. But Gaara..." She bowed her head, fidgeting slightly. "He has other motives for being involved in this. He... doesn't care at all about what happens around him. He's going to stay and see through his goal, even while Konoha collapses all around him." She straightened, throwing her shoulders back. "And if he stays, we stay. I'm not abandoning my brother." _Never again, Gaara. I promise you, brother. Never again..._

---

Shikamaru dodged back, wincing at the deep cut across his chest. In the first few seconds of the match, his opponent had whipped out his damn doll and had the creepy looking thing try and take his head off.

Shikamaru thanked his training for the newfound reflexes that had kept his head connected firmly to his shoulders, but not for the gash across his chest. Apparently, his reflexes had forgotten about combo attacks.

He jumped back again when the clicking of the puppet started ringing in his ears. He found that it was hard to predict the movement of the doll if you simply watched it. Karasu's movements were so odd and twitchy that it seemed like it was equally likely that the doll was going to go one way as it was going to go the other.

But the noise of the wooden joints clicking together like rattling bones gave the movement away. It was just a matter of being able to dodge it once you heard the noise. It usually started to click faster once it was about to attack, while it tended to click a little slower if it was just moving around.

_The reactions of the doll... they're slower now._ Shikamaru realized after a few successful dodges. He smirked. _I guess my theory was right._ He slid back to a stop, not moving as the puppet lunged towards him. The puppet, for seemingly no reason at all, halted a foot away from him, quivering and shaking and clicking. _He has a limited range of control, just like I do.  
_  
"Dammit, accept your fate and _stop running away_!" Kankurou bellowed, rushing forward. Shikamaru started moving back again, dodging the swipes of the puppet as he jerked back. Kankurou stopped, panting. He couldn't control the puppet very well while he was moving, that Shikamaru was glad to see. _He can't multi task well, excellent. Makes my life easier, in any rate.  
_  
Shikamaru sat down on the ground, ignoring the shuddering of the wooden creature only a few feet away from him, and looked up into the sky. He frowned at the sun. _It's not late enough. How much longer must I drag this fight out?  
_  
In a strategic point of view, it was ridiculously easy to beat Kankurou. His weapon of choice was a puppet and, since he needed both hands to control it, he had little defense of his own to boast of. All one really needed to do was force the puppet away from the puppeteer as far as possible, and then attack the puppeteer. His hands would literally be tied by the strings of chakra used to control the puppet, so, in theory and unless he had extremely fast reflexes, the puppeteer would not be able to defend himself.

Shikamaru ran into a slight snag in this theory though. The damn puppet was _fast_ and was after _him_. The range at which Kankurou could still easily control his puppet far exceeded Shikamaru's own ability to stretch shadow. But there was a limit, of course. So, technically, he could bait the puppeteer into sending his puppet far away from his body, but Shikamaru could never outrun the puppet into getting back at the puppeteer.

He could separate them as much as he wanted but he could never get to the puppeteer, not with how fast and brutal Kankurou made his puppet to be. Without a teammate to aid him or without Naruto's handy kage bunshins, Shikamaru couldn't attack Kankurou at all. It was hopeless.

But Shikamaru was, as Asuma constantly pointed out, a genius, so he already figured out a way around that. For him, it was simply a matter of getting from point A and point B, but the sun, a major player in his victory plan, was not cooperating.

He glanced at the wall behind him, glaring at the small sliver of shadow. _Come on, sun. You can do better than that. Don't wimp out on me now._ Shikamaru stood, realizing that Kankurou had moved forward again.

"Pay attention, damn you!" The puppet lunged forward with the puppeteer's cry, barely missing Shikamaru. _Here we go again..._

---

"What the hell does he think he's doing?!" A screech made Sakura looked down the row of the stands she was sitting at. Ino was standing on top of the bench, punching her fist in the air. "Shikamaru! Fight him! Now!"

"Heh..." Sakura watched her friend sheepishly, noticing that she wasn't the only one to do so. Their whole section of the stands were staring at Ino like she grew a second head.

"Twelve year olds, I swear." Tenten muttered underneath her breath, hunching her shoulders and pretending that she didn't know Ino. Sakura patted her arm reassuringly.

"Nice to see that she's lively again." A sarcastic murmur from the stairs redirected her attention to Kiba. "And my ears had just healed from her last banshee shriek..."

"Where were you?" she asked, curious about the slightly pinched look he had on his face. He didn't look physically tired but he still managed to look weary. There was a faint tightness around his eyes that hadn't been there before. Sakura knew it probably had something to do with the reason why Hinata suddenly disappeared.

"Shino." he said simply. "He's still out cold. But... I think he'd want to know what happens here so... I guess I'll watch the rest of the matches so I can tell him about it. Hinata's still with him..." He trailed off, looking sad. Sakura smiled at him sympathetically, knowing how it felt to see a teammate get hurt and how it hurt to know that there was next to nothing you could do about it.

He shifted, leaning over slightly. Akamaru made a soft noise before burrowing deeper into his jacket. The dog was extremely sensitive to chakra levels. Being around so much energy and rising chakra was probably upsetting.

Kiba looked over the rows for a moment before making an impatient noise. With a soft sigh, he turned back to Sakura. "Some guy took my seat. Can I sit with you guys?" he asked, almost apologetic.

"Sure!" Sakura agreed immediately, turning to the girl next to her. "Hey, scoot over, Tenten..." After some grumbling and shifting, they made a spot for Kiba, which he gratefully took.

"Nice spot. Couldn't see much where I was before..." he murmured. He turned to Sakura. "I left after they took Shino. How much did I miss?"

"Not much." Sakura said with a sheepish smile. She jerked a thumb towards the battle, or the sad parody of a battle, in the arena. "This match started right after Shino's ended."

His eyes widened. "No way! I've been gone for _at least_ forty-five minutes! Even Hinata's match only lasted fifteen minutes and that was under special conditions." He peered down at the arena. "Man, what the hell is Shika doing..."

"Dodging when he feels like it and staring at the clouds when he's bored." Ino answered promptly, overhearing the question. She cupped her hands over her mouth. "Shikamaru, you lazy bum! You're _embarrassing_ me!"Kiba snorted. "Good thing Hinata's a nice girl. I would have killed myself already if I had a teammate like Ino on my case." Overhearing this as well, Ino glowered at Kiba, her shoulders hunched up to her ears.

"What did you say, mutt boy?" she demanded, her fists up in front of her. "Wanna a piece of me? Come on then!" She punched an imaginary opponent. "I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Hya!" Sakura sighed, wondering how she got into this mess.

---

Shikamaru scowled. Why couldn't Ino keep her mouth shut? He could hear her from all the way down there and, to make things worse, the audience seemed to share the same opinion since they decided to throw trash and rotten fruits at him.

He blinked as a particularly smelly peach landed with a sickening squish only a few inches away from his head. _Perhaps I shouldn't lay down like this. _He mused, pausing in his futile attempt to urge the sun to move faster. _It seems to piss them off._

He sat up reluctantly, his eyes immediately moving over to where Kankurou was repairing his puppet. During an attempt to get away from the doll, Shikamaru had thrown several explosion tagged kunais at it. One, in a lucky shot, embedded right in the joint and blew the puppet's arm off.

Shikamaru supposed half the reason why the crowd was so angry was because he wasn't trying to take advantage of Kankurou's inattentiveness while he was fixing his doll. He was just patiently sitting and waiting for the older boy to get done. It infuriated the crowd.

The crowd was stupid. Or, at the very least, they didn't see what Shikamaru did. Without the puppet as a distraction, there was _no way_ Shikamaru could win. If he tried to fight the sand genin now, he would be easily defeated. Kankurou, with his luck, was probably excellent in taijutsu. With the way that Kankurou looked up every few seconds to look at Shikamaru, the shadow user knew there was no way he could close all that distance without catching the Suna puppeteer's attention.Didn't the crowd understand the life of a ninja? Didn't Ino understand the life of the ninja? _Forty-five percent of your time is spent waiting, watching, recording... reconnaissance work even. It's not all about action. It's about finding your target's weaknesses and using them to your advantage at the best possible time._

Kankurou started to stand, pulling his puppet up with him. Shikamaru moved to his knees so that he might be able to move quickly, if needed. "Done?" he asked, his head tilted. Shikamaru felt nice and relaxed, and slightly more forgiving than he had felt at the beginning of the match. Watching clouds tended to do that to him.

Kankurou wouldn't meet his eyes. "Thanks." he said gruffly, slowly reattaching chakra strings to his puppet. "You didn't have to wait."

"Don't thank me yet." Shikamaru drawled, feeling all of his annoyance at the other genin fade. "I plan on fully taking advantage of this." Kankurou looked up and smirked at the expression on Shikamaru's face.

"You haven't won yet, kid." he said, less arrogant than before but more teasing. He flexed his fingers and what was once a lifeless doll suddenly sprang up on its feet, seemingly supporting itself.

The younger genin grinned at the challenge. "It's only a matter of time." Shikamaru jerked his thumb behind him at the shadow darkened ground. "The sun is on my side."

Kankurou frowned, a little confused, but then he remembered that Shikamaru was supposed to be able to be able to manipulate shadow, a skill that hadn't made much of an appearance yet.

Understanding hit him like a rock to the head. "Oh! You sly bastard." he said, realizing why Shikamaru had been stalling. The sun was dipping lower and lower, casting a part of the arena in shadow. The high walls of the arena had insured this. A whole patch of ground behind Shikamaru was covered in shadow.

Shikamaru took several steps backward until he was standing in the shadow. Then he slid down into a stance, his hands out in front of him. Kankurou manipulated Karasu until it was standing several feet away from him.

"No matter how much your shadows have been amplified by that," the older boy said with a smirk. "You can't beat me." The puppet shivered and clicked. "And you can't control Karasu."

"Of course not." Shikamaru acknowledged, mentally calculating the size of the shadow behind Kankurou. If he just just get the boy to back up a little... "You're the only one who can control that doll. If I tried to manipulate it with my shadows, you'd just end up controlling me." Shikamaru frowned. Ino had been the one to show him that.

He shook his head lightly, banishing that troubling thought before lifting his head to smirk at Kankurou. "The only one I want to control is _you_." he said, urging his shadow forward. Without any warning, a streak of darkness stretched out across the ground, shooting forwards towards Kankurou. Startled at the speed of the shadow, the puppeteer jumped back , pulling his puppet with him.

"You can never control a puppeteer!" Kankurou snapped, jumping back again when the shadow seemed to quiver and shoot out several feet further across the ground. _He has to be using the shadows in the stadium to stretch it out!_ Kankurou realized, hastily backing up even further. _But he'll only be able to go so far... but even that would increase the later it gets._ He briefly glared at the sun for creating his opponent's weapon. _I have to attack and end this now!  
_  
He shifted and flexed his fingers, making Karasu dart out towards the boy in the shadows. The distance, both forced by a need to stay stationary (mostly to avoid showing off his more advanced techniques) and by occasional flying kunai from his enemy, severely tested his limit of control over the puppet, making the doll slower and less fluid, but if he could just get one hit in... Kankurou didn't realize that the match was already over.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the long stretch of shadow behind Kankurou, caused by the puppet master himself. A brief smile lit up his face. He dropped the control he had over the shadows, watching for a moment as they disappeared in the power of the sunlight. He shifted his hands into a different set of hand seals and, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.

Karasu landed in a confused jumble where Shikamaru had been standing. Kankurou gaped stupidly, wondering if it had been a genjutsu all along. "What the hell...?" his head jerked around. "Where is he...!"

There was a presence behind him. All who were observing the battle watched in absolute shock as Shikamaru seemed to come up out of the shadow, landing with surprising gracefulness behind his opponent. Before Kankurou could react, a puddle of darkness surrounded his and Shikamaru's feet, completely paralyzing his movement.

Shikamaru, lazily wading through the oppressive force of the shadow(which didn't seem to bother him at all), placed a kunai at his neck. "Forfeit." he told the older boy indifferently. "You've lost."

Kankurou bit his lip, all he could really manage to do, and tried to flex his fingers, attempting to call Karasu back to him. The doll shifted a little, but collapsed back to the ground with a desolate clicking noise. Kankurou bowed his head, realizing his loss.  
"I... forfeit."

----

The ecstatic cries and cheers was startling at first but the two genins walked out of the arena without a glance at the audience.

"...Well, that was fairly humiliating." Kankurou said finally when they were inside.

Shikamaru nodded without disagreeing. Kankurou shot him an annoyed look. "By the speed of shadow?" he snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "If you could move like that, why didn't you just finish me off earlier? It would have been less humiliating."

"Why didn't you finish off Ino earlier?" Shikamaru countered, his eyes flickering over towards the puppet master. They stopped walking when they reached the stairs. Shikamaru wasn't quite glaring but his expression was hard.

"Ino...?" Kankurou echoed, looking confused. And then he understood. "Oh, the girl! ...I guess I wanted to teach her a lesson."

Shikamaru looked away. "Then perhaps I wanted to teach you a lesson as well." There was no way that he was going to tell him that he couldn't move like that before. Let him chew on that. _I'm not telling him that my Shadow Teleportation jutsu required that he'd have a sizable shadow behind him._ He winced, knowing that if the ten second delay of the jutsu had been any longer, he might have still lost.

Kankurou looked him, stuck between wanting to be annoyed and wanting to apologize. He remembered suddenly that, with the Kazekage's death, he was an ally of Konoha, so there was no need for unwarranted animosity. _Guess I should go find that girl too._

"Yes, I guess I learned my lesson." he said, cautiously keeping his voice light. When Shikamaru looked over at him, he smiled. "Never underestimate a tree hugger." He stuck out his hand.

Shikamaru smirked in response. "I guess one shouldn't underestimate a heathen either." he shook the other boy's hand. In a faint moment of camaraderie, they grinned at each other before pulling away.

Kankurou sighed, backing away a little more while he rubbed the back of his head. "This is really embarrassing. You didn't even injure me." Kankurou then looked at him in concern. "Though, you might want to head over the infirmary. You're still bleeding."

Shikamaru placed a hand over the cut on his chest. It was long and went from his left shoulder to his right hip. "It's not that deep. Most of it is scabbed over already." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Besides, there's only the match between that green kid and Pretty Boy Uchiha, and then the second round will have started. I can't very well show up to my match if those people are poking at me in the infirmary."

Kankurou raised his hands. "Hey, suit yourself, kid." He shifted his puppet over his shoulder and headed over to the door that led to the stands. He paused for a moment, glancing over. "Good luck."

Shikamaru smiled. No wonder Naruto told him to treat the sand nins with polite caution. For such a dangerous group of people, they could actually turn out to be great allies. "Thanks."

---

Ino sat down heavily, her eyes wide in surprise. Chouji, just to her left, chomped happily on his potato chips. "He... won." she whispered. It was hard to believe it but there it was. Their lazy ass bum actually beat a powerful ninja from Suna. It was enough for Ino to look at him in a different light.

"Yup!" Chouji chirped proudly. Of course, despite his happiness at his friend winning, Chouji was just as shocked as she was. He had expected Shikamaru to forfeit halfway in. _Oh well. He'll probably forfeit later._

"Against that doll guy." Ino was still stuck on the idea of Shikamaru winning, not being able to roll with it like Chouji.

"Yup!" he simply replied, searching around his seat. Where did he put his drink again?

"Using a jutsu I have never seen before." Finding it, Chouji paused. Yes, that jutsu was a little strange. He thought he knew all of Shikamaru's techniques. In the end, he shrugged. _So he learned a few more things. Good for him._

"Yup!" he said absently, flicking the lid of his drink open and taking a long swig.

There was a pause where Ino simply sat there, her eyes wide and vacant in surprise. Then, without any warning she turned to Chouji and started shaking the boy by his shoulders, making him spill his drink. "Did you see that, Chouji?" she nearly squealed. "That was almost... Sasuke-worthy!"

"Uh..." But before Chouji could think of a new response, Ino was off to another topic.

"Oh, Sasuke!" A transformation seemed to go over her. Her eyes fluttered and her hands curled under her chin. A dreamy smile came over her face. "Sasuke-kun's match is next." She giggled girlishly.

"Ah, poor Shika." Chouji mumbled. He shook his head while wiping up the mess. "She's already fussing over the next match."

---

The next match commenced quickly, as it was one of the most anticipated matches of the entire exam. Rock Lee, sadly enough, was a nearly unknown entity, but Uchiha Sasuke was the last member of a widely known clan that was tragically destroyed by one of its own.

The crowd loved the drama in it all, likening Sasuke as the tragic hero and Lee as his fearsome rival who would do anything to keep Sasuke from rising up as he should. They had no idea that if the drama were to have any merit at all, they should have switched the roles around. Lee was too much of a nice guy to try and hold Sasuke back and Sasuke was anything but a hero.

They warily watched each other as they took up opposites sides of Hayate. The jonin already began the match and backed up several paces, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire of anything they would use in the battle.

After a moment of no action, Lee decided to speak up. "I'd like to tell you, Sasuke-san, that it is a pleasure to fight you." he spoke honestly, his eyes reflecting the truth. "Your skills are much spoken about in many circles."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, trying to see a trick in all of this pleasant talk but not finding one. There wasn't even one to be found. "It is a pleasure to fight you as well." he said finally. "I've heard that you're quite the taijutsu expert?"

Lee nodded. "Hard work, Sasuke-san. All hard work." he said earnestly. His hands fisted in front of him as he stared at the younger genin in fiery determination. "I may not excel in most ninja arts, but you will not be able to beat me in taijutsu. I've shed too much blood, sweat, and tears."

_Damn, it's like talking to Naruto._ Sasuke thought with a grimace. _It's the same sort of spiel. 'The only reason why I'm stronger is because I trained more than you do'. Lies, I know it. Naruto is too strong for that to be true._ He considered Lee thoughtfully. _Though it might be true for this guy._

Sasuke shook himself out of his thoughts, turning a hard eyed stare on Lee. "Hard work means nothing if you don't have anything to work with." he said quietly. Lee's eyes widened at the challenge.

"Very well, Sasuke-san." he said, folding one arm behind his back while extending the other out in front of him. "Allow me to show you what I have to work with."

---

He leaned far over the tiny rail of the balcony, his elbows resting on the hard metal. One hard push to the middle of his back and he'd be down in the ring, confused as all hell. Ignoring such dangers, he made a face at the match below him. "Dammit, you stubborn bastard... I said lay off the taijutsu..." he mumbled to himself.

"You say something, Naruto?" Naruto turned, blinking wearily at Shikamaru, who had asked. He shrugged, straightening back up as he turned around to face his friend fully.

"Sasuke's being a dimwit, as usual." He sighed, sliding down to the ground with his back against the ground. He closed his eyes. "Sometimes, I wonder why I even bother. His damn puffed up ego totally pisses me off-"

"What right have you to talk about your betters, dobe?" Naruto opened his eyes, lazily tilting his head to glare halfheartedly at the ninja standing over him. The Hyuuga's eyes were blazing with annoyance even while his face was completely blank.

"Hey, only one person can call me that." Naruto protested lightly, a faint smile twisting his lips. "And his name ain't Hyuuga Stick-Up-My-Ass Neji." He leaned back more firmly against the railing, ignoring the Hyuuga's glare as he stretched. "As for Sasuke being my better... don't make me laugh. Sasuke has a long way to go until he can beat me. And he knows it."

"If I am not mistaken, weren't you the idiot with the lowest scores during graduation?" Neji said acidly. "The weakest dogs bark the loudest, I believe."

Naruto turned and grinned at Shikamaru. "Yup! I scored lowest and Shika just barely got a better score than me!" Neji started, turning from Naruto to glare at Shikamaru. Naruto gave Shikamaru a thumbs up, a gesture that the shadow user dismissed with a roll of his eyes.

"Don't lump me in with you, Naruto..." Shikamaru sighed, ignoring Naruto's offended 'hey!'.

Neji glared down at the top of Shikamaru's head. He had been impressed with the Nara's skills during his match, completely understanding the boy's need to waste time even as he wished he was a little quicker about it. Kankurou was simply too strong of a ninja to be attacked outright. _Only a genius could have bridged the gaps between their strengths. Only someone like that Nara kid._ Neji had no doubt that Shikamaru would make it to chuunin.

But he had expected better of him. To be so close to last place during graduation? What was he doing during the exams, sleeping? When Shikamaru yawned widely, Neji realized that sleeping during the exam was probably not that far off from the truth, if not right on target.

As if Shikamaru could hear his thoughts, he glanced over, his dark eyes managing to be both tired and unimpressed at the same time. "Test scores aren't everything." he said quietly, voicing Neji's thoughts.

They had already lost Naruto's attention, as the blond had hopped back up and was watching the match again. Shikamaru tilted his head slightly, his eyes on Naruto's back as the blond shouted something down to the ring. After a few seconds, the shadow user turned back to Neji. "If you plan on going into your next battle with a mindset that you're fighting a loser, you will _lose_, Hyuuga." He seemed to pull back, appraising Neji critically. After a moment, he made his final conclusion. "Naruto's ten times the ninja you are."

---

Sasuke was dizzy. It was too be expected, he admitted to himself, relenting and turning off his sharingan. It wasn't doing him much good. He could see Lee's attacks but he just couldn't put up enough of a defense in time to help.

And, of course, anyone who had hit the wall headfirst a few times was bound to be a little dizzy as well. _Can't forget that._ He thought wryly, wiping at a bloody scrape on his cheek. Lee merely stood there as he had at the beginning of the match, one arm behind him and one in front, looking as if he hadn't suffered a single scratch.

Sasuke yanked himself out of the ruins of the wall, stretching a crick out of his neck. _Alright, alright._ He thought gruffly, mentally waving his hands in surrender. _I'll stop trying to beat him in taijutsu._ The strange genin's talents had humbled him at the same time that it pissed him off.

He widened his stance and started rapidly performing the hand seals to one of his favorite fire jutsus, only to have his target disappear right before his very eyes. He started turning around just as he felt the sudden chakra signature at his back.

"Too slow, Sasuke-san..." Lee murmured, immediately lashing out.

In Sasuke's mind, the world suddenly slowed down as he took notice of the oddly familiar placement of Lee's knee. _Where have I seen that before..._ Even as his mind sluggishly tried to place the stance with a memory, his body reacted, throwing up a defense just as the hit landed.

Lee's eyes widened as he was jerked back by the recoil of having his attack blocked so suddenly. _Did he... get faster?_ He gaped at the prodigy for a moment, who looked just as startled as he was, then shook his head. _No! That's not it. That was a... trained response_. Lee knew better than anybody that it was hard to work around attacks that ingrained in a person's mind but he quickly calmed. _That was a specific trained response, only geared towards that attack._ He smiled, not too upset to be surprised by his opponent. _It won't work on all attacks._

Lee, as he moved forward to attack once more, started to learn how many more trained responses Sasuke had ingrained into his fighting style. He was horrified to note that Sasuke could defend against some of his best techniques. And not only that, could manage to put up a counter to them as swiftly as he had defended.

Sasuke was starting to realize where he knew Lee's fighting style. He was still shocked at finally being able to stand toe to toe with Lee but he didn't let it get to his head. After all, he knew the secret behind his success. It was hardly any talent of his own that he could boast of. It was all, as Lee had deduced, trained responses.

In Sasuke's mind, the sight of Lee was replaced by the sight of another. Green and orange shifting and changing with black and green. Neat black hair and round black eyes being replaced by messy blond hair and bright blue eyes. Lee was no longer fighting him, it was Naruto.

_Dammit, how did he know?_ Sasuke gritted his teeth, using his flexibility to break out of a hold. His first counter kick was blocked but then, as Lee was distracted with a well placed bunshin jutsu, his second kick hit the older genin right in the face.

Lee jerked back, managing to land admirably before making a beeline for Sasuke again. It was just like fighting Naruto, if Naruto put more power into his hits and was several times faster. So much like fighting Naruto that Sasuke could predict Lee's movements with only marginal errors.

_That son of a bitch wasn't just teaching me advanced taijutsu... He was teaching me Lee's fighting style! _An image of an ecstatic Naruto flashing a victory sign appeared in his mind, annoying him with a bright grin and loud laughter. Sasuke didn't know whether to hit the dobe when he had the chance, or buy him a one year supply of instant ramen.

A sudden thought hit him, right at the same moment that Lee got past his guard and launched him halfway across the ground with a powerful kick. _This match... I'm not showing my skill. I'm showing Naruto's._ He slid across the ground, managing to roll most of the impact off before it could cause much damage.

_His ability to pick up on fighting styles with ease, his ability to quickly teach me moves that would have taken other teachers months to teach their pupils, and his ability to predict how people are going to fight, even days before the fight._ Sasuke pushed himself up, his eyes wide in his epiphany. His left arm throbbed in time with his heartbeat. _Naruto's skill... it's frightening._

---

Lee jerked back, narrowed eyes locked on Sasuke. He was slightly relieved, but still overwhelmingly off balance. There were lots of holes in Sasuke's responses. It was clear that they weren't developed over a long period of time, but were just recently learned.

_Still... the only taijutsu that works against him is the most basic moves. _Lee was upset by this. None of his more prized techniques were working. Sasuke seemed to have a response for them all. _I still haven't tried that one yet..._

He loosened the bandages around his arms, mentally apologizing to his mentor. _There's no way that I can move forward to chuunin status if I beat him with basic taijutsu. I must show them how much I've learned from you. I'm sorry, Gai-sensei._

Sasuke's eyes widened, his sharingan forming again. He knew those movements. It was the only technique that Naruto had showed him that he had not shown him a counter for. The bandages preceded a kick that would launch him into the air, exposing him to what Naruto called a 'shadow dance' where he would be paralyzed as the bandages wrapped around him. Naruto had stopped right after he had captured Sasuke, but warned him that the last step of the attack usually involved the victim getting their head smashed into the ground.

"_Gotta spread those wings somehow, Sasuke._" the boy had said humorously, rewrapping his arms with the bandages that he had adorned for the occasion. "_You're creative. Figure it out._" All of the sudden, the blond had turned serious. "_Sasuke, if you don't learn a way to block this attack, you could die. Remember that._"

Sasuke barely had the time to loosen up the ties on his arm guards before Lee suddenly appeared below him. Before he could think to react, the older genin kicked him up in the air.

It was just as Naruto had shown him. Just as Sasuke began to fall back to the earth, a strangely gripping paralysis froze his limbs. He barely had enough strength to look over his shoulder. Lee, floating right below him, just gave him that annoyingly determined look before he started wrapping Sasuke up like a mummy.

"My apologies, Sasuke-san..." Lee said, his voice steadily raising as they started to twist back down to the ground. "But it ends here!"

A moment later, there was a loud boom of noise from the impact. Dust clouds rushed out from the area of impact. Despite this, the audience leaned forward, eager to see what the outcome of the attack was.

As the dust began to clear, Lee looked up from where he was kneeling, a deep frown on his face at the banadages in his hands. There was an impact crater underneath him where he had landed, but there was nothing like the crater that should have been there beside him.

"Where did he...!" His eyes widened as he saw a slice in his bandages. "He cut free!"

In the dust cloud, a shadowy form suddenly grew taller. "Sorry about that, but I don't feel like breaking my neck today, thanks." Sasuke drawled, his hands moving quickly. Lee jumped out of the way when the sudden appearance of a fire dragon startled him.

Lee watched in horror at the long winding body of the dragon simply twisted around and started following him again. Before he could move to dodge it again, nearly invisible wires wrapped around his arms and legs.

For the second time in two minutes, a huge boom went throughout the arena as the dragon forced Lee against the wall with all of its might. Shaking and sweating, Sasuke loosened up the wires he was holding on to. He peered out into the dust, straining to see anything.

_Did I finally... beat him?_ Sasuke wondered, taking a cautious step forward, almost immediately jumping back when Lee pulled himself free of the ruins of the walls. _Dammit! That was my strongest attack. I'm nearly out of chakra... I can't even keep up the sharingan now._

Nevertheless, Sasuke shifted into a defensive stance, ready to take whatever Lee gave to him and toss it back with twice as much force. He felt like he had one foot in the grave already, with his various bruises and scrapes and, of course, what felt like a shattered rib or two.

Lee took several uneasy steps towards him, his shoulders loose and his arms hanging heavily down by his sides. Sasuke gritted his teeth, tensing and waiting for the next attack.

It never came.

Sasuke stared at Lee for a moment before he straightened up. He turned away from the older genin and towards Hayate. "Hey, this match is over." the Uchiha informed him, jerking his thumb back at Lee.

Hayate coughed. "W-what?" he asked, taking a step back. "You're forfeiting?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "No." he snapped. "My opponent is unconscious."

Hayate looked at him incredulously. "No he's-" he got a little closer, getting a better look at Lee. The boy's eyes were hazy and glazed over. It was apparent that, despite his upright position, the boy was definitely unconscious. "Oh." He turned to the crowd. "Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!"

The cheers were deafening.

---

"You have done well, grasshopper." Naruto murmured as Sasuke passed through the doorway, adopting a wispy sage like tone towards his dark haired teammate. His only reply was a swift punch to the back of the head. "Ow ow ow!" Naruto bent over, grabbing the sides of his head. "What the hell was that for, you jerk?"

Sasuke wouldn't look at him. He chose to fix his gaze of the far corner of the room. He coughed lightly, a faint flush on his face. "...Thanks." he said out of the corner of his mouth. Naruto looked up, watching his friend for a second before his face blossomed into a huge grin.

"No problem." he coughed into his hand. "Of course, now there's just the small matter of my fee..."

Sasuke turned to him swiftly with an undignified squawk. "What fee!" he demanded, gathering a fist fist of the material of Naruto's vest and yanking him up to his toes. "You said nothing about a fee!"

Naruto raised his hands and his shoulders. "Hey, it's not my fault you don't pay attention." he said lightly, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Sasuke was about to murder him. "It's not like a year's worth of instant ramen is too much to ask for..."

He quickly turned serious when Sasuke's hand suddenly went limp and he was deposited back on his heels. Naruto was about to ask what was wrong when Sasuke suddenly lifted his head.

Sasuke smiled faintly at Naruto, alarming him even further. "I know you too well, Naruto." he said, his smile widening. He didn't say anything more, just turned promptly towards the arena with his arms over his chest.

Naruto crept cautiously towards Sasuke, leaning slightly over the railing to get a look at Sasuke's face, which was still too happy for Naruto to be comfortable with. "...you do realize that I was just kidding, right?" he murmured worriedly.

Sasuke glanced at him, a faint smile still on his face. "Of course, dobe." When Naruto turned to the call for him and Hyuuga Neji to appear in the ring, Sasuke's smile turned wicked.

"Alright, I gotta go then-" Naruto told Sasuke distractedly. Before he knew what was happening, a very firm hand suddenly pushed him between the shoulder blades. He lost his equilibrium, shoved off of his balance as he frantically waved his arms in a futile hope of keeping himself from falling. "Hey! Sasuke, you-" Gravity won and Naruto made friendly with the ground below.

After a moment of tense silence, there was a hoarse yell. "SASUKE! YOU BASTARD! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

The Uchiha leaned back, fully satisfied. "...I've been waiting all day to do that." Sasuke admitted quietly to the silence of the balcony.

A sleepy murmur came from the back corner of the balcony. "Hear hear."

----

TBC

No preview, yet again. Sorry, kiddies. XD As for what's going to happen next, it's the Neji-Naruto match, then the Shika-Sasuke match. After that, there's a match with Gaara, then one more match after that. And then, we may have a war.


	54. Uncertainty and Confusion

**_READ ALL OF THIS_**: Early in this chapter, there's a shifting of a character that was someone that you thought you knew who really wasn't. Just roll with it, okay?  
And yes, finally a flashback... after what, 20 chapters?  
And, for the love of all that is good and right, _don't ask me about updates_. I try to update once a month. Please don't make me set an ultimatum. If I keep on getting emails or pms that demand for the next update, _I will not update_. You have no idea how hard it is for me to write under pressure.  
But, of course, if you'd like to add something along the lines of "Update soon" or "Good luck with your next update" to a review, go ahead, you have the right to do that. Those don't bother me, it's the emails and the PMs that are ticking me off.  
---

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Fifty-four: Uncertainty and Confusion

by Foxie

---

"Sasuke-kun?" Pulling his eyes away from the most amusing sight of Naruto cursing and shaking his fist at him, Sasuke turned to the soft call, not surprised to see Sakura. What _was_ surprising, however, was that she had managed to come alone, a feat Sasuke would have thought impossible since he knew that Sakura was sitting near Ino. He thanked his lucky stars that he did not have to deal with that overly excitable blonde yet.

While this ran through Sasuke's mind, Sakura took several steps forward, close enough to hover her hand over the nasty scrape on his cheek. She was frowning heavily. Sasuke pulled her hand away from him, uncomfortable with her proximity but keeping his touch much lighter than he would have if he was fending off someone else's attentions.

"I'm fine." he murmured. He wasn't, actually. He felt like one huge bruise, like Lee had kicked him into a wall several times. _Oh, wait_, he thought wryly, _he did_. His ribs ached something fierce and he was almost positive that one or more of them was at least cracked, if not completely broken.

"_Right_." Sakura said, crossing her arms over her chest. She was not impressed. She glared lightly at her team mate, tossing her long pink hair over one shoulder. "And pigs can fly."

One of Sasuke's eyebrows rose at the challenge. He barely managed to suppress a smirk, choosing to keep a blank look on his face. "Well, with the right jutsu-" he started to say before he was quickly interrupted.

"Be quiet, you smart ass." she said, the sudden smile on her face teasing. She pulled a reluctant Sasuke away from the railing, ignoring his mumbled protests. "Let me see what I can do for you."

---

Neji walked out into the ring, his eyes squinting at first at the sudden influx of light. His gaze soon fixed on the complaining boy sitting in the dust. He tried to fit the childish image in with what he remembered from the mission in Wave Country a month or so ago.

Somehow, the cursing and snapping child did not match up with the slightly impressive genin who had gracefully if not eccentrically negotiated the end of a despotic businessman's rule over a impoverished country. What little respect Neji had for Naruto dropped down to zero.

"How utterly graceless you are." The sharp words made Naruto look up from rubbing his abused tail bone. The blond watched with narrowed eyes as Neji made his way into the ring, a faint frown on his face. "You could have landed on your feet."

"Where's the fun in that?" Naruto muttered underneath his breath, getting onto his feet. He took a couple steps further, reaching Hayate at the same time Neji did. He briefly met eyes with the man and nodded in acknowledgment before turning his sights on Neji again.

"Alright, Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji." Hayate looked between the two, not liking the instant animosity in Neji's eyes. Feelings were best left out of fights like this and only made them even more nasty when they were involved. "Are you ready?"

"Yup." Naruto said, scowling at Neji. Hayate could only sense mild annoyance in the blond. That was a good sign. People shouldn't hold grudges over insignificant battles such as these. "Ready to _kick_ his ass." Hayate hung his head, sighing softly to himself. Mild annoyance but eager to start a fight. That was _not_ a good sign.

Neji closed his eyes, a smirk on his lips. "You should forfeit." he said smoothly. He opened his eyes. "You can't beat me."

"Sure I can't." Naruto said dismissively. "Because you're a genius and all that crap..." He rolled his eyes, showing how little he thought of that. "Listen, Neji. You're gonna have to learn to drop that 'holier than thou' attitude or you're gonna get your ass kicked by someone who isn't as nice as I am."

_Neji's an ally, Neji's an ally..._ The mantra went on and on in his head. However, Naruto was finding it a very hard task to remember that, with Kyuubi making snide comments and Neji smirking that awful smirk that made Naruto just want to smack it off.

"When that day comes, I will accept it, for it seems to be my destiny." While Neji smirked at what he thought was humorous, Naruto hung his head. _Not this destiny shit again!_ he moaned in his mind, tempted just to skip the fighting part and just throttle the uptight bastard. "But that day is not today."

"You're a pretty overconfident bastard, aren't ya?" Naruto murmured, summoning up all of his self control. He managed to replace his scowl with a more affable expression, hoping that Neji would take him more seriously. "The higher you are, the harder you fall."

Neji's stare was cold and unfeeling. "And the lower you are, the more insignificant your fall is. You would know a lot about that, wouldn't you, dobe?" he murmured softly.

A vein in Naruto's temple twitched. So Neji was going to treat him like a child? Fine, then he'd_ fight_ like a child. He allowed himself to speak his mind. "For the last time, _asshole_, you aren't allowed to call me that." Naruto told the older boy darkly. Neji ignored him.

"It is the natural way of things, this destiny between you and me." Neji drawled, his eyes cold. His impervious gaze made Naruto feel two inches tall. Surprisingly enough, it hurt more than last time, most likely because, this time around, Naruto actually liked the guy. It was just his current attitude that Naruto couldn't stand.

Neji continued without missing a beat. "It is survival of the fittest, if you will. The strong will triumphant over the weak." he paused, perhaps noticing the annoyed twitch of the vein on Naruto's forehead. He frowned at Naruto, as if the blond's sullen look was a breach of propriety or etiquette for their situation. "Do not get angry at me simply because I have informed you of the ways of the world."

"Blah blah blah." Naruto waved his hand dismissively. He was done listening to Neji treat him like an idiot. He turned to Hayate. "Hey, when can we start this fight?" While Hayate told the boy that they could start once they were done talking to each other, Neji watched the blond with narrowed eyes.

_It's not enough,_ the prodigy thought to himself. _He's annoyed, but he isn't rattled._ He had raised his chakra (a rather sneaky intimidation tactic) and poked at Naruto's weaknesses but Naruto wasn't fazed. Even some of his better opponents were rattled at this point of the match. _Maybe it's because I couldn't get too much information on Naruto. None of the adults liked talking about him._

Neji had a skill, one that he preferred to use early on in a match. This skill was his ability to reduce someone into tears with a few well placed jabs at their weak points. Even Lee, who was used to this verbal abuse, could be discouraged by Neji's venomous words.

Naruto, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. Neji looked the boy up and down, wondering what he had missed. The blond was the weakest genin of his graduating year, a year that included the talented Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto just _had_ to be lacking in confidence.

But what was this about Naruto being stronger than Sasuke? _How could that even be possible? Was this something that shadow kid used to rile me up?_ Neji wondered to himself. _No, he said it like it was a fact._

Still, Neji worried. Was Naruto completely impenetrable? The fact that he couldn't get underneath the younger boy's skin bugged him, even though it would effect nothing in the outcome of the match. After staring at the blond for a moment, he was suddenly reminded of the boy's most obvious weakness. It would _undoubtedly_ make him do something stupid during the match.

"Of course," Neji murmured, running a hand through his hair, "I would expect such immaturity and weakness from someone who befriended Hinata-sama." He had Naruto's full attention now. Neji kept his tone light and indifferent. "Birds of a feather, as they say. One weak person befriends another weak person in futile hopes of making themselves look stronger. But all your friends end up doing to you is dragging you down until you're just as weak as them." Somewhere in the audience, unknown to either of the two combatants, Tenten stared down at her trembling hands and ignored Sakura's worried queries about whether or not she was alright.

Naruto glared heatedly at Neji. Neji suppressed a smirk. He had Naruto now. "Then what the hell are Lee and Tenten to you?" he snapped angrily. "Tools? Targets for practicing your damn techniques? God, you are _such_ an asshole!"

Neji wisely stepped away from what Lee and Tenten meant to him. "It's not who I affiliate myself with that's disgraceful, it's you." he said quietly. He took a few steps forward so that only Naruto and Hayate could hear him. "Hinata-sama, for example. You know what's happened to her, right? No, of course you don't." Neji was the very picture of disgust and contempt. "Hinata-sama, the _precious_ heir of the Main Branch, has been beaten out of her prized position by someone much younger than her, who only started training a few years ago." Naruto's eyes were wide in surprise. "Yes, it's true. Hinata-sama, as I have always believed to be true, is a _weakling_ hiding behind a strong name. She is the stain upon our honor and, as such, should be eliminated immediately. And you, as her friend, only reflect her weakness." Neji pulled back a little. "I don't know who to despise more, you or her."

Naruto felt something snap in him during Neji's droning soliloquy. The brat could rag on him as much as he wanted to, but Naruto drew the line at him verbally abusing Hinata. The girl had worked so hard to get where she was now. If this had been the first time around, Naruto was certain that he would have lost against the Hyuuga girl instead of winning. Neji had _no right_ to look down on her.

Neji smirked, knowing he had touched a raw nerve. Naruto was shockingly resilient to insults directed at him but if you aimed them towards the blond's friends, the boy would see red. _How foolish of him. He should learn to control his emotional reactions._

Naruto's head snapped to the side suddenly and he fixed a suddenly nervous jonin with a harsh stare. "How long did it take for me to beat Hinata-chan?" he demanded of Hayate, his words barely a growl..

The jonin composed himself, coughing into his hand. "Around fifteen minutes or so." he said blandly.

Naruto's eyes narrowed at the same time that a strange smirk appeared on his face. "Do you have a watch?" he asked casually. The jonin nodded wordlessly, indicating at the watch around his wrist. "Good. You can be the witness, then." He turned sharply towards Neji again. "Hey, bastard! I'll beat you under _five_ minutes." Annoyed at the sudden increase of the Hyuuga smirk, he changed that condition, his eyes narrowed into thin blue slits. "Nah, I'll beat you under _three_. We'll see exactly who is the stain on the Hyuuga clan's damn pride."

Neji was tempted to roll his eyes. Who did this genin think he was, a god? No one could beat a Hyuuga under five minutes (let alone three), not even pathetically weak ones like Hinata. But Neji humored him. "And if the time lapses?" he inquired, a mockingly interested look on his face. Naruto had finally been riled up and, in his anger, would end up doing or saying something immeasurably stupid. And Neji, as usual, was correct in his calculations.

Naruto's grin was feral. "Then I'll forfeit." Neji smirked. The blond's stupidity apparently knew no bounds.

---

"Sarutobi" resisted the urge to scratch his nose, knowing that it would not be very characteristic of the man he was trying to be. But the genjutsu, as subtle as he had crafted it to be, was itchy, the chakra of the jutsu irritating his skin because it was wrapped too close around his body.

Despite the slight annoyance, he felt a moment of pride. Only Kurenai could pull off a better illusion than the one he had on. Only a master of illusions could beat what he could imitate with his sharingan.

_Hatake Kakashi, Hokage for a day. Who would have thought?_ Certainly not his team. Naruto would have laughed himself into the grave. Hatake Kakashi, Hokage? Sasuke would have thought that the world was ending.

Kakashi becoming Hokage was about as likely as Itachi announcing that he was an advocate of hugging bunnies to cure diseases of the soul. It just wasn't going to happen.

The disguised jonin glanced over at the Kazekage. Still, it was only a matter of time before the impostor, whoever he was, caught on that Kakashi wasn't who he said he was. He had thought, originally and yes with arrogance, that the fake Kage was just that, a fake Kage who would easily be dealt with.

Seeing the man with his own eyes led him to the truth of the matter. Kakashi wasn't enough to fight off the Kazekage. The man had to _at least_ be around the level of the two ninjas sitting next to him. Kakashi, nervous around so much tightly controlled chakra, had never been so glad to see Jiraiya and Tsunade before in his entire life.

Kakashi managed to fire a few Sarutobi-esqe remarks at the fake, hoping to see a reaction that would reveal a weakness or, better yet, and identity, but he was unsettled when he only revealed that, the more Kakashi egged him on, the higher the fake Kage's chakra spiked. It was now up to nearly double what it had been before, most likely the reason why Tsunade had sat herself between Kakashi and the Kage.

_It's only fitting that a fake Kage be met with a fake Kage_, he reasoned to himself once more, leaning back on his sense of humor. It was his remark to the _real_ Hokage that had him in such a dangerous position in the first place. Zabuza was probably howling in laughter right now.

Flashback

_The Hokage had maps and scrolls tossed all over his desk, his regular documents completely shoved off the limited space to litter the ground. The surface was needed for the maps, not for the endless piles of paper he had to look over and stamp so off to the floor they went. They could be dealt with after the invasion was dealt with. _

Kakashi was envious of the older man's calm as he leaned over a map of the village, pointing out key locations to one of the ANBU leaders, only pausing every once and a while to confirm a fact with the stoic Suna jonin that stood off to the side of the room.

Baki wasn't a ninja that he knew a lot about but he could at least tell that the older man was nervous. For all of his blank looks, the man's chakra levels were swirling wildly. He knew this better than anyone in the room. He could not see the inner coil system like a Hyuuga but he could sometimes see the movement of chakra within the body, especially when it was as agitated as Baki's. Just another one of those things that he had to thank his dead friend for.

But there was no time for thanks, or even for heartfelt apologies. Those times were long gone, and the time for thinking about them was up. The ANBU leader in front of the room nodded and left silently, presumably to take orders to the various groups created to destroy the threat of invasion.

While Kakashi was busy pondering how many minutes it would take before the Suna jonin's face met the floor, his fellow Konoha jonins bristled around him with righteous indignation as they overheard telling words such as 'war', 'invasion', and 'betrayal'. He rolled his eyes. **What, haven't most of them been involved in a war before? **

He glanced around him, reevaluating them critically. Most of them were genins or chuunins during the last great war, he realized with a faint groan. Only a handful, like him, looked grim but ready. And only one looked pleased.

"Stop smiling, Zabuza." he told him quietly. "We can see your pearly whites through your bandages." Actually believing him for a moment, the blood thirsty swordsman touched his face before shooting him a glare.

"Don't make me bite you." the other man said in return, the threat relatively mild. Like a bull dog, Kakashi reckoned. The slightly taller man looked oddly civilized in a full on jonin uniform. And, of course, he wore a slightly skewed forehead protector that proudly displayed the symbol of the leaf. Zabuza, for lack of better terms, looked weird.

"Ooh, please don't." Kakashi said lightly, warming up to the insults. "I'm not up-to-date with my rabies vaccinations." Zabuza snorted.

"I'm surprised, with all the slimy slobbering mutts you have and dare to call summon creatures." the slightly taller man said, swinging his head towards the copy cat ninja. His brown eyes, while not exactly kind, were not cruel.

"I have you know that my summon dogs are **highly** respectable creatures with pedigrees." the first jonin nodded to him firmly. "You're just jealous that your bloodline isn't as pristine as theirs." Zabuza gave him a look.

"Pedigrees?" he echoed, revealing his misstep in the dance of insults. He quickly sought to correct it. "Yeah well... aw, dammit..." Kakashi grinned merrily, the expression apparent to all who looked even though half of his face was skillfully covered. Zabuza's eyes widened in realization, then narrowed.

"I hate you." he declared, pulling out his wallet and handing over a wad of currency. **Konoha** currency, the first jonin noted, secretly pleased that the often antisocial man was starting to fit in. "You and your little mutts too."

"I told you, my friend," the first jonin drawled softly, tucking the money in his vest, "Do not mess with the master. You can talk circles around everyone else, but not with me." He lifted his hand slightly. "Drinks later on with the guys?"

Zabuza gave him a look. "You gonna be late?" he grumbled, still raw about getting caught off guard. "Besides, aren't we involved in a war?"

The first jonin shrugged. "Aren't we always?" he murmured. A finger jabbed him in the spine. "Hmm?" He glanced lazily over his shoulder at a fuming Kurenai and a sheepish Asuma, who was smoking up a storm.

"Be quiet, she says." Asuma mumbled between puffs. "Pass it on."

"What is this, telephone?" Anko murmured from the other side of Kakashi. She looked considerably less stressed than the little jonin next to her, who was sweating and shaking. **The poor kid was probably just turned recently**, Kakashi thought.

"Might as well be." Asuma said blandly. "'specially with all the kiddy dramatics going in this time." Several of the younger jonins around him gave him hurt looks. "Come on, we're nearly invaded all the time!" He shrugged, unimpressed. "It's either this country or that country or this village that just has to get revenge on us because we're the incarnation of evil or... whatever."

"Well, this time is different." Anko insisted, leaning back to look at Asuma. Her usual smirk was gone, replaced with a steady frown. "First, we lose a grass team before the exam starts-"

"-faces ripped off and everything." Zabuza added in helpfully. The young jonin on Anko's left turned green.

"Then Orochimaru's spotted and he nearly takes out **two** chuunin platoons-" Anko pointed out heatedly, feeling guilt over the ones that did end up dying from the conflict. Kakashi knew she would have rather fought Orochimaru than have younger and less experienced chuunins have to struggle against him.

"-and Haku, which reminds me Kakashi, where should I hang the bastard's head? My living room or my bedroom?" Zabuza's voice was similarly heated. No one hurt Haku and lived to tell about it.

"And then that boy died. The medic nin." Kurenai chipped in, deep in thought. "Kabu-something. The adopted kid who forfeited the exam."

"We don't know if that's related." Kakashi said softly, reminding them without words of the strange message left near the boy's body. "But that's still way too many deaths. The fact that Orochimaru is involved **at all** makes things worse."

"Don't forget that the Uchiha kid was thought to have been here too." Zabuza reminded him. Kakashi paled slightly, his single visible eye widening.

"Shit, I forgot about that." he murmured. He started counting off the points on his hand. "That makes it even worse. Akatsuki movement, Orochimaru, and death rolled up in an exam fought between a bunch of kids. What is the world coming to?" This heavy statement makes the adults pause for a moment, all of them contemplating it extensively.

Gai, who had been unusually quiet, leaned in, breaking up the silence. "Wanna know what makes it worse?" he said in a hushed voice. He did not look like a person excited with the possession of a new piece of gossip. He, rather, looked like someone told him his grandmother died. "The Kazekage is dead."

All the jonins in earshot stared at him in silence. It was in this lull of conversation that the Hokage started the meeting. Slouching as usual, Kakashi didn't bother straightening as Sarutobi turned to them, though some of his fellow jonins lined up around him did so guiltily.

"I'm sure you've all grasped the situation by now." Sarutobi said dryly. "We're at war, only we haven't been informed until just now. Officially, we're against Suna and Oto, apparently, but we're only really up against Oto, as Suna refuses to follow a fake Kage." He inclined his head towards Baki. The ninja stiffly nodded. Baki looked extremely fatigued.

"So..." Up in front like the good little jonin he was, Ebisu implored his Hokage. "Tomorrow, you have to sit next to a man who most likely has aims to kill you? During the **entire** exam, where he has ample opportunity to stick a knife in your back?" The man sounded horrified by the very thought of it. Kakashi, who normally disliked the uptight jonin, had to agree.

Sarutobi folded his hands behind his back and closed his eyes. "Yes." he said simply. This was met with a roar of disapprovals.

"That can't happen!" Asuma snapped from the middle, dropping his smoke to the ground and not even noticing. The normally easygoing man was instantly enraged. "I won't let my Hokage die!" This was met with several yells of approvals. Sarutobi's eyes opened and he glanced at the rest of them, his gaze warming. He raised a hand and all noise stopped. Baki, with fake indifference, watched this through half closed eyes.

"But it **must**." The Sandaime said serenely. He looked at them all with sad fondness. "He will most likely consider it a huge insult if I do not appear and, if he is intelligent, will use it to rile up anti-Konoha feeling amongst our guests. With most of the people believing that he is the true Kazekage rather than the most likely murderer behind the deceased man's disguise, we **cannot** allow this to happen." He looked at them seriously, his forehead creasing in a frown. "We must go on as if nothing at all has changed."

"Hokage-sama..." Though Kakashi was a bit of a slacker and he was twenty minutes late to this very meeting, nearly all of the jonins turned to see what he had to say. It paid to have that sort of influence. "While I agree that is the best course for keeping control of the situation-" he ignored the sullen mutters at this "-isn't better to meet a fake Kage with another fake Kage?"

Sarutobi paused, dark eyes narrowed. "What are you trying to get at, Kakashi?" he asked, curious to find out what the experienced ninja was thinking.

Kakashi shrugged. "From what I overheard- which is a lot, by the way-, it seems like we're facing a lot of attacks to places outside the arena itself. Large scale attacks that involve huge numbers of canon fodder ninjas and summons and gods know what else." he leaned back, putting his hands in his pockets. "Don't you think that, rather than staying restricted to the arena- which is probably what the enemy wants in the first place-, you should be out **there**, fighting **those** battles instead of messing with whoever is pretending to be Kazekage?"

"Well, if you want to put it that way..." Sarutobi was quiet for a moment. It was clear to everyone in the room what the old man was conflicted over. Was he needed more in the arena, where there was a heavily concentrated people to protect, or was he needed outside, where there was more people spread out and more danger? His frown relaxed as he came to a conclusion.

"So, who wants to be Hokage for a day?" he asked lightly. Kakashi should have known, a fact that he realized when all thirty or so hands pointed in his direction, to stay in bed that day.

End Flashback

Kakashi was stuck between the relatively uncomfortable place of knowing his life was in constant danger (not really much a change from everyday life but seemingly amplified thanks to the current situation) and the sort of amusing place of knowing that this whole plan looked like it was going to blow up in his face.

The Kazekage was already giving him weird looks even though Kakashi tried to stick to Sarutobi's normal inflection. How well could this impostor know Sarutobi? Or was his genjutsu slipping? A quick check confirmed that it wasn't.

_How long can I keep this charade up?_ An even more important thought rose to his mind. _How long will I live after he figures out that I'm not Hokage-sama? _Kakashi knew now that the fake Kage wasn't just a jonin that he could fight against. It was someone much stronger than him, someone would would most likely kill him as soon as look at him.

Kakashi was very quiet for a moment, his thoughts ground to a halt. And then, a phrase came to mind. _When in doubt, agitate. _Kakashi smiled to himself._ He seems to hate when I talk about future generations. If I am going to get myself killed, then I can at least piss him off beforehand._

Jiraiya graciously gave him a lovely opening. "Naruto doesn't seem to know the meaning of the word self-preservation." he grumbled, squinting down at his student. "Doesn't he know that kid's just trying to make him do something he'll regret? _Like saying he'll beat someone under three minutes or forfeit?_" The older man groaned at Naruto's lack of tact.

"Oh, come now." Kakashi adopted what he thought was a grandfatherly smile. "It's a wonderful thing to see these young people hurl themselves into situations with everything that they have." He waited with bated breath.

The Kazekage couldn't resist. "Throwing yourself in situations like that only means that you will be killed all the more faster." the man argued softly. He glanced over Tsunade's shoulder at Kakashi. "It is the work of an idiot, and one who doesn't think before he leaps."

Tsunade turned to the Kazekage. "So you are an advocate of always holding yourself back?" she challenged. Kakashi could have kissed her. "It is ironically _not_ the mark of a good ninja, to always keep yourself hidden away from everyone else."

The Kazekage tried to explain his reasoning. "There are limits-" Jiraiya, in his typical way, interrupted.

"Only when you throw everything into your battles will you _find_ those limits. And when you find those limits, you can break them." he leaned back into his seat, a faint smile on his face. "A strong ninja, such as yourself, would surely know this."

The Kazekage's eyes were as cold as ice. Kakashi barely resisted the urge to twitch as the ominous level of chakra barely noticeable on the edges of his senses rose higher. "Name _one_ person who ever accomplished anything by throwing his _everything_ into a battle." the man hissed, his voice clipped.

"Yondaime Hokage." In perfect unison, the title was softly echoed by all three ninjas. The Kazekage blinked, his dark eyes shifting over to the Hokage Monument for half of a second but Kakashi caught it.

The Kazekage visibly backed off. "Point taken." he murmured silkily. Tsunade and Jiraiya were satisfied but Kakashi was not. He had seen the shift of the other man's attention.

Kakashi leaned back in his seat, his mind working quickly. He had a hunch about the identity of their fake Hokage. _It's a little far fetched... but most foreign ninjas don't think much about the monument when they hear about our Hokages. _His eyes flicked towards the monument for a moment before he shook himself out of it and went back to thinking. _They think about bingo books or their achievements... they don't care to consider how we respect the memories of our past leaders. It's our monument to history, enemies don't care about our history. Only we care about that sort of thing._

Kakashi's thoughts were spiraling swiftly as he considered this. _But our fake Kage looked towards the monument when we mentioned the Fourth. Just for a second, but he did._ Kakashi sat back in his seat, his eyes locked on the form of the Kazekage. _That's not what a foreigner does, that what someone from Konoha does! _

The Kazekage very deliberately looked at Kakashi, alerting the jonin that the other man had been aware that he was watching. "Something wrong, _Hokage-sama_?" he practically purred.

Kakashi wordlessly shook his head, his mind already narrowing down the deserters from Konoha. He narrowed the list down to people who would want revenge and had as much chakra as the Kage did. Two people who stood out prominently on the small list were Uchiha Itachi and Orochimaru. Kakashi's sharingan itched.

"Of course not, Kazekage-sama." Kakashi murmured, turning his gaze back to the ring. It took a lot of will power to look away from his dangerous enemy, especially when all of his instincts were screaming that he should keep on eye on him.

Kakashi had a bad feeling that the whole situation had taken a turn for the worst.

---

Meanwhile, the match down in the ring had just started. After displaying his immense skills in the jyuuken field, Neji was annoyed to be inquired by Naruto if he had anything else to show the crowd.

"Come on, _Neji_!" Naruto pleaded, lazily twirling a kunai between his fingers. Several of his chakra points had been tapped but the boy showed little or no reaction at having his pathways blocked. "Jyuuken is _so_ boring. Show me something else." His anger from before had not abated but he was not above telling Neji that his fighting style was lacking.

"Must you talk so much?" Neji murmured, his eyes flashing warningly. "You're giving people a headache." A minute had passed already. Naruto had enough chakra points blocked to take down a larger man than himself, but he was still standing strong. A vein in Neji's temple twitched. _And mouthing off too_.

Naruto went for the low blow. "Oh, and you would know all about _headaches_, wouldn't you, Neji?" the blond snarled, tossing his head. Neji's eyes widened. Naruto went on without a care. "You know what I think of you? I think you're a spoiled little brat just begging to get your ass kicked."

Neji dropped all attempts at keeping emotion off his face. "You know _nothing_-" he started to snap. Naruto's sharp laugh cut him off.

"You're the one who's ignorant, you stupid idiot!" he yelled. "Whoop de fricken do. Sorry about your dad, Neji, I really am. But you lose my sympathy at the point where you start blaming all of your troubles on Hinata-chan." The sentence ended in a low rumble and then his voice nearly exploded with the beginning of the next. "What the hell did she ever do to you?"

"She-" Neji paused, biting his lip. There was a reason, right? She was a part of the Main Branch, the people who had killed his father. His father had to pay for her father's mistake. He had to serve _her_, a weakling in the Main Branch who did not belong. Those were powerful reasons, in Neji's mind. But Neji, having an idea how Naruto thought, knew that they would sound weak.

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. "If you got a problem with the way things are, _fix_ it! Don't whine about it, don't use other people as scapegoats, and don't _ever_ try seek pity from me." He paused for a moment, wanting to say something more but then just shook his head. His hands dropped briefly to his sides before he slowly moved into a different stance, one that looked nothing like the the lazy hand to hand he was using before.

Neji's eyes flared when he took in the open palmed stance. He had known that stance before he had even learned how to write his own name. "What do you think you're doing?" Neji asked dangerously.

"Jyuuken, what does it look like?" Naruto snorted. "I think you need to be taught that a little variety can go a long way." A brief burst of amusement twisted his lips upwards. "Oh, and that your rigid style sucks."

Neji had nothing to say to that. He darted forward, his hands sparking with chakra. He would break past Naruto's clumsy stance and close all of his chakra points. Neji had no idea what the blond thought he could gain by mocking him but he knew that the blond would pay dearly for his slight. Jyuuken wasn't meant to rest in the hands of a non-Hyuuga.

Neji's movements were quick and flawless but, as the saying goes, you fight fire with fire. As clumsy as Naruto's stance was, it was a fairly simple thing for him to do to twist his arm around and meet Neji's blow head on, palm strike to palm strike. Chakra sparked and curled around their hands for a moment before Neji was pushed back with just the force of Naruto's chakra alone.

"Whoops." Naruto murmured, not looking very contrite. "Sorry about that. My chakra control is shaky." Again, he fixed his stance, widening the space between his legs and squaring out his shoulders.

Neji looked at his singed hand for a moment before looking back at Naruto. _His stance is fine_, he realized after awhile, pinpointing the awkwardness in the stance. _Nearly perfect form but he leans too far forward. Offensive in a defensive stance. That's why it looks odd. _

_Just a defensive stance. Just one stance_. Neji relaxed. _He doesn't know jyuuken. He only knows the stances, most likely from Hinata-sama. Jyuuken is so much more than a simple stance._

"Tick tock, Neji..." Naruto said softly, his voice barely a hiss. "If you're not going to move, then I will." And, to Neji's absolute horror, he _moved_.

---

Hiashi couldn't help but feel relieved that Hanabi had opted to go to the Academy instead of skipping out (an excused absence, of course, since Hiashi's permission went a long way) and watching the rest of the exams. Though he couldn't understand her reasoning behind missing a rare fight just to go to school, he was glad for her sudden wish to remain on even grounds with the rest of her peers, who could not attend the final exam because they had to go to class and could not miss.

He did not want her to see the mockery of jyuuken being played out in the ring. Or was it that he didn't want her to see how easily that the ultimate style of the Hyuuga family could be copied and twisted? Hiashi himself was not sure.

Neji was the pride of the Hyuuga clan, for all that the boy seemed to resent the family. Everyone talked about him and loved watching him fight. More than once, his fighting style was praised as being 'poetry in motion'. Hiashi was considering taking the sullen boy under his wing when he got a little older, wishing to impart some of the more advanced jutsu knowledge of the clan on the boy.

After Neji's first match, he was sure that time was going to be sooner rather than later. Hiashi had no idea that Neji had progressed so far on his own. The more traditional of his clan would most likely balk at teaching a Branch Member so many powerful jutsus but Hiashi knew that they could be overruled. He was, after all, the head of the clan and it was about time that they treated him as such.

But Naruto... Hiashi didn't know whether to feel shamed on his clan's behalf or to feel outraged by the blond's behavior. Instead, he felt an odd sort of helpless amusement. In the last two matches, in an arena filled with rivals and likely enemies, Naruto had revealed two huge weaknesses of the Hyuuga clan without a flinch.

First he exposed their weaknesses against underground assaults, and then he flaunted how easily it was to block jyuuken. _You block jyuuken with jyuuken, obviously_. Hiashi tried to keep a stern face up, knowing people were watching. It simply would not do if he starting grinning like an idiot.

_We are too rigid with our style and the younger amongst us find it hard to cope with having their 'all powerful' jyuuken thwarted._ Hiashi mused. _They have it beaten in their brains that we are superior to everyone, and our bloodline and jyuuken are what makes us better. _

Those weren't the reason why, of course. The Hyuuga clan was better than everyone else for _many_ reasons, but not solely for those and certainly not because of jyuuken. Jyuuken was a means to an end, simply a way for a Hyuuga to best use their byakugan.

Hiashi managed to get his amusement under control, more serious thoughts clamoring for attention. _Is there something wrong with the way that we train our own?_ He mused, trying to figure out a way around the clan's weakness. _Do we teach our young too rigorously and, thus, doom ourselves?_ He shook his head. _No... Hinata was not bound by jyuuken. She used different techniques when it became apparent that jyuuken wasn't working, as a smart ninja should._

_So why is Neji's so panicked? Why doesn't he shifted over to different techniques like she did?_ A sudden thought hit him. Helpless amusement reigned once more as he recalled one of Naruto's sharp retorts. _He was right. The higher you are, the harder you fall._

_To have a variety of techniques... is a defensive tactic of normal ninjas._ Hiashi leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. _If one jutsu doesn't work, then you try a different one. But a genius, a prodigy like Neji... prodigies are bound by the things they know. They are bound by habit, by things that they know the outcome of._ He came to a conclusion. _Geniuses are horribly rigid and cannot help but stick to what they know, what has given them victories in the past, what tactics they have been praised for over and over again..._

Hiashi closed his eyes, feeling not shame for his clan's honor, but pity for his brother's son. Neji was going lose. Why? Simply because he was a prodigy and Naruto was a normal ninja.  
---

Meanwhile, Neji was getting more and more desperate. He had quickly come to the conclusion that Naruto knew a lot more than a defensive stance or two. To make matters worse, Naruto, at the most inopportune moments, would switch from jyuuken to taijutsu in a flash, making his movements nearly impossible to predict. This was especially true for Neji, who was used to fighting against either taijutsu or jyuuken, not both of them at the same time.

The first time Naruto's glowing fingers tapped a chakra point(only marginally off target but close enough to close it), Neji panicked. He ended up making a wild movement towards Naruto that was neither jyuuken nor taijutsu. Naruto had dodged it easily, making Neji feel even more foolish for breaching his strict adherence to his fighting style but Naruto, as dense as usual, ended up making him forget about it.

"What the hell, Neji!" he called out easily, putting some space between them. "Stop standing there like an idiot."

The Hyuuga wanted to say something caustic but ended up swallowing his retort, as he realized what Naruto was doing. The blond was using the same tactics that Hinata had used in her previous battle against the younger genin. Naruto, without giving words for it, was trying to show Neji that, for all that the prodigy detested her, she wasn't as weak as he often claimed she was.

The worst part of it was that Neji knew he didn't even detest Hinata as much as he had lead Naruto to believe. Sure, there was a part of him that was annoyed with her weakness but he didn't hate her. He wanted to make her stronger! And so did Naruto, apparently. But their ways of going about it were vastly different.

"Jyuuken isn't going to work, you idiot." Naruto goaded, stalking Neji with a faint smirk. Neji once again bristled up in indignation. One did not _stalk_ with jyuuken. One waited until one was attacked before reacting. "Shift to something else."

Neji violently rebelled. "No!" he snapped, louder than he meant to. "This is my... it's..." He trailed off, starting to see the point behind Naruto's insults. Neji was losing with jyuuken. Neji and Naruto both knew it. Naruto, though his knowledge of it was slim at best, had a better advantage with jyuuken simply because the idiot barely understood the meaning behind chakra control. Every mutual palm strike had Neji sliding back several feet from the power of Naruto's chakra alone.

Neji was starting to get tired, no thanks to that Shino's sneaky energy draining tactic. He could only defend for so long against such a steady flow of attacks but Naruto seemed to be bouncing around just as energetically as he had at the beginning of the fight. The blond's stamina, apparently, knew no bounds.

Has it only been two minutes? Neji cringed as the force of a blocked jyuuken strike vibrated up his arm. A strange aching pain made itself known. It was everywhere, missing no place on his body. But Neji knew its origin. My inner coil system... it can't take this... I have to stop fighting so close to Naruto.

"Variety, moron, variety!" Naruto switched to taijutsu, a brief blessed relief as it meant that Naruto's chakra was not slamming in to him. Instead, a well aimed kick rebounded off of Neji's instinctively heavenly spin. Neji knew it was bad when he had to block simple taijutsu with an advanced jutsu. "Must I tattoo it on your forehead?"

Neji quickly put distance between them. His jutsu had rattled him more than it ruffled the hairs on Naruto's head. He sought to regain an advantage. "Destiny-" he couldn't have walked three steps backwards before Naruto appeared low before him. He barely managed to bring his arms up in defense but the kick still managed to knock him back several feet. Neji managed to stay on his feet but only through sheer stubborn will.

Naruto scowled at him. His voice was harsh. "Take your life into your own hands, fight your own battles. Destiny and fate have nothing to do with what's happening! The only inevitable fate is death and, my friend, none of us are going to die here today." For all of his lack of finesse and refinement, Naruto had an odd aura of quiet conviction and fierce determination. In Naruto, Neji saw recognized that qualities that he did not have.

But Neji wasn't the type to roll over just at the sight of spirited resistance. He closed his eyes for a moment before shifting to a new stance. At Naruto's widened gaze, Neji knew that the younger genin recognized the stance that had brought down the bug user Shino.

"Be that as it may..." Neji said quietly, his eyes narrowing. For some reason, he just couldn't focus his eyes on Naruto. "You decided your own fate when you let yourself get caught in the range of my divination." It only took a half of a second to close the distance between him and his opponent but it took several long moments before Neji realized that something had gone horribly wrong.

He felt the muscles in his shoulders suddenly bunch up and freeze. His vision wavered for a moment, his fingers still pressed against the chakra point he knew was just beyond several layers of clothing, skin, muscle, and bone. Naruto's torso was shaking underneath his hand but Neji knew there was something wrong about the sight. He didn't know what until Naruto's hand rose and wrapped around his. The Hyuuga was suddenly aware that it wasn't Naruto who was shaking, it was him.

"Neji, stop." Naruto whispered, the look on his face neutral. It was an expression of forced indifference and it looked fairly odd on his features. Neji yanked his hand away, staring at his bandaged fingers as if they were some foreign entity.

"What did you do to me?" he mumbled, realizing that his chakra control had gone haywire. The reason why his vision was wavering wasn't solely because he was tired from his last match. The chakra in his eyes wasn't being distributed evenly. His byakugan was failing. He looked down at himself, knowing that at least half, if not all of Naruto's attacks, had been accurate enough to close several of chakra points. "How? You can't even see them."

Naruto smiled apologetically, tapping his temple. "I remembered." he said softly. "I can't see them, sure, but my memory's not half shabby. It's at least good enough to remember where a few of them are."Neji didn't know whether to laugh or to sigh. _Sure, he remembers all the **important** ones_, Neji thought sullenly. _Just enough of them to nearly force me into unconsciousness._ Glancing under half lidded eyes, Neji was at once struck by the sudden kindness of the younger genin.

_His time is running out. If I stall for thirty or forty seconds, he'll have to forfeit by default. I could still win like **that**. But he's letting me waste time like this just so I can get a control over myself._ Neji laughed at himself, surprised at his underhanded thoughts. _Do I really want to win this? Do I really want to show him that jyuuken than that damn **variety** he keeps preaching about? _

Neji closed his eyes, realizing that they were two different topics. _My match or my pride._ To win the match would sacrifice his pride but to lose the match would make his pride suffer as well. However, his desire to stay honorable to himself was more important than showing Naruto the true strength of a Hyuuga's jyuuken.

He knew what was more important. He slowly raised his hand, his eyes glued to the ground as if he could divine the future from the dust at his feet. "I forfeit, examiner." Neji said with all the bravo he could manage. The one bit of satisfaction he got from the bitterness of self defeat was the look of utter shock on Naruto's face.

"W-what?" Naruto sputtered, jumping forward two paces. The surprise turned into annoyed anger. "We still have time left! You don't have to bow your proud neck yet!"

Realizing that Naruto was pissed at having his fight stopped so suddenly, Neji allowed himself a smirk. "I know when I am going to lose." he said haughtily, drawing himself up to his full height which, he was pleased to note, was quite a bit taller than the slouching and pouting blond. "Besides, you put too much chakra into your blows. Any harder and you would have destroyed a few of my chakra points."

Naruto jumped forward suddenly. The transformation from sulky to concerned was almost instant. "Oh my god!" Neji was surprised by the guilty look on Naruto's face, having no idea how horrible Naruto felt, knowing that he had almost done to Neji what Neji had done to Hinata a lifetime ago. "I'm so sorry!"

For some reason, this inspired a faint smile from Neji. "That's why you should practice something before just jumping in and doing it." he scolded halfheartedly. When the blond wasn't trying to piss him off, he was almost endearing. Neji, surprised by this unusual train of thought, wrote off the odd observation as a lapse of sanity due to chakra exhaustion. His eyes closed halfway. "So tired..."

While Hayate announced the winner of the match to a wildly cheering audience, Neji started to stumble blindly towards the exit. He didn't realize that he was walking in the wrong direction until an unknown warmth situated itself under his arm and gently turned him towards the right way. Neji opened his eyes lazily, leaning back to avoid getting Naruto's spiky hair in his face.

The blond's face was very earnest and concerned. Almost like Lee but without the annoying edge that made Neji's teeth grind. The blond had one of Neji's arms wrapped around his shoulder and was supporting his weight, slowly but surely leading the older genin to the infirmary.

"...I'm taller than you." Neji muttered inanely, noticing this small fact as he nearly tripped over the younger genin. Naruto grinned.

"You're tired." he stated, genuinely amused. "I don't think I've ever hear you so obvious or unguarded."

Neji tried to pass a grimace off as a sneer but gave up halfway. The sudden rush of fatigue had hit him hard and he just didn't have any will left to be difficult. "Stupid... Shino... and then you." he yawned. The gesture gave him a little boost of energy, just enough for him to articulate a sentence. "After I sleep for a month, there will be a rematch. You and me, once more. I want to fight you _without_ that bug kid's interference, and see who really wins."

"So you noticed that, eh? Alright." Naruto said good naturedly. "That sounds fun."

Neji bit his lip. "It does... doesn't it?" he stated softly, not wanting or expecting an answer. He heard vaguely a call for intermission break just as Naruto and he crossed the threshold of the exit.

"Alrighty then..." Naruto glanced over at him, recognizing an attempt to regain the patented Hyuuga mask of indifference. "Do you want my-"

"No." Neji pulled away from Naruto, brushing dirt off of his shirt. He walked off without a word, wanting to end the match like that because his pride had taken too much of a beating. _Better to be seen as a jerk than a loser. _

But Naruto, as usual, couldn't let him get what he wanted. "Hey!" the blond's voice echoed in the room sharply. Neji mentally begged for Naruto to leave him alone, even as he turned around, glaring coldly at the ninja who beat him. He tilted his chin up slightly, expecting to have to hear Naruto gloat, but the direction Naruto took the conversation in took him off guard.

"Your cousin loves you, you idiot." Naruto snarled. Oddly enough, Neji sensed that the blond was more upset than angry. Why did he care?

A little bit of life stirred back in Neji's eyes as he glared at Naruto. "Such emotions are weak." he snarled back, wanting the blond to just let him lick his wounds in peace.

Naruto had won. But under a forfeit, right? Neji slowly shook his head. That didn't diminish his victory at all. Neji was forced to forfeit because Naruto was beating him. If they had continued, chances were likely that he would have won anyway. The outcome was still the same

"Oh really?" Naruto tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowed. "I beat you under three minutes." Neji winced. Even though he had forfeited, Naruto technically won under the conditions he had set. Neji would _never_ be able to live this one down. "No one should be able to beat a Hyuuga under three minutes. _No one_. But I did, for Hinata-chan."

Neji didn't seem to know what to say to that. Maybe Naruto had a point but Neji was just too tired to care. "Well, you're just unnatural." he ended up saying, his insult halfhearted. Hopefully, the jab at the blond's inner parasite would make him go away. Unfortunately for Neji, he had no such luck.

Naruto smirked, a surprising expression for him to be able to wear comfortably. "Did you see me using any of that... _unnaturalness_ during the fight?" He stood, ignoring the wide eyed look Neji sent his way. Neji hadn't expected him to confront that can of worms so easily.

While observing Naruto's inner coil system during the match, Neji had noticed a fairly powerful seal lurking just barely on the surface of the brightly glowing veins of chakra around his stomach. He had looked at it for a moment, concentrating on the seal alone and, chillingly enough, had made out a red monstrous face grinning out at him. It had made him miss a step and gave Naruto just enough of an opening to close a chakra point in his shoulder.

Neji leaned back, his eyes clouded over. "I should hate you." he said softly, knowing Naruto would hear. "I should hate you and lead others to hate you as well." Naruto said nothing, the only visible reaction was his jaw tensing. Neji looked at the tense set of the younger boy's face before he sighed, running a hand through his long hair.

He took two steps forward, clamping a hand on the shorter boy's shoulder. He was silent for a moment, his pale eyes locked on Naruto's guarded blue ones. "...You should get someone to check that seal of yours." Neji told him quietly. He was too tired to disguise the concern in his voice.

Naruto's wary look changed to one of confusion. "What?" he blinked twice, his hand coming to rest over his stomach. "Why?"

Neji's lips pressed together. He didn't want to have to explain it, just in case someone else overheard. From what he understood about people in Naruto's situation, the less who knew about it, the better. Demon hosts were treated much worse than Branch Members. But, as Naruto was unaware of his current situation, it was up to Neji to inform him.

"Youki is bleeding into your inner coil system." Neji said bluntly. Naruto's mouthed an 'oh', before he shrugged, simply smiling at Neji.

"I know." he said. Naruto looked oddly cheerful. "But thanks for worrying about me."

A vein twitched in Neji's forehead at the younger boy's nonchalance. "I wouldn't call it worry." he snapped. He took a couple of steps away from Naruto before his stern expression relented. "Beware of-"

"Gaara." Naruto finished, his smile only widening. "I know. Don't worry about me."

Mumbling something offensive underneath his breath while still giving Naruto a concerned look, Neji walked off to the infirmary, his confused and tired mind replaying the sight of Naruto's cheerful wave.

For all of his ease and nonchalance, Neji detected something faintly false. Something was worrying Naruto, and it apparently was more important than internal damage from demon energy _and_ an actual demon itself, for Gaara couldn't be anything but a demon in disguise.

Neji found himself reluctant to want to know what concerned Naruto. If he didn't think those two things were bad, then he did not want to come face to face with what Naruto _really_ thought was worthy of his apprehension.

---

Naruto, as soon as Neji was out of sight, sighed and leaned against the wall. He tilted his head back, knowing he probably had a ten minute rest, thanks to that intermission thing that Hayate had announced just as Neji and Naruto left.

He tried to smile. _It's probably to give the audience time to bet some more_. Although the idea was amusing, he found himself increasingly depressed. Frustrated at himself, he yanked at his hair.

"Dammit, what's wrong with you?" he demanded softly to the empty room. "You should be ecstatic, you moron!" But he wasn't. The more time that passed, the more deathly afraid Naruto became.

The invasion was supposed to start during the first round. It had started right in the middle of Sasuke's match with Gaara and everything had gone down hill from there. But it was second round already and Naruto had yet to see hide nor hair of any Oto or Suna ninjas.

"Just what the hell is going on!" Naruto yelled, flinging his arm out to the side. His fist hit the wall with a dull thud. He made a small pathetic sound, leaning heavily against the wall. It was clearly the small genin's only support.

Naruto tried and _tried _to keep things as close to the true time line as possible, knowing that he would be walking in the dark if he influenced things too much. He wanted to change things, of course, he wanted to change a lot of things! But selfish as it may be, he still wanted a monopoly over the knowledge of what was to come.

So he had made very few changes, most noticeably with how he interacted with people and who lived and who didn't. He couldn't stomach having Haku die again, just as he couldn't stand letting Kabuto walk around unscathed. But what was a few deaths here and there? What was a spared life or two? Did it really effect the time line that much?

Things were now spiraling out of control. Suna was on Konoha's side, if Temari's odd comment was to be believed, and Sarutobi probably knew about the Kazekage. Sasuke was free of a curse seal, Lee wasn't in a hospital, Hinata wasn't coughing up blood... These were all _good_ things!

But Naruto was utterly and completely lost. _I have more enemies than Orochimaru._ But Orochimaru was the only person he had been focusing on. _I was hyper focused on that bastard, **unnaturally** so._ Why was that? Why wasn't Naruto thinking straight? _Even if I did manage to kill him, it still wouldn't stop the invasion._ Too many pieces were in play. It would be like trying to stop a tsunami with a spoon. There was something unnatural going on.

"Kyuubi?" he questioned reluctantly, not really believing that the fox would force him to focus solely on killing Orochimaru. There was a general shifting in the back of his mind, a sign that Kyuubi was pulling himself out of his private thoughts so he could interfere in Naruto's own.

**Hey, don't look at me, kid,** the demon said calmly. **I happen to hate all of your enemies equally. Snake-face doesn't get any favoritism. **He paused for a moment, running his mind over Naruto's conflicting thoughts and picking up on Naruto's anxieties. **You want me to do something, right? **

Naruto backpedaled his thoughts to the half formed plan he had entertained. _Yeah._ He straightened up. _Could you?_

Kyuubi snorted. **Of course I ****_could_. The real question is _will_ I?**

Naruto hesitated, having a hard time reading the tone behind that last question. _...Will you?_

The fox became irritated. **Well, have you considered the repercussions?** Correctly assuming that, no, Naruto had not, he continued. **Of course I could do that. Super Kage Bunshin no Jutsu works wonders at giving me a lovely if not temporary body.**

_You always alter the jutsu._ Naruto complained petulantly.

**My apologies for not wanting to be ****_short_ and _blond_**. Kyuubi said, not sounding very sorry at all. **The point is, I could. But there would be a price.** His voice became both softer and harsher at the same time. **There are side affects of my consciousness leaving your body.**

Naruto slowly nodded, wincing as he realized what Kyuubi was hinting at. Super Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (which, he reckoned, _really_ needed a better name) was an excellent jutsu but it had taken a lot of experimenting until Naruto had gotten it down.

It hadn't been the first time he had thought of finding a way to allow Kyuubi some freedom outside of the cage that was his body but it certainly was the first time that his efforts had worked.

His super shadow clone was based on the basic principles of a regular shadow clone. A shadow clone was formed with a concentration of chakra as well as a impressment of a consciousness upon the chakra. The chakra then would take on the shape and nature of the consciousness, thus creating a clone.

Of course, Naruto quickly learned that it was fairly difficult to create a Kyuubi clone if Kyuubi himself wasn't active in the jutsu forming. Not only did the demon have to be involved in forcing his consciousness on the chakra, but he also had to contribute a large amount of youki to the formation of the clone itself. After a few trial and errors, Naruto finally got the jutsu down.

Having Kyuubi out as a clone was... odd. And distracting, to say in the least. While there was an odd emptiness at the back of Naruto's mind (since, because Kyuubi was barely more than a mass of concentrated youki, he couldn't be in two places at once), Kyuubi was usually right in his face, being obnoxious.

The first time around, Naruto had suffered through Kyuubi's sudden bout of creativity when the clone popped into existence, several feet taller than Naruto and proudly wearing a crimson red cloak with the word 'Kyuubi' displayed in flashing neon colors on his back. Naruto nearly had a heart attack, especially when Kyuubi tried to go into the village. A rough impromptu wrestling match got the demon to promise not to do it again, in fear that Naruto would never let him out again.

Despite the demon's mischievous nature (which Naruto really couldn't condemn him for since Kyuubi had been stuck in his stomach for so long), there was a lot of interesting things that could be done with his Kyuubi clone that his shadow clones just could not manage.

Since the super clone had so much youki stored in it, Kyuubi could do jutsus independent of Naruto. The shadow clones, in comparison, could only participate in or aid the real Naruto with a jutsu. Another interesting change was, while shadow clones disappeared with a hard tap or two, his Kyuubi clone could take a lot more damage, again thanks to the extra youki.

But for all of the improvements, there was many downsides. Because Kyuubi was technically 'detached' from Naruto during the duration of the jutsu, there was some unexpected side effects to his 'return'.

First of all, Naruto found himself with many unexplainable burns. Normal burns were usually a pain because Kyuubi, as a creature of fire with an innate immunity to burns, didn't know how to heal them so Naruto had to heal naturally or with the aid of a medic nin.

But these were no ordinary burns. They were burns from overexposure to youki. They didn't last long, thankfully, since he had a certain immunity to youki itself, but their sudden appearance was a little shocking. His body, thanks to the slow mixing of his chakra and Kyuubi's youki, was normally unaffected by sudden spikes in youki levels, as long as they didn't last very long. To suddenly show a normal reaction, or at least normal as in a non-host reaction, to youki was a sign of something wrong.

And, to make matters worse, Kyuubi was upset to find that he had to reattach himself to Naruto's inner coil system every time he came back. While Naruto had a faint suspicion that his reattachment was what caused the strange burns, Kyuubi was much more concerned about Naruto's general healing rates.

As it turned out, the longer Kyuubi stayed out, the longer it took for Naruto to regain his fast healing abilities. Sluggishly, they would return after Kyuubi had attached himself back to Naruto's inner coil system and after a round of burns had appeared and disappeared, sometimes taking anywhere from ten minutes to an hour.

That left Naruto vulnerable for that period of time, susceptible to death by wounds that Kyuubi would have normally healed with a blink of his eye. Kyuubi was not pleased by the revelation of that weaknesses.

**You realize then, if you make me go and... ****_clean up..._** Kyuubi was reluctant but willing to listen. **You won't be able to heal during the duration of your fight with Shukaku?**

Naruto sighed. It was hard to get irritated with someone who was worried about his health, for selfish reasons of his own or not. _I can beat Gaara before Shukaku get released, easy._ He said confidently. _But I need you to... uh... make a preemptive strike against Oto. The outcome of this invasion is more important than this match._

**That match could mean your ****_life_, as could the invasion.** Kyuubi said firmly. **To me, they are the same.** However, Naruto could already feel him relenting and giving way. Kyuubi knew how serious he was about the invasion. Finally, Kyuubi backed down, wordlessly giving the go ahead.

Mumbling a relieved thanks, Naruto quickly made the signs for his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. The only thing that made a Kyuubi clone different from a shadow clone was the energy he pulled up to create it. He used chakra for his shadow clones; for Kyuubi, he bypassed the chakra and dipped deep down into youki and yanked it to the surface.

A loud pop announced the arrival of Kyuubi. Naruto looked up, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Kyuubi had apparently restrained himself this time in altering the jutsu but his creative touches were still there.

The blond clone standing across from Naruto still managed to get a whole six inches on him. Instead of being dressed in shredded and tattered clothing, the clone wore a generic black cloak over whatever he was wearing underneath. The forehead protector was distinctly missing and the clone's spiky blond hair had faint red streaks in it.

The clone ignored Naruto's tapping foot, sedately pulling out a familiar looking red mask. He tapped it once with a clawed finger and a subtle illusion went over it, changing the chilling red to a bland white. The mask looked more like an ANBU mask than it had before.

Finally, Kyuubi looked at Naruto, his red eyes glinting in faint amusement as he looked down at his host. "Allow me my simple entertainment." the demon drawled, his voice slightly raspy compare to Naruto's voice. "While you go out and play and _get yourself killed_."

Naruto blinked at the sour tone before smiling slyly. "I'd be careful if I were you, Kyuubi..." he drawled back. "Your human is showing."

Kyuubi snorted derisively at that. "Don't be mistaken." he pointed a clawed finger at Naruto, his gaze suddenly serious. "Your weak little body croaks and there goes my humble wish to live for a decade longer."

"There isn't anything _humble_ about you." Naruto pointed out, a faint smile contrasting with the harsh tone. Just as Kyuubi was about to respond to that, the sound of footsteps drew their attention.

After a moment, Naruto saw Shikamaru and Sasuke making their way down the stairs. Neither looked like they were in good enough shape to start fighting each other. Sasuke's black outfit was dusty and what little of his pale skin that was visible was either dusty, bloodied up, or bruised. Even his face hadn't been spared, though the wound looked a lot better at that moment than it had before.

Shikamaru looked worse, as he hadn't had a medic nin come and fix up what she could. His vest and shirt was split open diagonally, a bit dried blood coating the edges of the cut. His face was unnaturally pale, even paler than Sasuke's. He had tension around his eyes and mouth that led Naruto to believe that Shikamaru was most likely suffering a mild case of chakra exhaustion. Naruto wasn't too surprised about that. He knew that the genin had thrown his all into his match against Kankurou.

"Hey." Shikamaru greeted first, though Sasuke had been the first to spot Naruto. Nothing else was said until the two had made their way down the stairs and to Naruto.

"Intermission's over." Sasuke informed him, his dark eyes flicking over Kyuubi. Panicking for a moment, Naruto glanced over his shoulder to see if Kyuubi's features (a little altered but still obviously Naruto's) were visible in the bad lighting. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that Kyuubi had pulled the ANBU mask up.

His gaze met Shikamaru's just as Sasuke passed him to go outside. The Nara only raised an eyebrow, a single gesture that spoke volumes. Naruto smiled reassuringly at him, wordlessly telling him that everything was alright.

The exhausted genin was the only other one who knew what _should_ have been happening but wasn't. While Naruto knew that he himself would undoubtedly worry endlessly about it, he was violently opposed to Shikamaru losing sleep over it. In the end, Shikamaru saw right through him, giving him a partially annoyed but mostly empathetic shake of his head.

Naruto turned to watch them walk out. "Good luck, you guys." he whispered, knowing that they wouldn't hear. The sound of a sudden rise in cheering met his ear right before the doors closed shut. Naruto sighed, his shoulders dropping.

Kyuubi sighed, pulling off his mask. He tossed Naruto an unreadable look. "In the end, it's always about that Uchiha brat." Kyuubi muttered, turning fully towards Naruto. "Can't you just tie him up and lock him in a tower somewhere, where he won't get himself into trouble?"

Naruto sighed. "Oh, how I wish life was that easy..."

---

They had walked the entire way down the stairs in silence. The silence itself was only disturbed by, naturally, Naruto's appearance. Sasuke wanted to get mad at Naruto for not choosing a side (more like, not choosing _his_ side) but he knew it was a fruitless endeavor. Naruto wasn't the sort of person to choose one friend over another and, as much as Sasuke disliked it, Shikamaru happened to be one of Naruto's friends.

Off to the side, Shikamaru yawned to himself as Sasuke stared at him out of the corner of his eye. Normally, he didn't think too much of the lazy genin but his last match had shown him just how much skill laid beneath those sleepy eyes and stubborn frown.

The light from the sun was almost blinding as they made their way out into the arena. It briefly startled Sasuke, who had to keep his head down until his eyes adjusted. He was barely aware of the hum of an excited audience waiting for what would be an interesting match.

"Nara Shikamaru verses Uchiha Sasuke." Hayate announced, cheers from the crowd directly following it. Shikamaru rubbed the side of his neck, blinking sleepily. "Alright, ready?"

"Yes." Sasuke said immediately, even though he wasn't. He knew it would take more than mindless hand to hand combat to defeat the genius. He had to think quickly and had to keep constantly in motion. Shikamaru could not be allowed to catch him in any of his shadows or it would all be over.

Shikamaru yawned. "No." he said lazily. Hayate and Sasuke blinked at him in confusion, as did the rest of the audience. Frowning a bit, Shikamaru elaborated. "Examiner, I forfeit."

"_What_?" the examiner and his opponent demanded immediately. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

He put his hands out in front of him. "No chakra." he said simply in a flat 'why didn't you see this coming?' voice. "Used it all up on Kankurou. You think a genin like me can manage difficult techniques like that without breaking a sweat? Gimme a break..."

Hayate smiled sheepishly at the genin. _Well that explains why the guy is so sleepy_, he thought humorously. Sasuke, on the other hand, was livid.

"Why the hell did you come down here in the first place if you were going to forfeit?" he demanded angrily. Shikamaru shot him a 'don't be stupid' glare.

"What are you complaining about? You had to come down here anyway, you have a match right after this." he said logically. He waved on of his hands indifferently. "Just consider me as your escort." He cocked his head to the side. "Free of charge, of course."

"Alright then..." Hayate said slowly. He leaned back, looking up at the crowd, then at the box where the eligible genins were supposed to wait. "We can start the next match. Gaara of Suna, please come down here!"

Gaara glanced down at the jonin, his gaze somewhat cold. His eyes met Sasuke's and his eyes turned arctic. His folded arms slowly fell to his sides and, without a further pause, he backed away from the railing, most likely heading for the stairs.

"Hey, Sasuke." Shikamaru leaned back, breaking Sasuke's glare at the retreating sand nin. The sleepy boy suddenly looked alert and serious. "You should probably forfeit."

Sasuke revived his glare and turned it on Shikamaru. "Why?" he snapped, his eyes narrowed dangerously. It was a look that would have made even Naruto back off but, for some reason, the shadow user was unaffected.

Shikamaru took a step forward, lowering his voice. "There's a reason why they waited till the third round to add Gaara in." he murmured lowly. "He's not genin level, nor even chuunin level. He's a force of nature, _literally_, and is easily the strongest ninja in his village right now."

"Well that doesn't say much for Suna, now does it." Sasuke said, a little snippy. Shikamaru's eyes narrowed and, to Sasuke's surprise, reflected his glare right back at him at full power.

"The proctors said that there's a possibility that someone might _die_ in this exam." Shikamaru reminded him. "Though they might try and keep that at a minimal level, it is because of people like Gaara that some have died already." Shikamaru pulled back , knowing that there was no way to talk Sasuke out of the fight. "Watch yourself then."

Sasuke watched the shadow user walk out of the ring, his narrow eyes locked on the boy's slouching shoulders. In spite of his conviction to ignore the other boy's words, he couldn't help but remember things about Gaara that he would have rather have forgotten.

_There was that aura of pure death around him... and he called Naruto his prey_. Sasuke's fists clenched. _And then there was that girl from Oto... Kin, I think. He nearly killed her during the preliminaries, right?_ He thought back on Shikamaru's words, then on what the red head had used to nearly kill the Oto nin. _Sand... a force of nature indeed._

"Tch." Sasuke shook his head, purging the faint fleeting feeling of fear that were building up in his mind. "He knows nothing." He looked up, his eyes blazing in determination. "Gaara is nothing."

And then, the monster of Suna walked out into the ring, his cold green eyes stealing all the warmth from the sun.

---

"Ayah..." Naruto paced, gripping his hair with his hands. "Not good, not good!" He jumped towards the railing, leaning dangerously over it (having not learned his lesson, apparently). His wide eyes took in the silent standoff between Sasuke and Gaara. He groaned softly. "_Definitely_ not good..."

"What are you moaning about?" The sudden words startled Naruto more than they usually would have. He was feeling so paranoid and anxious that even the sound of a pin dropping would have made him duck for cover.

As one could imagine, Naruto nearly leapt out of his skin. "Shika!" he announced rather inanely as he whipped around. The shadow user ignored this as he walked up to Naruto's side.

Shikamaru glanced over the ring and sighed. "So he didn't take my advice..." he stated flatly. "He either has a death wish or he's just plain nuts. Take your pick."

Naruto glanced over at Shikamaru, the look in his eyes unreadable. "You... tried to stop him from fighting Gaara?" he asked softly.

Shikamaru's eyes shifted over to him. "Was that bad?" he asked, a small frown forming. "Should I have just kept my mouth shut?" His concerns were valid, as he was wondering if telling Sasuke to forfeit had drastically changed the future. Naruto immediately started shaking his head.

"No! No... I... Thank you." Naruto sighed, slumping over. He was grateful for Shikamaru's attempt even as he knew that it would have never worked. Sasuke was too prideful. He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "He's a stubborn jerk, isn't he?" The sad part about it was that he wasn't even sure if he said it fondly or in exasperation.

"Sounds like somebody else I know..." Shikamaru commented lightly. Naruto smiled weakly at the attempt to cheer him up. Shikamaru frowned, turning back towards the fight. "Well, one could only hope that he has a better sense of self preservation than you do."

Naruto's shoulders drooped further. He had a pained look on his face. "Yeah, one could only hope..." he echoed. Shikamaru patted his shoulder lightly before walking away. He certainly did not want to watch the match. Perhaps Chouji could distract him from what was most likely to be an ugly match.

---

As Kyuubi might have bluntly stated it (had he not been distracted by his impromptu mission), hopes and dreams mean nothing in the real world, as long as they remain merely hopes and dreams.

And, as such, Naruto's hope for Sasuke to be more conscious about his own wellbeing was, at the moment, completely futile. The well meaning hopes of another are often shadowed by the pride and stubbornness of the one. Sasuke had _no_ intention of backing out of a fight against Gaara.

The reasoning behind his stubborn decision to fight had less to do with actually beating the genin who was considered to be the strongest of all the Suna ninjas, and more to do with the fact that the red head had called Naruto his prey.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. _I'm the one who's going to fight Naruto in the next round, not Gaara._ Naruto was his friend, his teacher, his rival... Gaara didn't have the right to fight him, not like Sasuke did. _I want to show Naruto all that I've learned, from him and from Kakashi._ His hand fisted. _I want to show him how strong I am now._

Sasuke had always found it incredibly annoying how much Naruto held back in their fights. It was easy to see when he was. Naruto wasn't the sort of fighter that calculated his every movement down to the last degree, like how Nara Shikamaru would. He was one of those people that Kakashi had told him about, ninjas with something the jonin coined as 'battle instincts', where well thought out strategy was overshadowed by quick thinking and adaptive attacks and techniques. Naruto would only step back and calculate his movements if he was planning on holding back some of his power.

Naruto never performed more than four different taijutsu attacks during each of their matches, which, once Sasuke had identified which of the four he was using, made defending a lot easier. Naruto never summoned more than three shadow clones to assist him, and never used more than chuunin level ninjutsu, even though Sasuke was well aware that Naruto, if pressed, could summon a thousand clones, and could also perform jonin level jutsus, some of which he had even taught Sasuke.

After that one mission in Wave Country, Sasuke had never seen the legendary rasengan again, nor had he been able to see Naruto's new super clone technique. After the first month of Team Seven's formation, Naruto had become all the more secretive about his abilities, even about his strange blood line that allowed him to quickly heal from even the most lethal of wounds.

This pissed Sasuke off, for more reasons than even he could give voice to. For one, he _wanted_ to see how strong Naruto was. He respected power, as most ninjas would, and it made him angry to see Naruto trying to hide it. For another, he thought (an occasional thought that he usually tried to ignore because it was too distracting) that he and Naruto were friends. Eccentric friends, of course, but still friends. He would never admit to anyone that he valued Naruto's (and, yes, Kakashi and Sakura's too) friendship but it was still there.

He, though he wasn't an expert in the topic, had thought that friends shared secrets and told each other things. He thought that friends depended on each other and trusted their lives with each other. Naruto, being unusually furtive and ambiguous (which was really out of character for the loud blond he had known during their Academy years), seemed like he was hiding some sort of awful secret.

Without mincing any words, to Sasuke, it seemed like a huge betrayal on Naruto's part.

Sasuke, still glaring at Gaara, was distracted a little by the red head's shift in attention. No longer was the red head giving him an arctic stare but he was staring up at the genin box with a strange expression on his face. It was composed of an odd mixture of excitement and apprehension.

Sasuke followed his line of sight and realized with a jolt that Gaara was staring at Naruto. The blond, in return, only leaned over the railing with an impressively indifferent look on his face as he gazed back down on Gaara. Then, the blond's blue eyes shifted over to Sasuke. Sasuke himself was surprised by the sudden smile of encouragement.

He tried to ignore it. "Tch." he turned towards Gaara, aware that only half of the sand nin's attention was focused on him. He shook off his momentary feeling of embarrassment. _Damn Naruto... acting like a mother hen..._ "Let's start this fight."

"Yes." Gaara said, shifting his cold gaze back to Sasuke. His face was impassive. "Let's get this over with already." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Did the other boy really think that he'd be so easy to fight. Those cold eyes told him that yes, he really did.

Sasuke was barely aware of the jonin stepping up to him. "Uh, Uchiha..." Hayate said, his voice pitched low. "Perhaps you should forfeit-" The jonin was subject to a very icy red glare.

"_No_." Sasuke hissed, glancing back at Gaara. He was sick and tired of hearing people tell him that he should forfeit. Even Sakura, who rarely ever was critical of him, mentioned it. Why did everyone think he was going to lose? He was an Uchiha! Losing wasn't in his vocabulary. "I don't care what others say. I'm _not _forfeiting."

Hayate stared at him for a moment before sighing and backing off. "Very well then." he said, looking at Gaara, then back at Sasuke. He made a decision to keep an eye out for the last Uchiha. It was one of his responsibilities as an examiner to stop the fights if it looked like someone was going to get killed. _The question is, will I even have enough time to step in?_ He had seen the remains of the last person Gaara had fought. The girl was still alive, but only just barely. Hayate had been the one to step in and stop the fight but by the time he did, a lot of damage had already been done.

From the cold stare that Gaara was giving him now, Hayate had a chilling feeling that the sand nin remembered how he interfered and would not tolerate it happening again. Hayate gulped, then steeled his spine. He'd just have to do it anyway, whether the demon kid liked it or not.

"Uchiha Sasuke verses Gaara of Suna." he announced, projecting his voice. The crowds started cheering. Uchiha Sasuke was a crowd favorite, even more so now that Hyuuga Neji had been knocked out of the running. Hayate took several careful steps back. "Start!"

---

The Oto nin paced restlessly across the floor, impatiently waiting for the signal to start the invasion. He was one of the lucky few who were already positioned within the high walls of Konoha. His job of locating and poisoning Konoha's water supply would only be made easier by his strategic location.

However, he was, regrettably, also one of the few that their leader, the great Orochimaru, could call to go on errands, such as following suspicious characters that Orochimaru wanted to keep an eye on. Normally, this was would a fairly easy job for a ninja, but he himself had never been the best at stealth. Or reconnaissance. Or fighting. Or... anything, really.

To say in the least, Orochimaru wasn't very pleased with him at the moment, but could not kill him unless he planned on alerting the ANBU any more than they already were. The Oto nin thought it was terrifying that the ANBU were the only things that were keeping him alive, but he was still determined to get back in Orochimaru's good graces, conveniently forgetting that he had never been in Orochimaru's good graces in the first place.

Certainly, doing what he told would lessen the punishment for not being able to follow a few Suna ninjas, right?

The Oto nin made a small distressed noise, quickening his pacing. _Definitely not enough._ He distressed over this in his mind. _Perhaps if I killed some noteworthy ninja?_ He thought over the various noteworthy ninja he could choose from and immediately blanched. There was no way he could fight and kill the Copy Cat Nin, Tsunade, or Jiraiya. He doubted that he could even kill a blasted Hyuuga. And he couldn't just _say_ he killed someone noteworthy because Orochimaru had an uncanny talent for being able to tell when someone was lying.

His face lit up. _I could kill one of the Hyuuga children!_ He thought with a grin. _And then, when Orochimaru-sama asks, I'll be able to tell him that I killed a Hyuuga and he wouldn't be able to detect a lie because I'll be telling the truth. _Because, of course, not telling the whole truth _technically_ wasn't lying.

The ninja grinned to himself. "I'm so smart!" he murmured, delighted.

A low voice came out of nowhere. "Is that so?" the voice asked, completely devoid of emotion. Yelping, the Oto nin turned around, wide eyes barely catching the sight of a masked ANBU before cold steel whipped across his throat.

The Oto nin clenched his fingers around his own throat, trying to stop the sudden flow of blood. He dropped down to the ground slowly, staring at the ANBU in betrayal before life finally faded out of his eyes.

"Hmm." The ANBU flicked his wrist, making the blood on his katana fly off and hit the wall. "At least this one was quiet..."_  
_  
Barely a second later, another ANBU was in the room. He looked at the corpse, then at the ANBU standing over it. "Was the plan changed?" he asked the first ANBU, suspicion and curiosity warring in his voice.

"Ah, no." the first ANBU said after a moment's hesitation. His long fingers tightened around the hilt of his weapon. His voice remained mild. "Was this your hit? My apologies... They all look alike to me."

The second ANBU slowly shook his head. "No, it's fine." He was quiet for a minute, gazing down at the dead Oto nin. The second ANBU didn't think it was a very clean kill but who was he to criticize? Finally, he came to a conclusion. "Are you from Platoon Eleven?"

The first ANBU was amused. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you." he said almost playfully, sheathing his katana. At the disappearance of the weapon, the second ANBU relaxed a little.

"You _sound_ like you're from Platoon Eleven. You all are a bunch of weirdos." the other ANBU said almost petulantly. He turned away, waving a hand. "Oh well. Makes my job easier." He disappeared almost immediately in a cloud of smoke, most likely off after his next hit.

The first ANBU stood quietly for a moment before he gently took off his mask with his clawed fingers. Calm red eyes gazed down at the growing puddle of blood. "Looks like the old man knows _far more_ than you give him credit for, Naruto." he murmured. Kyuubi tilted his head back and stared out the window in the direction of his host.

_Going right after snake face's men? Rather gutsy of you, old man..._ His respect of aging Hokage reluctantly went up a few points. Kyuubi's eyes narrowed. _If the ANBU forces know that Oto is against them and are systematically taking them out, one by one, then..._ His lips stretched into a wide grin. Unlike Naruto's cheerful smiles, this grin was anything but innocent. It could only be said to be ominous and threatening. _The cursed kids are mine...  
_  
"Let's see what's more terrifying, my little kiddies..." he purred, pulling up memories of the five children who had nearly killed his host and his friends. "A snake made demon or the _real thing_."

---

There was no way around a perfect defense. Hence the phrase 'perfect defense'. And yet, the Hyuuga's so called perfect defense could be easily breached, simply because Sasuke doubted that they could spin around and around forever and ever. Hyuugas were not ballerinas, despite how they looked, and they would no doubt get dizzy after spinning for a while, thus creating an open for an attack.

Naruto always said that the perfect defense was a good offense, but only crazily strong ninjas like Naruto could actually pull that off without driving themselves in a coma. It still wasn't the perfect defense. Sasuke didn't think that Naruto even understood the meaning of defense. Or self preservation.

Sasuke doubted that there was really such a thing as a 'perfect defense', just as there wasn't a 'perfect attack' or a 'perfect strategy'. There were only defenses, attacks, and strategies perfect for _certain situations_, but not perfect all around.

So when Gaara said that his sand defense was a perfect defense, Sasuke wasn't about to buy it. Sure, the sand was fairly annoying, always moving about and blocking his attacks. But it was sluggish and slow moving, especially to the advanced sight of Sasuke's sharingan. It only took Sasuke a few moments to start moving fast enough to get by Gaara's sand. It only took him a moment longer to get close enough to hit him.

As he jumped back to dodge a wave of sand, he knew he'd savor the look of shock on Gaara's face for a long time. _There's no such thing as a perfect defense, Gaara._ His smirk fell as Gaara turned back to look at him with an crazy grin on his face. And was his face about to crumble?

_What the hell?_ Sasuke frowned. _His face looks like clay!_ Sasuke knew he kicked Gaara pretty hard across the face (the blood coming out of Gaara's mouth was a testament to that) but he also knew that skin wasn't supposed to look like that.

_There must be something over his skin... maybe a second layer of sand?_ Though Sasuke cringed at the thought of having a layer of sand molded to his skin, he had to admit it was a pretty good idea. _But it's **still** not a perfect defense._ He knew at least one technique that could pierce through damn near everything, even if he hadn't fully completed his training for it.

_Kakashi's chidori would take him down in a second._ Sasuke thought with a frown. _Mine too, I guess. The last part of my training was endurance but we've only just begun. I can only manage one chidori at the moment where Kakashi can manage several. With as little chakra as I have left from my fight with Lee, if I use chidori, I'll pass out soon afterwards. I should only leave that for a last resort._ His fists clenched. _Dammit!_ He'd just have to use something else then.

The reason behind Gaara's maniac smile became known as Sasuke felt a sudden absence of heat from the sun. He whipped around, shocked to see a wave of sand behind him. He immediately hightailed it out of there, climbing a nearby wall to escape the crushing attack.

_He can control sand outside of his gourd?_ Sasuke cursed. However, to Sasuke's great fortune, doing so seemed to drain a lot of energy out of Gaara. _He won't do that often._ From his high up position, Sasuke could see how much Gaara was panting after such a dangerous attack. The sand nin composed himself, smirking up at Sasuke.

_He's just telling me that I have his full attention now._ Sasuke realized. He hadn't had Gaara's full attention or full killer intent on him before that moment. It seemed reserved only for Naruto. He squashed the growing feeling of fear in his gut. _Good. I wouldn't expect anything less than that,_ he told himself firmly, trying to convince himself that Gaara's full attention was a good thing.

The thing was, he knew it wasn't. Intuition and reality told him it wasn't. And, like always, they were right.

---

The Uchiha kid was like an annoying little gnat darting around the ring. Gaara had little patience for that sort of thing. He just wished that the brat would stay in place so he could beat him and then move on to more important things, like Naruto.

_Would he consider this a breach of our terms?_ Gaara was distracted once more, barely noticing as his sand whipped up around him to defend against flying weapons. He shook his head. _No, our terms ended the moment this exam started._ He smirked. _So I can kill him. Fun fun fun..._

Gaara froze for a second. _Wait, do I want that or is that-_

Just as he was trying to figure out why he kept hearing someone laughing in his head, the leaf genin appeared right underneath his nose. Gaara's eyes barely had the chance to widen before the brat went and kicked him again, this time across his torso. Gaara went sliding back, his sand sailing back with him, trying to catch up.

He regained his footing, just to realize that Sasuke was behind him. He managed to raise his arms to block the next three attacks that Sasuke managed to get in before Gaara's sand had caught up to intercept him. Gaara's arms hurt, but not from the attacks themselves. The vibrations of the blows made his arms feel weird. It had been a while since someone was fast enough and had gotten that close to him.

Bitterly, he wished that Yashamaru had been faster in his attempt to kill him instead of just slow enough for a younger Gaara to catch and squash. At least then, being quite dead, he could had done without the endless solitude and recent confusion that was his life.

Gaara had never learned taijutsu, genjutsu, or even ninjutsu. No one wanted to teach him anything, so fearful were they that he was going to kill them. So he taught himself what he could, made up jutsus of his own, and made sure that what he could do could make up for what he couldn't. Like taijutsu, for example. His sand jutsus were perfect for defending against all attacks, and for offense, they were so far reaching that Gaara rarely had to move his feet, thus ridding him of any need to learn taijutsu.

Gaara pulled his sand closer to him, warily eying Sasuke through the grains of sand as he idly rubbed his arm. "You're so annoying." he announced, his eyes meeting Sasuke's sharingan without a flinch. "Like a pesky little bug."

He watched Sasuke's eyes narrow at the insult, then move to take in his defensive movement. Gaara knew that he would see that the sand was no longer so much of a mobile defense, but more like solid walls. Gaara could tell the second that Sasuke had come to a decision, for the boy's smirk renewed itself.

"Well, apparently this _pesky little bug_ was enough to scare you behind a fortress." Sasuke said smugly. A vein in Gaara's temple twitched. "But I do believe I have enough chakra left in me to bring you out." Gaara's frown became more pronounced as Sasuke darted away from him, retreating to the wall.

With several quick movements, the Uchiha had nearly scaled the entirety of the wall. He turned around then, dropping down to a knee and holding out his hand in front of him. A sound that reminded Gaara vaguely of chirping birds met his ears.

_Ah_. Gaara understood. _A running start then_. He had thought that the boy was retreating but it seemed like he wasn't. Gaara gathered the sand closer to him, making the walls so clumped together that even Sasuke's quick speed couldn't get by them. He layered the walls thickly with sand, confident that he could withstand any attack Sasuke threw at him.

Faintly, he heard the call, "Chidori!" He braced for the impact, not expecting the sudden pain that quickly followed as layers of sand, skin, and muscle were pierced. For the second time during that match, Gaara felt a fog take over his mind despite his best efforts to push it back.

_Shukaku..._

---

Sasuke could practically feel the crowd jumping out of their seats but he chose to ignore it. All that mattered was the fact that he breached the so called impenetrable sand defense of his opponent.

After seeing that he could not get around the thick defenses that Gaara had deliberately put around himself, Sasuke gauged how much chakra he had left and decided that he _had_ to use chidori. Hopefully, the attack had done Gaara at least half of the damage that it had done to his defense because Sasuke barely had enough energy to raise his head.

_Stupid Lee!_ He thought with a scowl._ If I had fought Gaara first, I'm sure that I would have won this match easily._ His palm with slick with blood. _Now I doubt that I'll be able to **poke** Naruto, let alone fight him like I want to._

Sasuke pulled away from the shattered wall, yanking his arm out of the crater it had made. Blood seeped through the hole but not as much as Sasuke would have thought. Sasuke frowned. _Where did I hit him?_

He made the mistake of blinking. During that fraction of a second, part of the wall detached itself and slammed into his midsection. Sasuke, completely caught off guard, was sent flying back. He quickly got up, shaking off his dizziness.

Gaara let the walls collaspe back into the ground. He was leaning far over, his head slumped down until it was almost even with his shoulders. He clamped one hand over his opposite shoulder. It was not a gesture of pain or even an attempt to stop the flow of blood. All he did was press his hand to his wound, then draw it back to stare at his coated palm as if it was the only thing in the world important to him.

Sasuke could only watch in confusion as Gaara's head slowly swung up, revealing a wide crazy smile and glowing gold eyes. "That hurt." the red head said, cocking his head to the side. Sasuke wondered why his spine seemed to freeze at the sight of Gaara's inhuman gold eyes.

_It's like looking into the eyes of a wild animal... _he realized, backing up slightly. The small retreat egged the beast in front of him on and the match was over before Sasuke could even comprehend what he was seeing. So fast that even his sharingan could barely see it, sand slammed him into the side of the wall, clinging to the surface like stubborn mold.

As the sand began to slowly compress his ribs into his lungs, he could only wordlessly gasp, as the sand was aggravating his older injuries that he had gotten during his fight with Lee. An ending of a different kind was quickly approaching for Sasuke. Luckily for Sasuke, he passed out before the pain could get any worse.

---

The crowd's script for a fun drama was collapsing around the audience's ears as their hero seemed to be on the verge of death. There were the many who simply sat and watched the collapse indifferently, but a surprising number of people gasped in horror and stood up from their seats. The few people who were closer to Sasuke than the casual observer started yelling and, in some cases, crying. The various reactions created a horrible cacophony of sound.

But all the noise was over shadowed by a single powerful bellow.

"_Stop it!_" Gaara, his eyes glowing unnaturally, felt his head turn despite Shukaku's desire to kill the boy in his grasp. Even drowning under a haze of youki that was gradually taking over his mind, Gaara still listened to Naruto.

The expression on Naruto's face was fierce. He was grinding his teeth together so hard that it looked like it hurt. Chakra rolled in thick waves around him and his eyes glinted dangerously. "The match is over." Naruto said slowly, sounding each syllable out strongly. "Put him _down_." There was a heavy pause accompanied by an even heavier silence.

Gaara closed his eyes for a moment, his forehead tensing in concentration. He opened his eyes slowly. The silence was broken by the soft sound of sand moving back to him, and by the low thud of Sasuke crumbling to the ground.

Hayate immediately darted in, scooping the boy up in his arms. He backed away from Gaara cautiously, looking like he half-expected Gaara to attack him for interfering but Gaara was no longer interested in Sasuke.

Naruto gritted his teeth. Even he thought that Sasuke would have done better than that. _Note to self, work on Sasuke's stamina_. He brightened up a little, realizing that Sasuke had done the exact amount of work that he had done last time under a curse seal. _So he is a little stronger... _He deflated quickly. _Or wait, didn't the curse seal hinder him? Aah... can't remember. I was too busy trying to save Sakura._

Someone appeared right behind him. Naruto glanced over his shoulder in irritation. He was about three seconds away from jumping in the ring. He didn't have the patience to talk to someone at the moment. "Uzumaki Naruto." the jonin called out, walking to him. He put a hand on the genin's shoulder and leaned down.

"Genma?" Naruto murmured, looking confused. "What's wrong?"

Genma froze for a moment, his senbon twitching slightly in his mouth before he shook his head. "Figures you'd remember my name, and yet your teacher..." He straightened, looking serious once more. "We've gotten a hold of some information that... well..." he looked at Hayate, who was quickly retreating with Sasuke.

"Information that you should have had earlier?" Naruto prompted, seeing the look of guilt in the jonin's eyes. Genma's eyes shot back to him in his surprise. "Maybe something that could have _prevented_ Sasuke from nearly getting killed?" The tone changed from mild to dangerous.

Genma looked sheepish. He probably wasn't used to being chided by someone who was half his height. "Well, yes." he said with a healthy dose of embarrassment before he composed himself. "Look kid-" Naruto almost smiled at the return of the less formal jonin that he had gotten to know in his future. "Here's how it is. This other kid, you see, is Suna's most powerful ninja, and it's most powerful weapon. He's um... well, he's like you, but with the ability to call forth his demon." Naruto was unimpressed with this information, considering the fact that he already knew it. Genma sighed and shook his head, mumbling something about teenagers. "Forfeit, or he'll end up killing you too."

Naruto stared at him for a long moment before he threw his head back and laughed. Genma could only look at him incredulously. Realizing that he looked like an idiot, Naruto pointed to Gaara as an explanation. "Do you think he'd _let_ me forfeit?" he said, stuck between not wanting to be amused and wanting to laugh his head off again.

Genma straightened up to look over at Gaara, shuddering at the look of death the younger ninja gave him in return. "Uh, good point..." he mumbled. He leaned over again to talk to Naruto. The jonin gave him a reassuring smile. "But we'll protect you! Don't worry about it."

Naruto almost felt bad. Genma was genuinely concerned for his well being. Naruto knew that Genma would protect him, if Naruto asked him to, and would probably die doing so. And because he knew that Genma would do this for him without question, he _had_ to decline.

"Thanks but no thanks." Naruto said firmly, staring down at Gaara. "I'm not going to have your death on my conscience." Genma blinked several times in surprise but Naruto ignored him.

The thought of being responsible for someone's death, someone other than an enemy or a threat, almost physically hurt Naruto. He refused to let that happen again. He refused to just sit by and watch as his village fell down all around him. He refused to allow such acts of violence and murder that had been a part of his everyday life in the future happen again.

"Besides, I kinda owe this fight to Gaara." Naruto said out loud. And he did, for many reasons. For not fighting him before when Gaara clearly wanted to, for Gaara becoming Kazekage and helping Konoha out with Oto, for Gaara being his close friend and confidant later on in life, and for Gaara promising to take care of the people he would leave behind in a suicidal attempt to stop the war from ever happening. "I owe Gaara a lot." He turned to Genma with a faint smile. "Don't you have something else to do?"

_I owe Gaara for everything he's ever done for me, and for anyone else. I owe him for getting himself out of the bad path he had chosen, just so I could see that not every demon host's life ended badly. But most of all, I owe him his life._ He smiled sadly to himself as he turned away from Genma, leaping right over the railing. _Even if I have to shove it in his bewildered and rebellious face, he's going to take it back and start living again, dammit._

---

Gaara knew he didn't have very long left. The wound in his shoulder wasn't fatal, though it probably needed to be tended to. He still had most of his chakra. He had plenty of energy and stamina left. But he still had very little time left before he lost.

Gaara didn't care about the match. Winning, losing, chuunin status, or genin status forever... That wasn't what he was concerned about. As far as he was concerned, the more important battle was in his head.

Shukaku and Gaara were rarely ever conflicted with one another. Shukaku wanted to kill something, well so did Gaara. Shukaku hated the world, Gaara hated it just as much. They were birds of a feather. Because they rarely ever fought, Gaara wasn't half as aware of his demon as Naruto was of Kyuubi. The most Gaara was aware of occasionally was of his sense of self fading underneath a stronger mental power, and then the next thing he was usually aware of was being covered in blood.

Shukaku and Gaara, Gaara and Shukaku... the villagers of Suna considered them to be one and the same. Was it that much of a surprise that Gaara had actually agreed with them?

It wasn't until Uzumaki Naruto's appearance in his life that he had begun to think differently. Gaara could trace his disturbing sense of individuality to that night not so long ago when he had the bright idea to break into Naruto's house in the middle of the night.

Gaara knew that his confusion was all of Naruto's fault. Naruto was the one who planted all of those strange ideas in his head. Who cared who he was outside of being the host of Shukaku?_ No one._ No one but Naruto. And now Gaara.

Gaara grabbed his head, forcing Shukaku back so that he could think clearly. The demon had nearly surfaced twice during the match against Naruto's teammate (whatever his name was) and Gaara was hard pressed to keep him down at the moment, where there was more interesting prey wandering about.

Not only did Gaara blame Naruto for his confusion, but he also blamed the blond for making him _want_ to fight Naruto. There was a big difference fighting and killing. Before Naruto, Gaara would have been content to just let Shukaku kill the blond in a rampage since he believed himself to practically be Shukaku anyway.

Now, Gaara actually wanted to fight the blond himself. _Fight_, not kill. Shukaku battering at his fragile control was not helping matters at all. It was only a matter of time before Shukaku won and took over, most likely wiping out half of Konoha in the process.

He didn't find the imminent destruction as concerning as the worrying thought that Naruto might be killed by the demon. He tried to squash that feeling, not wanting to admit that, for the first time in his life, he saw more worth in having someone live than just killing them because he could.

At least if Naruto lived, Gaara would know who to go to whenever he was feeling particularly violent or lonely. If Naruto died, the world would shrink back down into the single category known simply as 'People I'm going to kill'.

Gaara really hated Naruto for complicating things. His was the simple life: kill or be killed. Now it was neither kill nor be killed. He could tell by looking into Naruto's eyes that the genin didn't want to kill him and Gaara, to his own personal embarrassment, didn't really want to kill him either.

_This would have probably been an interesting fight._ Gaara thought bitterly. _It might have involved into an interesting if not inconvenient friendship. But Shukaku, as usual, will destroy my life before it even starts._

Gaara would try and hold off his demon for as long as possible, but he knew that Shukaku would make his appearance sooner or later. Sooner or later, the small buds of hope growing in his mind would be squashed and everyone would die. Sooner or later, Gaara was going to wake up to a silent abyss, a bloody crater that used to be a town that another demon host had loved against all odds. And he knew that the faint foreign stirrings of guilt he was feeling at the moment for thinking of doing such a horrible thing would be overshadowed by the horror he would feel soon in the aftermath, knowing that what little hope he had for a future had been completely demolished.

Gaara hadn't felt so helpless and lost since he was a child.

---

TBC

This chapter ran on too long. Next chapter will be interesting, I think. : ) This was the raw version of the chapter, so I'm aware that there's probably a lot of awkward wordings and misspellings and grammar mistakes. If they're painfully obvious, do me a favor and point them out.


	55. Changed Fates

Yes yes, this took forever and a half, boo hoo. Life is evil, school is worse. I've made it a little longer as compensation. Enjoy. Beware of gore and such.  
I'm calling the owner of Ichiraku, the ramen stand, 'Ichiraku'. I know he has a different name and I know I've heard of it, but I just can't find it. If you do know what it is, off of the top of your head, please tell me, but know that Ichiraku is that guy and not someone else. 

---

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Fifty-five: Changed Fates

by Foxie  
---

A bunch of kids fighting kids in a fight to the death. Tayuya didn't know what was more irritating, that or her three 'teammates'. She stepped out for a moment to control her blood lust (or, rather, her intense desire to throttle whoever had thought up such an asinine exam) and, almost immediately, she was chastised by Jiroubou, who was positioned closest to her and had followed her out.

"We're supposed to sit and wait until the signal, Tayuya!" The larger boy said with a frown. He was the most proper of the Sound Four, always chastising her for her bad language and always trying to diffuse the arguments that would spring up from time to time. Tayuya always thought of him as a rather fat mother hen.

"So?" she sneered at him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Are you going to go tell on me?" Jiroubou seemed to be at a loss of words. Tayuya snorted and looked away. "Besides, this damn thing is taking so long. Weren't we supposed to go while the Uchiha brat and the sand kid tried to kill each other?"

"We're supposed to wait for the signal," Jiroubou repeated, reaching out to put his hand on the bitter girl's shoulder. It was quickly knocked off. Tayuya turned sharply with a toss of her pink hair.

"Fuck the signal." she snapped. "If our lord is so great and powerful, then let him put up the shield himself, since he obviously can't get his schedule down right." She hated having to wait. And why was Orochimaru's plan always changing? First he was going to get that Uchiha brat to join their side, and he was going to kill the Hokage too. Then Kabuto got himself killed and the whole invasion got screwed over. The Suna ninjas were acting suspicious, Oto ninjas were randomly disappearing, Orochimaru wasn't even acting on his boasts... What the hell was going on?

"Tayuya!" Jiroubou was scandalized. Tayuya snorted. She respected Orochimaru's power, that was true, but she was seriously questioning his sanity in regards to their entire mission. Did he really want them all to die? The only chance they had against Konoha's elite was to catch them by surprise. The best time to do so was while the Uchiha kid and the Suna kid were fighting, and Orochimaru missed it!

"I am going to go take a walk," Tayuya announced harshly. She glared at Jiroubou. She spoke scathingly. "If the invasion ever happens, which I _highly_ doubt it will, I'll consider coming back. Maybe. When pigs start to fly and angel dust comes out of your ass." She started walking away, her hands shoved deep in the pockets of her cloak.

"You're going to get in trouble!" Jiroubou was distressed by this announcement. Too bad, Tayuya didn't care. She kept walking away. "Tayuya! We're a team, we should stick together!" He hurried after her, momentarily losing sight of her as she turned a corner. When he made it around the corner, she was gone.

Up on the roof, Tayuya kept walking, muttering to herself angrily. "Trouble? Hmph!" she scowled, annoyed that Jiroubou was right. Walking away from the stadium, even for a second, was going to get her in a lot of trouble. Orochimaru would know, as he always did. Tayuya, however, remained stubborn. "I'm not going to get into any trouble."

"Yes... but that's only because you're already in trouble, my dear." She turned her head sharply to the voice, startled that she hadn't even heard the ANBU's approach. She jumped back several paces and armed herself with a kunai.

Jiroubou, sensing her rising chakra, came quickly. "Tayuya!" he called out, pausing to look at the ANBU. The cloaked man was positioned in between Tayuya and Jiroubou. He glanced back over his shoulder at the boy, making a contemplative noise that Jiroubou couldn't explain.

Tayuya, of course, ignored Jiroubou's presence."Who the fuck are you?" she demanded. Something about the ANBU just felt wrong. His chakra was bizarre and unlike anything she had ever felt before, even from a fellow curse seal ninja. His cloak also bothered her, for some reason. It was a pitch black, like most standard cloaks, but Tayuya could tell that something was on it. She just couldn't tell what.

The ANBU turned to her. "Language, language..." he chastised gently. He shook his finger at her, lightly tsking. "That's not very lady-like."

Jiroubou smiled nervously and took a step forward. "Sorry, sir," he said quickly. "We're not from around here, you see. If my sister-" Tayuya balked at being called Jiroubou's sister. "-has done anything to offend you, please accept my humblest apologies."

"Hmm..." the ANBU turned his head toward Jiroubou. His tone was coldly mocking. "There is something about you two _siblings_ that deeply offends me. You see, this is such a horrible grievance that it simply cannot be forgiven with just an small _apology_."

Jiroubou frowned. "What is the offense?" he asked, hoping Tayuya hadn't killed the ANBU's dog or something. Even as he thought this, some hidden defense mechanism started going off, automatically preparing his curse seal transformation.

The ANBU laughed. "You exist," he said simply. Immediately after he said that, Tayuya realized what was wrong with the ANBU's cloak.

"Jiroubou, he has blood on his cloak!" she yelled, but it was already too late. Before she could finish her sentence, Jiroubou had a katana buried in his gut. The boy bent over, wide eyes watching the blood pour out of the wound. Barely a second later, the ANBU yanked it out just to block Tayuya's thrown kunai.

The ANBU jumped on an adjacent roof and started running off. Tayuya, deeply incensed, tore after him, already in her second level of transformation. She ripped off her own cloak as she ran, revealing her real clothes underneath. She yanked out her flute and started playing a tune.

Jiroubou, a hand held over his bleeding stomach, struggled as he ran after her. "Tayuya, no!" he yelled. "You're going to alert too many-" It was too late. Three of Tayuya's monsters loped clumsily at her side, breaking roof tiles and randomly taking out large chunks of the buildings around them.

Jiroubou groaned. It would only be a matter of time before the rest of the ANBU came. The ANBU that Tayuya was chasing after stopped and sheathed his katana. Jiroubou knew that the man's purpose had already been met. Tayuya had stupidly revealed herself and now Orochimaru was going to pay for it. Not only would she be killed but also Orochimaru's chakra would be traced through the curse seal, revealing to the ANBU that Orochimaru, one of the most notorious and wanted criminals in Konoha's history, was back. The Chuunin Exam would be halted, Orochimaru would eventually be found, and then everyone would be killed.

The smartest thing to do, then, would be to leave Tayuya to her mess and inform Orochimaru of the problem. Knowing the girl's hot temper, he would be angry, but at least he would be better prepared and ready for inevitable interrogation. Maybe he could get out of the situation with the Konoha ninjas still believing that he was the Kazekage, Jiroubou didn't know. Orochimaru was a lot smarter than he was.

But, as he watched the ANBU charge one of Tayuya's huge monsters, sending the hideous creature hurling into one of the buildings with a flick of his wrist, Jiroubou knew that he couldn't just abandon Tayuya. Let them work together to kill the ANBU, and hide from the rest. Getting caught by the ANBU was better than letting Tayuya get killed. 

He transformed quickly, standing at Tayuya's side as she sweated and used her music to control the beasts. "It's... It's like he doesn't even see genjutsu," the girl stuttered, completely loosing her cool. "What kind of crazy fuck is he?"

"We'll beat him quickly and hide," Jiroubou said reassuringly. "We can probably fib our way out of trouble with Orochimaru-sama. We just have to make sure we don't get caught by the-"

"Jiroubou," Tayuya cut in, her eyes wide. Her flute was held away from her lips and the monsters, reacting to the lack of control, looked around in confusion. One of them pulled itself out of the ruins of a building while the other two just swayed back and forth. "Where did he go?"

He looked out, squinting slightly. "I-" Whatever he was about to say died in his throat at the sickening squelch he heard right next to him. He turned his head, eyes wide as he took in the katana sticking out of Tayuya's mouth. It had gone through the back of her head, through her mouth, and even through her flute, which fell to the ground in two pieces. Her spine was severed; she was dead.

"Y-you...!" Once the image had been fully processed, Jiroubou started to quickly back away from the ANBU. Over the years in the company of Orochimaru, Jiroubou had seen a lot of gory and horrible things. Orochimaru's research, in particular, was awful to watch. Jiroubou was completely desensitized to most things that would make a lesser man tremble.

But he had never had a companion killed right beside him without him noticing. It reminded him of when he was younger. Those times when he couldn't sense chakra, when he didn't have the common sense to listen closely for footsteps, breathing, and heart beats. It reminded him of those times of being completely caught off guard. It also reminded him of fear. His curse seal transformation collapsed because of that fear, leaving him feeling exhausted and helpless.

"You should have ran, boy," the ANBU murmured, yanking his katana out of Tayuya's head. The corpse crumbled to the ground, blood collecting in a puddle around her. The ANBU advanced on the rapidly retreating Jiroubou. "You should have ran and lived... But now you're dead."

---- 

Considering the fact that Naruto knew practically all of Gaara's attacks by heart, Naruto wasn't doing so well in the match. His timing was off and he could never seem to get close enough to Gaara to deal some damage. The sudden flashes of Shukaku's youki kept on distracting him. He knew Shukaku was just under the surface, and, thus, he was more concerned with dealing with the demon than attacking the host.

In the eyes of the audience, however, Naruto was doing fairly well. He was fast enough to dodge most of the attacks and, when a surprise burst of sand nearly engulfed him, managed to pivot and throw raw chakra at the wave, making the sand disperse and scatter across the ring. He never allowed for the sand to get too close to him.

Only the experienced ninjas of the audience recognized, as Naruto did, that he was painting himself into a corner. Defense was important, of course, but the only way that a match could progress was through offensive action. While Naruto was very good at getting around Gaara's attacks, he still had not gained any headway in defeating Gaara. He had yet to land a single blow on Gaara, whereas Sasuke had landed many within the first couple of minutes.

Another thing that the ninjas of the audience recognized, again as well as Naruto, was that the longer Naruto managed to keep from being injured, the more pissed off Gaara became. The more pissed off Gaara became, the wilder the attacks became. Only Naruto recognized the rise of Shukaku.

It was painfully evident in Gaara's expression and mannerisms. Gaara was prone to insane teeth-baring grins and random bouts of hysterical laughter. His eyes were already faintly gold and his normally low pitched voice was slightly higher as Shukaku's voice seemed to take over his own. Sand clumped heavily to Gaara's left side and face, precipitating what Naruto liked to call Gaara's hanyou form.

Every minute that Naruto failed to get past Gaara's defenses, the sand on Gaara's body took more form and detail. It would only be a matter of time before the half transformation was complete. And, beyond that, it wouldn't be very difficult for Shukaku to fully form and take over. 

Naruto didn't think there was enough room in the ring for Shukaku alone, let along Gamabunta or any of the other giant frogs that Naruto was prone to use as an aid in battle. If Shukaku was released, not only would the audience in the stands be in danger, but also everyone outside of the arena as well. A lot of people would be killed if the fight spilled out of the confines of the arena. Not to mention that the landscape of Konoha would be drastically changed. Naruto _had_ to end this fight quickly.

"Dammit," he muttered to himself. "Why can't this ever be easy?"

No thanks to his Kyuubi clone, Naruto had no access to youki. While Kyuubi had not put in a good majority or even a mere _sixteenth_ of his massive amount of energy into the clone (he couldn't, it would have just self-destructed), Naruto still couldn't use it. It was there, muted and in the back of his mind but painfully out of reach. To make the jutsu work, Kyuubi had to pull all of his youki out of Naruto's chakra coils and put what youki he didn't use for his clone back behind the seal where the majority of his youki resided at all times.

While not having any access to youki was a pain to someone who was used to the subtle backup, it also made Naruto aware of what he _could_ do, as opposed to what he _couldn't_ do. For instance, Naruto knew that he could probably open three or four points on the seal on his hand, and he wouldn't suffer from having too much chakra. The extra chakra would simply fill up the places where Kyuubi's youki had resided.

Naruto wondered if Kyuubi really understood how much his presence affected Naruto's body. But, considering the fact that it was _Kyuubi_ he was talking about, he realized that the demon probably knew everything about Naruto's body. It was simply his nature to do so. _Damn perfectionist._

Naruto was too busy thinking to hear what Gaara shouted at him, but he recognized the tone as derisive so he scowled as decorum required of him. Naruto simply wasn't the type of person who fight intelligently, or so others would insist of him. And while he could follow some of the more complex strategies that people like Shikamaru would devise, he didn't like making up strategies that required him to think beyond three steps ahead. He performed better when he was caught off guard rather than when he planned a strategy. That was probably half of the reason why he didn't bother to check to see who he was going to fight in the Chuunin Exam.

Gaara, however, _required_ strategy. One could not simply run up to him and expect for the boy's sand defense to part like the Red Sea. You had to be fast, like Sasuke, so you could get around the sand and closer to the boy hiding behind it.

Naruto was many times stronger than Sasuke at the moment but he just wasn't as fast, mentally or physically. _This requires Shunshin no Jutsu._ Naruto scowled heavily.

Shunshin no Jutsu didn't seem as difficult as Jiraiya had made it out to be, but because the old man had made it seem even harder than the rasengan, Naruto had been very careful with his training. He had already gotten the jutsu down to an applicable form (applicable but half-assed), but once Jiraiya had shown him all of the moves, he was able to compare and adjust his own version of it with the real jutsu.  
The real jutsu was a lot better. Unlike Naruto's version, it was easy to stack the uses of the jutsu up. With his own version, he could barely perform the jutsu a few times before he started suffering from the backlash. The real jutsu, however, could be used many more times, probably because it didn't require as much chakra as Naruto had been feeding into his own jutsu.

Naruto couldn't see how Shunshin no Jutsu was hard, chakra wise, but he could see where it would be difficult, that split second where the jutsu had taken place. He still had a hard time with his destination point, usually skidding ten feet past it despite his best efforts. But it was really the only difficulty he had with the technique.

Naruto wasn't aware of this but Jiraiya had mistakenly thought that Naruto performed better with harder jutsus, so Jiraiya made sure to make Naruto's training as hard as possible, even though Shunshin no Jutsu itself wasn't at all hard. He even went as far as putting slippery fluids on Naruto's destination point (an area that Jiraiya, of course, picked out himself) so that Naruto could never land properly.

Jiraiya was certain that his life would be cut short a decade if Naruto ever figured it out, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that, while Naruto could never land properly, it made the boy turn around and go back to the beginning of the jutsu, perfecting the first few steps down to an art form, rather than just him considering the jutsu mastered and leaving it at that if Naruto _had_ been able to land properly.

Oblivious to the fact that the jutsu he needed was already mastered, Naruto's bad mood began to grow. It wouldn't be a good scene if he tried to zip past the sand and slid right into the sand's murderous and crushing embrace. _Not good at all_. Especially since it always took half of a second for him to regain his bearings, which was more than enough time for the sand to crush him.

He couldn't see any way around it. Although fire jutsus were great at making some of the sand completely useless (as long as the fire jutsu was strong enough), it didn't do enough damage to make a lasting difference. Water jutsus could probably slow the sand down to a snail's pace, but there was neither a nearby source of water to utilize, nor the knowledge in Naruto's mind to use it. Lighting jutsus did as much damage to the sand as fire jutsus (as Sasuke had shown with his chidori, easily cutting through the sand to get to Gaara) but, again, his knowledge of lightening jutsus was weak. And Naruto didn't want to give away what wind manipulations he already knew. Playing around with earth jutsus was just a game of tug of war, where Naruto knew he would lose.

Taijutsu and jyuuken, the latter of which being fairly useful but not suiting to his tastes, were useless as well since, as Naruto had realized before, he simply was not fast enough to dodge the sand at the close range required of those fighting styles.

_So... Shunshin..._ Naruto grimaced, idly rolling out of the way of a wickedly clawed hand of sand. It looked a lot more like one of Shukaku's hands than it did just a few moments before. Naruto had to act quickly. Gaara had not said as much, not even in the future where they were close friends, but Naruto got the idea that it really hurt him when Shukaku forced his way to the surface. Naruto may have been irritated with the Gaara of the present, but he didn't want the boy in pain.

"Fine then," Naruto stood up from his slight crouch, straightening up to his full height. His hands molded into the needed seals. "_Shunshin no Jutsu_!"

It's only natural, since Naruto expected to be a few feet off of his destination point, that Naruto landed a few feet off of his destination point, right at where he thought he would skid. While Naruto was a little off balanced, realizing that he wasn't exactly skidding, but actually _landing_, Gaara was far more surprised. 

It's only natural, since Naruto had been halfway across the ring from him, only to pop up about a foot from his left shoulder. The sand wavered where it was (where Naruto _should_ have been) for a moment before it shot back towards Naruto. Some of the sand on Gaara himself stretched out towards Naruto but before any sand could reach the blond, the target simply phased out of existence.Naruto was surprised to feel pleased. He could perform the jutsu better than he originally thought he could. Oblivious still to Jiraiya's minor deception, he theorized that the interference of youki in his inner coil system exasperated his chakra control and, thus, made his attempts at fully perfecting the technique absolute. In other words, he just blamed it all on Kyuubi.

Somewhere outside of the arena, a masked ANBU sneezed. He blinked rapidly, distracted from his current irritation at not being able to find any more of the cursed kids. "Brat," he muttered, tentatively feeling out the fragile mental link that still lingered between him and Naruto. "Don't get yourself killed."

---

Sakura hovered over his bed, her hands clasped in front of her chest. The medic nin on duty sighed at the sight of the girl and leaned back in her chair. Even the quiet screech of the old chair failed to get the girl's attention.

"For heaven's sake," the medic nin finally said in annoyance. The worried girl turned sad green eyes on her. "Uchiha-san's in a _healing sleep_, not a coma." Tsking loudly, the woman turned back to her desk, filling out the necessary information in one of her files. One of her assistants came in, asking for some help with something outside of the room. The easily irritated medic nin sighed dramatically in response but followed her assistant out of the room, leaving the girl and the other occupants of the room to their own devices.

Sakura didn't notice the woman's exit, so concentrated was she was her teammate's sleeping form. Her eyes lingering on the wrappings around his arm, Sakura loosened up the button on her kunai pouch. In the event that something bad happened, she would be able to easily arm herself and defend Sasuke. That train of thought led her to gently run her hand over Sasuke's wrapped arm with her other hand. She took a mournful inventory of his various injuries.

The arm guard he was wearing saved his arm from being broken but it was still badly bruised and injured. Sakura couldn't see them but she knew his ribs were in bad condition as well. What little she had been able to heal before his match with Gaara had been undone with terrible ease. His face was cut up and he had an angry bruise on his collarbone, again an almost break.

His chakra was running dangerously low, no thanks to Sasuke's use of chidori. According to what little that Sakura got out of the waspish medic nin (who Sakura found herself disliking, simply because the woman wasn't even half as good as Tsunade, who could have healed Sasuke instantly), the physical injuries were not as serious as they looked. The utter depletion of chakra was a far more dangerous problem, which was why the medic nin forced Sasuke into a healing sleep. He would regain chakra twice as fast, but he'd be completely dead to the world for at least three hours.

And that was where Sakura came in. She gulped, fisting her hands in her dress. She had to stay strong, for Sasuke. No matter how scared she was, she had to stay alert so that she could defend Sasuke, should the need arise. The mental image of a darkly smirking sand nin flashed in her mind. Sakura shivered, biting down hard on her lip. _If he could do this much damage to Sasuke-kun..._ She shook her head, banishing the thought. 

"Shouldn't you be somewhere?" Sakura's head snapped up at the voice, turning to it almost immediately. For a second, all of her senses went on high alert. But then she recognized who was speaking to her and relaxed a little. In her deep contemplation, she had completely forgotten all about the other inhabitants of the infirmary.

Not counting the visitors, there was three people being treated at the moment. All three of them had been in the final exam. She had seen all of their matches, having sat in the audience right until the very last moment of Sasuke's match, when the jonin examiner had rushed the boy to the infirmary. She had jumped over a bewildered Kiba and bolted to where she knew the infirmary was. She had made it there just as Sasuke was being put down on a bed. After watching the medic nin on duty do her work (a hawk like watch that made the older woman annoyed and grouchy), she procured herself a chair next to Sasuke's bed and hadn't budged an inch.

She hadn't even graced the other inhabitants with a single glance. _Not very aware of our surroundings, are we?_ She questioned herself, a little embarrassed. However, she felt like she could forgive herself. The only semi-dangerous people in the room were in beds, and their visitors happened to be friends of hers.

_Hyuuga Neji, Aburame Shino, and Rock Lee._ All were bandaged up and looking like they needed a good rest. Their visitors, Hinata and Tenten, looked a little nervous but neither seemed to be as concerned for their respective teammates as Sakura was for Sasuke. For crying out loud, Hinata wasn't even _armed_. Didn't she know that Gaara was still around?

Out of all of the injured genins, Lee looked like he was in the best condition. Despite the fact that he had been beaten by Sasuke, there was no satisfaction on his face at seeing Sasuke in a hospital bed. Rather, he looked concerned for the younger boy's welfare, balancing precariously on the edge of his own bed.

Neji was sitting up on his bed. He looked neither pleased nor disappointed by Sasuke's condition. In fact, he was showing more silent irritation towards Shino than he was acknowledging Sasuke's existence. Neji probably felt that Shino had a hand in Neji's defeat but, in his usual way, Shino didn't seem to notice the wave of intense annoyance coming from Neji, Sakura noted. As one might expect, this only further annoyed Neji.

Shino was sitting up on his bed as well, looked fairly composed despite the utter exhaustion apparent on his face. Hinata, who sat at the end of his bed, had been quietly speaking to him before the boy had turned and addressed Sakura with his question. Sakura envied Hinata's serenity but knew that there was no way that she could be the same. Not with that _guy_ still around.

Shino's only change in expression was a subtle tilt of his head. But it was enough to remind Sakura of what he asked. Sakura shifted uncomfortably for a moment before realizing that he wasn't going to retract his question. It seemed like such a silly thing to ask too.

"I don't have anywhere else to be," Sakura said slowly. Her place was by Sasuke's side, wasn't it? Having Shino's gaze on her was a little weird but having both Neji and Hinata suddenly look at her, two simultaneous sharp glances that came after her reply, was even more so.

"Is that so...?" Shino's expression seemed troubled but Sakura couldn't seem much of it, not with those glasses and that high collar in the way. "Are you certain of that fact?" Sakura's hands fisted in her dress again, this time in annoyance instead of fear.

"Yes!" she snapped. Sakura looked over at Lee, expecting some sort of explanation for Shino's weird behavior but she found nothing of use in the boy's expression. His expression was faintly comparable to that of a kicked dog. Tenten's expression, while not as childlike in its hurt, was just as bad.

"Um... Sakura-san," Lee said hesitatingly. He shifted on his bed, sharing a look with Tenten. "You know, it's not just Sasuke-kun..."

"He's fighting the guy that Uchiha lost to, right?" Neji, irritated with Lee's pauses, picked up the conversation. The look on Sakura's face must have revealed her confusion because, with darkening eyes, Neji went on to explain. "The fact that Uchiha is in here means that there's one match left," Neji spelled out for her bluntly. Sakura just blinked at him. "A match with a certain _someone_ who you should probably be worrying more about right now."

"Who else besides Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked blandly. Her world had focused down to just one person. Just Sasuke and no one else. She had to stay there because she had to be by Sasuke's side. Why didn't they understand that? She had to stay by Sasuke's side. She had to make sure he wasn't killed by that guy.

Sakura finally, after so many years of pining in the Academy, was friends with Sasuke. There was nothing that she wouldn't do for him. Sakura cared for him so much that she would dive in the face of danger, if only to protect Sasuke. It was about time she did something, right? It was always Sasuke who was the strong one. This time, she would put everything she had into protecting Sasuke. Maybe he wouldn't appreciate it in the long run, but Sakura would rather die than see Sasuke dead.

"Your other teammate, of course," Shino said calmly, his voice betraying none of the anger in Neji's eyes. "_Naruto._" Sakura's eyes widened. She had completely forgotten about him. Her eyes widened and she touched her throbbing head. How could she forget about Naruto? _Naruto_, of course! Despite being just as good of a friend to her as Sasuke (if she ever admitted it out loud, sometimes even better), all thoughts of the blond had vanished when she had seen Sasuke injured.

Neji's eyes widened as well, being able to easily read her expression. His eyes darkened swiftly in anger. "Why you-"

"Stop it," Hinata broke in, moving off of her place on Shino's bed. She walked around it until she was standing in front of Sakura. She directed one last comment to the other two boys. "Please, leave her alone." The boys were quiet, confused and, in some cases, angry. 

Hinata turned her pale gaze to Sakura, who could only stare blankly back at the smaller girl's compassionate gaze. Sakura couldn't stop thinking about what a horrible person she was, to forget her own friend. This line of thought was reflected in her tortured gaze. Hinata bent over slightly until their eyes were on the same level. Her hand reached out and touched Sakura's shoulder. Sakura flinched

"What's wrong?" Hinata asked softly, her gaze gentle. "Why are you so..." The girl paused with a frown, trying to come up with the right description. "...afraid?"

The whole room was silent. Sakura blinked rapidly, looking at her lap. When the urge to cry had passed, she looked up. "That guy... Gaara," she said softly, her gaze honest. "_He's_ the reason why I'm afraid." She looked at the rest of them, anguish briefly troubling her expression. "You guys weren't there. You didn't see what I saw. Before and... after. He didn't beat Sasuke." She shook her head rapidly. "No... he _crushed_ Sasuke. And now... Oh, _Naruto_..." She covered her eyes with a hand, her shoulders shaking.

"_Sakura-san_," Moved by the emotion in Sakura's voice, Lee struggled to get out of his bed. Tenten jumped up from her chair, helping the boy walk across the room. Lee was obviously very sore but he was determined to make it over to Sakura. After a few moments of combined effort, Lee was sitting in a chair across from Sakura, thanking Hinata for getting it for him.

Sakura looked at him, her eyes glazed over in tears. "I'm a horrible person, aren't I?" she asked softly. "I... can't do anything right. And when I try to do the right thing, and go to protect Sasuke, I leave Naruto right in the middle of danger!"

"You're not a horrible person, Sakura!" Hinata was quick to deny Sakura's self hate. Lee enthusiastically nodded, agreeing with the younger girl.

"You were worried about your friend! That's not a bad thing at all. I'm sure Naruto-kun understands..." Lee said, oblivious to the true root of Sakura's problem. "I mean, he might want you to cheer him on but-"

Sakura smacked her palms against her thighs. "That's not it!" she said immediately. Lee leaned back slightly, looking confused. "That Gaara kid... This isn't an exam! This isn't... He isn't... He's a _real_ ninja!" Silence followed Sakura's near shout. Sasuke continued to sleep while the conscious occupants of the room looked at each other.

To Lee's unconscious glance to him for an explanation, Neji had an answer. "She means that Gaara has the intent to kill Naruto, and probably meant to kill Sasuke as well," he explained blandly. Lee's eyes widened and his head whipped back to Sakura.

"Sasuke... wasn't defeated," Sakura explained in a suddenly tired voice. "Sasuke was almost _killed_. And that guy might come to finish the job off while he's stuck in this coma thing. So I have to be here, to protect him while he can't protect himself! But while I'm here..." She trailed off with a quiet moan.

"Naruto-kun's fighting Gaara." Hinata finished softly. "Naruto-kun's in danger of being killed too." The division in Sakura's wants suddenly became clear, as did the reason for her sudden disgust for herself. She wanted to protect Sasuke, but she also wanted to be there for Naruto. But, upon seeing Sasuke's condition, she was helpless to fight her desire to stay by his side, even as her other friend was in mortal danger.

"I wouldn't be too worried," Shino said suddenly. He had a faint smile. "I like to think that I know Naruto very well. He has changed... a great deal over the last couple of months, yes. But one thing hasn't changed." He tilted his head, looking at Sasuke. "Naruto would not hate you for wanting to protect Sasuke, even at his own expense, as protecting Sasuke is something that he would do himself, if he was in your position at the moment."

Lee piped up quickly, adding his own input. "And I think Naruto-kun will be okay! He's a strong ninja," he said optimistically. He smiled at Sakura. "I think that's the reason why you worried about Sasuke before you started worrying about Naruto-kun. You know how strong Naruto-kun is. Instinctively, you know he'll be okay, even if you are worrying about him." Lee nodded to himself, convinced by his own logic.

Silence reigned for the last time as everyone thought about those words. Sakura realized that Lee's theory made a lot of sense. She could pull back any number of memories of Naruto and Sasuke that she could remember thinking, 'Oh, Naruto will be alright', but, at the same time, worrying about Sasuke's wellbeing. It could have been her own callousness, but maybe she instinctively understood that Naruto was a powerful ninja..

And it was true! Naruto was one of the most resilient people that she knew. No ninja, missing nin, sand nin, or otherwise, could completely bring him down. Zabuza ended up not being able to kill him. Kakashi had a bell stolen by Naruto. Sasuke even looked up to Naruto! That alone served to prove how strong the blond was, considering how jealously Sasuke viewed other people's powers.

His massive stamina, his enormous chakra reserves, and his miraculous healing abilities... Naruto was easily the strongest of all the genins. But Sakura just didn't think about it that way consciously. She kept remembering the dead last idiot of her Academy days when she thought of Naruto actually doing something, but remembered his healing ability whenever he was in trouble.

But she never really consciously acknowledged him as a powerful ninja. _But he is!_ Sakura rubbed her temples, suddenly a lot calmer. _The only reason why I didn't think of it that way is because Naruto never flaunts it. If Sasuke was as strong as he is... Hell, if **I** was as strong as he is, I'd never let anyone forget it!_

"I'm terrified of that guy," Sakura admitted softly. Her gaze was fixed on her lap. "Look at what he did to Sasuke. Sasuke's one of the strongest people I know. He'll attempt to do even worse to Naruto. I saw it, that guy was just stretching his legs with Sasuke. But..." She looked up, her eyes sparking with determination. "But Naruto will win! I know it!" Hinata smiled and Lee grinned. There was an irritated huff from Neji and a snort of amusement from Shino.

"That's the spirit," Tenten said confidently, patting Sakura's shoulder. The older girl's smile was reassuring. "Sometimes, the best thing we can do is just... _believe_ in our friend's abilities!"

"But... uh..." Sakura scratched her head, looking embarrassed. She blushed, her eyes dropping back towards Sasuke. "Just in case something does happen..."

"We'll stay in here with you!" Lee announced, jumping up from his chair with an excited yell. He immediately collapsed to the ground with a pitiful yelp. "Okay... jumping... _not_ a good idea."

"Idiot," Neji said with a roll of his eyes. "Oh, and for the time being, keep your sappy ass away from my side of the room. The fluff is _killing_ me," He looked to the side with a huff. "You can't even stand! What makes you think you can protect a blade of _grass_, let alone a person?"

Lee struggled to his feet. "The flame of youth will prevail!" he argued willfully. "As long as all of our hearts are as one-" Lee was nailed in the face with a pillow, the force of the blow enough to destroy what little balance Lee had regained. Lee hit the floor with a thud and another exclamation of pain.

"I _said,_ keep your sappy ass away from me," Neji said with an irritated twitch. "My heart isn't 'one' with anything. Just go _die_!" Tenten laughed, looking a little embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it," she said to the rest of them, rubbing the back of her head. "They're always fighting like this." There was a thud as Lee managed to stretch and grab an empty bedpan, which he swiftly threw at Neji. The bedpan hit the wall instead of Neji, mostly due to Lee's bad aim but also because Neji ducked his head at the right moment. 

The medic nin chose that moment to walk back in. "What's this?" She was supremely irritated by the sight that met her eyes. She sought to regain order. "Get back in bed, stop fooling around! Pick up the pillow! _Who threw the bedpan?_ Hey, stop laughing, that's not allowed! Geez, you'd think that this was a party or something..."

---

It was a horrible sight. It leeched off of the boy like a stubborn parasite, engulfing half of his body. Its body, brown with the rough texture of sand, was many times bigger than its human half, making the figure itself look like a deformed monster that had stepped right out of a science fiction novel. Heavy blue lines, like veins, decorated the body. Its single pupil was gold, with a black diamond pupil.

Naruto crawled out of the rubble that was part of a wall. His lip was bloody and he held a hand gently over his aching shoulder, which had had the misfortune of hitting the wall first. There was a scrape high on his forehead that bled rapidly, no matter how many times Naruto swiped at it with the back of his hand. He was covered in a thin layer of a mixture of dust, dirt, and blood.

But whatever his hurts, he was far more alarmed with the sight in front of him. "Shit," he exclaimed after staring for a moment. "How did he get that bad that fast!"

Naruto had been testing his newfound skills with Shunshin no Jutsu when a huge wall of youki constructed sand suddenly appeared in front of him. Not being able to completely keep up with how fast he was moving, Naruto slammed into it, _hard_. He had shaken the collision off quickly, but not quickly enough to get out of the way of the demon sand.

By that time, Naruto was certain that Shukaku was in complete control. Gaara would have made things easy and just crushed all of his bones at once. But the sand didn't crush him. Instead, it had wrapped around Naruto's legs, bashing him against the ground twice, then hurled him half way across the ring into the wall.

Naruto was more than a little disorientated, but what he was most concerned about was his failure in ending the fight before the transformation had gotten so far along. It didn't matter that his hip twinged in pain with every odd step he took. It didn't matter that his shoulder felt like someone had taken a sledge hammer to it, nor did the blood that obscured his vision matter.

"Hehehe..." Naruto heard it first, a light sound that emerged from the sandy mass that was Gaara. It escalated quickly in sound. "Hehehe! Fun fun fun... What amusing prey the brat has chosen..." The high pitched voice was achingly familiar to Naruto.

"So glad to have entertained you," Naruto said, forcing neutrality in his voice. He was no longer dealing with Gaara. He was dealing with Shukaku. Naruto felt no empathy or pity for the blood thirsty demon in front of him.

Shukaku forced Gaara's head to turn. Naruto twitched when he saw that, instead of gleaming with insanity as it had last time, Gaara's one visible eye was slightly glazed over, signaling that the demon had forced its way to the surface. While not completely unconscious, which would mean a rampaging demon, Gaara was dazed by the mental attack, shoved down just far enough to not be in control, but not far down enough to be unaware of what was going on.

_Gaara... didn't turn by choice_, Naruto realized. Somehow, that made Naruto feel a lot better. As silly as it might have been, considering the overall situation at the moment, Naruto still had wanted to fight Gaara as himself, not as a half insane kid being manipulated by a demon. Knowing that maybe Gaara had wanted the same thing made Naruto's tension ease slightly. Perhaps it wouldn't be as hard as he thought to reform Gaara into the dependable man Naruto had known in the future.

The hand of youki controlled sand darted out again with startling speed. It sped out, extending the demon's reach and tossing up sand, dirt, and rock when Naruto hastily jumped out of the way. The sand impacted with the ground so hard that Naruto, upon landing on the ground, almost fell over because the ground was shaking so much.

"How high can you jump, little rabbit? Hehehe..." Shukaku tilted his head up, letting out a wheezing high pitched howl that Naruto hesitated to call laughter. The demon jerked the hand out of the ground, turning his half demon, half human face towards Naruto. Faking a sense of calm that he did not possess at the moment, Naruto straightened, brushing dirt off of his tattered clothes.

"As high as I need to, Shukaku," he replied darkly. His glare was direct and unrelenting, his disgust of the creature in front of him unchanging even as Naruto's disadvantages continued to stack up. He wouldn't let his disadvantages lead him into fear.

Fear was long quiet nights where the only audible sound was the sound of a friend's last soft breath. Fear was protecting your loved ones with the knowledge that one misstep could lead to their demise. Fear was knowing that, no matter what you tried or how desperately you did it, nothing could stop your enemy's forward march. Naruto had resolved to let go of that fear, but it still haunted him.

Knowing he could lose Gaara was terrifying. Knowing that the invasion could kill any number of his friends was terrifying. Not knowing Sasuke's specific injuries was terrifying as well, since Sasuke could have easily gotten a lethal injury. Naruto tried and tried to not be afraid but it was impossible. There was many things he was afraid of.

But he was not afraid of Shukaku.

---

"What..." Temari leaned forward, her eyes wide in fear. _That killer intent, the gripping force of youki, that gold eye... It's the demon!_ She backed up hastily, colliding with the wall. No one noticed her fearful retreat. All eyes were on the ring, some more knowledgeable about the situation than others. The sand nins hidden and disguised amongst the audience knew _exactly_ what was going on. If anyone cared to look, they could probably pick out every single sand nin, simply by the pallor of their face. They knew exactly what kind of horror that had just fallen on their heads.

Shukaku was the prized trump card of Suna. If any major conflict grew to be too much for Suna to handle, they'd let Shukaku loose. Shukaku's naturally blood thirsty nature would take over from there, and everyone would be killed. The main problem with their 'ultimate' weapon was that when it was guaranteed that Shukaku would kill everyone, they _meant_ everyone, Suna ninjas included.

_And that was where Gaara was supposed to come in_, Temari thought, her eyes glued to the monstrous sight that was her little brother. _Kazekage-sama saddled him with a demon and expected him to control it so that we could wield that demon solely against our enemies._ It was so much power in the hands of a child without even a proper seal, like the seal that the Kyuubi host was rumored to have. _When Gaara couldn't control it, Kazekage-sama tried to kill him._

"Ostracized, hated, despised, and made half-insane..." Temari whispered softly to herself, sliding against the wall until she was sitting on the ground. Shukaku's presence pounded on her mind, making her courage and resolve falter. "Why didn't he just unleash Shukaku on Suna and get it over with?"

Kankurou suddenly appeared at her side. Much like his older sister, he looked very ill at the feel of Shukaku's youki. Feeling it usually meant something bad was going to happen, and it was going to happen_ fast_. "Do you think Konoha will hold it against Suna if Gaara kills that kid?" he asked, feeling that it was a very valid concern. Trust in Suna was shaky, as they had admitted to conspiring to overthrow Konoha, even if they were in the middle of defending it.

"The other kid's a demon host," Temari said inanely. She shakily stood, composing herself. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking but at least she was on her feet. "He's gotta have some sort of protection from his demon..." The sand siblings winced in unison when, in the ring, the back of Shukaku's arm slammed across Naruto's torso with a resounding thud. The genin was sent flying back into the wall again, and was knocked so far into it that he managed to stay in his spot for a few seconds before gravity won and dragged him back to the ground. The boy hit the ground on his hands and knees, coughing up blood.

"He's not going to last long," Kankurou muttered in Temari's ear. He kept on nervously adjusting the puppet on his shoulder. "Shukaku's gonna flatten that kid, destroy what little control Gaara still has left, and then flatten Konoha!"

"Shut up, will you?" Kankurou and Temari turned in surprise, not expecting the low derisive response. Shikamaru, still looking fairly tired but loads better than he had looked after his match, leaned back in one of the seats. He was scowling faintly at them from his awkward viewpoint. "You two gossip more than two old ladies who haven't seen each other in a decade. Geez."

Temari's expression changed from sickly nervous to furious in two seconds. "Who are you calling old, brat?" she snapped, her hand clenching in a fist. His scowl focused on her for a moment, but then he sighed, the expression fading from his face. He heaved himself out of his seat with a groan and walked over to the two siblings. Temari bristled at his proximity. Kankurou only looked on with curiosity.

"Look, believe it or not, I actually _know_ what's going on here," Shikamaru said, his voice pitched low. "So I can understand why you're standing back here and biting your nails and being all troublesome." Temari glared. She hadn't been biting her nails! She glanced at them quickly just to make sure. "But could you keep your flapping lips closed? Not many people are privileged to know the information you're slinging about."

"What are you talking about?" Temari asked coolly, crossing her arms over her chest. In her irritation at the lazy genin (how in the world could Kankurou lose to him?), she had completely forgotten about Shukaku. "I'm not _slinging_ anything about, thank you very much."

"Don't play coy with me," Shikamaru replied with a scowl. He lowered his voice. "Look, I don't know anything concrete about your brother down there, just some basic information. But I do know one thing."

"Oh?" Kankurou crossed his arms over his chest as well, mimicking his sister's stance. His tone, however, wasn't hostile but was curious. "What would that be?"

Shikamaru smirked, looking smug. "No matter how far in his transformation Gaara gets, no matter how bad it looks, no matter _what_ happens..." he tilted his head, watching as twenty Narutos appeared out of thin air and tackled their opponent. "Naruto will not lose."

Any sense of superiority Temari had feigned fell rapidly. She frowned. "I hope you're right," she admitted, following Shikamaru's line of sight. "I'd rather have a beaten little brother than a dead little brother."

---

Meanwhile, Naruto started fighting back, mercilessly picking out Shukaku's weaknesses and exploiting them to the best of his ability. A possessing spirit was much weaker than the demon in its true form. The fact that Gaara was resisting the possession only made Shukaku all the more weaker.

Shunshin no Jutsu, though Naruto now knew he had the technique mastered, was unnecessary at the moment. After the first ten or twenty minutes of battle with him trying as hard as possible to avoid being crushed, Shukaku had gradually slowed to a sluggish pace that Naruto could keep up with. Of course, the sand could get Naruto (especially since Naruto was slowed down as well, thanks to a pain in his leg), but Naruto found he could avoid it easily as long as he was careful about which side of Shukaku he was on.

Naruto had already noted to avoid Shukaku's left side. The sand in that region moved quicker, as opposed to the sluggish reactions on Shukaku's right side, the side where Gaara was still partially visible. Shukaku had limited control over that side because Gaara wouldn't give in and go to sleep.

To Naruto's delight, he found that moving behind Shukaku was not only an excellent strategic move (because the demon couldn't turn around very fast), but also a move that highly pissed off the demon. It appeared that Shukaku didn't like having to move around any more than Gaara did.

After a judicial use of explosive tags and kunai (his very own version of "a thousand years of pain"), Naruto patiently waited for Shukaku to get up. The demon did so slowly, spewing curses and unfair assumptions about Naruto's parents. Naruto was not impressed.

"One would have thought that having your very own inner demon to talk to would help you develop some decent social skills," Naruto said lightly. "Guess there's not too much hope when even the demon himself doesn't have any social skills." Shukaku turned his head, a gold eye glinting out at Naruto. He emitted a loud high pitched sound that hurt Naruto's ears.

"I'm going to kill you and bathe in your _blood_!" Shukaku roared angrily. The demon was nothing if not prideful. A demon being beaten by a demon host who wouldn't even bring out his demon... Shukaku's ego was feeling crushed.

"You aren't making it very convincing," Naruto shot back, crossing his arms over his chest. He smiled. "With every second you waste, Gaara gains just a bit more control." He threw out his arms in emphasis. "Look at yourself! You were more dangerous ten minutes ago! You could have _killed_ me ten minutes ago. But _no_... you had to play with me." Naruto tilted his head, sneering at Shukaku. "Wanna know the first thing I'm gonna do once this match is over? I'm gonna lock your ass up tight so Gaara doesn't have to be bothered by you anymore." Shukaku made another one of those loud shrieks before he charged Naruto.

The sand reached Naruto before Shukaku did. A clawed hand reached out, wrapping around Naruto and squeezing hard. Naruto vanished in a pop, revealing that he had been a kage bunshin all along. Several more clones burst out of the ground with a cry, immediately attacking Shukaku. Distracted by the blonds in his face, Shukaku didn't see the one crouching low in front of him until it was too late.

"_Rasengan_!" Naruto bellowed, shoving the concentrated orb of chakra into Shukaku's semi-guarded stomach. Sand rushed to block the blow but enough of the force was still behind the attack, sending the sand demon flying backwards. Shukaku slid across the ground, but Naruto didn't even give him a moment of reprieve. 

Using Shunshin again, he and the rest of the clones appeared right where Shukaku stopped. One clone was crushed by Shukaku's flailing hand but the others jumped out of the way. After they landed back on the ground, three rushed forward to kick Shukaku up in the air in a fairly abbreviated version of Naruto's Uzumaki Rendan. 

Naruto jumped just above Shukaku, barely twisting out of the way of Shukaku's claw. It sliced across the side of his face instead of right through his head, cutting just under Naruto's left eye to just above Naruto's left ear.

Naruto's forehead protector fell to the ground of the arena just as Naruto launched a kick into Shukaku's chest. Before Shukaku could fall too, Naruto grabbed him by the still visible sash around Gaara's waist, yanking him back up like a yo-yo. This time, Naruto shoved four glowing fingers into Gaara's still visible shoulder. Shukaku hit the ground with a thud, his transformation trickling from Gaara's body like melted snow.

Naruto landed a half of a second after he did, managing to completely mangle up his landing form so that he tripped over his feet and was forced to abruptly sit down. Shaking with exhaustion, Naruto just sat there and _breathed_. Blood flowed down the side of his face, a brief distraction as Naruto, who was wiping the sweat from his face, pulled his hand back and saw red. After a jolt of surprise, as he hadn't realized that he had been hit, Naruto sighed.

Getting his second wind, Naruto looked over at Gaara warily, wondering if the boy was going to attempt to fight him still, like the last time. He smiled sadly at the memory. It had probably been the first time that Gaara ever raised his fist against someone and, as such, failed to have the necessary reflexes to land the first punch.

Gaara didn't move. He laid on the ground, looking battered and bloodied, even worse than Naruto did. Even though Naruto knew that it had to be done, something inside of his chest twisted guiltily as Gaara had to rasp to breath. But at least he was breathing, Naruto told himself. The entire stadium was silent, waiting for the outcome of the match. Like Naruto, they wondered if Gaara was going to get up. They, unlike Naruto, didn't realize that Gaara's demon had just been sealed, or that such a technique often exhausted the receiver more than the caster.

After two minutes, Gaara still had not moved from his place on the ground, though his breathing had vastly improved. He did not open his eyes. He did not speak. He did not get up. Hayate made the final decision. 

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto," he announced to the silent arena. All at once, the audience cheered. It echoed in the stadium like a dull roar. Naruto jumped slightly, scowling at the collected crowd before he looked over at Gaara again, something like empathy forcing him to focus on Gaara instead of the invasion that never came.

Naruto shakily stood, his nerves stretched to the max. Yes, he defeated Gaara. Yes, he did it without using up all of his chakra or his strength. But the appearance of Shukaku once again reminded him how dangerous demons were. He managed to defeat Shukaku before the demon could completely transform, but Naruto couldn't help but wonder how much more stronger the demon could have been if Gaara hadn't been actively resisting. Last time, Naruto needed to use a summon. This time, all he needed was a well placed seal.

It was strange how he forgotten how dangerous demons could be. Kyuubi should have constantly reminded him of that fact, but the truth of the matter was that Kyuubi was just as much a part of him as any limb was. Better than any companion, he had stuck with him through thick and thin. Naruto didn't (couldn't, _wouldn't_) see the danger in Kyuubi. He didn't realize that such a naïve outlook could have ended up being so dangerous in a situation like the one he was in.

"Wow, I've gotta hand it to you, Gaara," Naruto said lightly, walking over to the fallen sand nin. Gaara stiffened, almost expecting Naruto to attack him while he was vulnerable. However, Naruto stopped several feet short of the range needed for an attack so Gaara relaxed a little. "When I got mine sealed up, I passed out! But no, you're still conscious and everything... it makes me jealous."

"I'd..." Gaara had to breath deeply a few times before he could speak. His whole torso ached like no other. "I'd... switch places with you... anytime." 

"Hm... you know what, I think I'll pass," Naruto said good naturedly, suddenly crouching down. Gaara flinched at the sudden movement, then winced at his flinch. That had not been a smart idea. Naruto's attacks, especially that orb of energy, had done some damage. Gaara lifted his hand over his stomach, gingerly feeling out the bruises. Beyond that, Gaara didn't feel much like moving.

"How are you... so strong?" he asked, trying as hard as possible to glare at Naruto. Despite his best attempts, it came out as more of a pained scowl. "You didn't even use your demon..."

Naruto shrugged. "There's many reasons why," he said evasively. "I mean, better breeding, better genetics... I'm also a hell of a lot more attractive than you..." Gaara snorted. Naruto smiled, deciding to answer seriously. "I think it's because I have a purpose and you don't."

Gaara was mildly offended. "I do have a purpose!" he said, immediately regretting his brief show of emotion. He grabbed his ribs and closed his eyes. "Ow..."

"Purpose?" Naruto echoed, looking sad. "Your dad's purpose? For you to be a weapon? Or your purpose? To kill everyone? If you ask me, both of those are crap purposes." Gaara scowled at him, mostly for show.

"Good thing we're not asking you, then," he said snidely. Naruto grinned widely at him, completely shameless.

"Come on, now," Naruto said, straightening suddenly. He scowled faintly at the crowd, which was still bustling in excitement. Money was being exchanged, people were swapping anecdotes about their favorite parts, and some were already leaving. _And no invasion._ Was it too much to hope that Orochimaru lost his courage and decided to try again on another day? "Let's get you to the infirmary, eh?" 

Gaara stared at Naruto in suspicion. It wasn't like Gaara to take kind deeds at face value. He was too familiar with manipulation to believe even for a second in the kindness of one's heart. "Why?" he demanded forcefully. Naruto glanced back down at him, correctly interpreting the look on the boy's face.

"Well, you see, I have an ulterior motive," Naruto replied cheekily. He was smiling again, an expression that Gaara still was bemused by. Not very many people smiled at the sight of him, after all. "You're lying on my forehead protector, so I need to move your lazy ass so I can retrieve it." Gaara blinked.

"Is that why my back hurts...?" Gaara reached underneath him and, lo and behold, pulled out a bloodied forehead protector etched with the mark of the leaf. He idly tossed it to Naruto, who frowned briefly at the damage it was in before stuffing it in his pocket and reaching for Gaara again. 

Gaara sighed, irritated and happy at the same time."I don't... get you," Gaara complained. He relented, looking up at Naruto with a tired and faint smile. "And I don't think I ever will." It was his way of saying that Naruto's sly and not so sly attempts at befriending him had not gone unnoticed, and that he wouldn't be completely adverse to a friendship. _Maybe._

Naruto grinned widely at this, correctly reading the message. "Yay!" he exclaimed, happy for more reasons than one. He snickered to himself. "I've always wanted an aura of mystery and intrigue." Gaara snorted.

Gaara pushed himself up, warily glancing at Naruto's extended hand before taking it. Naruto pulled him up the rest of the way, gripping his hand a little tighter when Gaara wobbled on his feet before regaining his balance. 

Gaara stood by himself for a few minutes, just breathing. "I feel... weird," he said suddenly. And it was weird. No demon in his mind, no press of youki, no underlying hostility towards the world, no desire to shed blood... Did Shukaku really influence all of that? Gaara felt as if he had had a headache his entire life, and that it had just finally eased.

"Sorry about that," Naruto said apologetically. "Even seal over odd seal... It blocks the flow of youki in your body, sometimes even the flow of chakra if you're not careful. The world must seem different now."

And it did seem different. Gaara wasn't turned miraculously into a peace loving person, but he no longer felt the absolute _hunger_ for blood. His headache was gone, the constant smell of blood around him had disappeared, and his hatred had dimmed from a roaring bonfire to a glowing ember. Rage and despair had shifted to annoyance and wary acceptance. Gaara was tired.

Gaara turned and looked at Naruto, a strange expression on his face. "Just who the hell are you?" he asked, completely bewildered. Naruto smiled sheepishly, moving forward to pull Gaara's arm over his shoulder.

"I suspect people will be asking me that for years to come," he said, faintly amused. He changed the subject. "So, infirmary... I think I might have hurt you a bit..." He smiled reassuringly at Gaara as he helped the sand genin over to the door leading out. "Don't worry, we have some of the best medic nins here, even better than Suna's. They'll have you healed up in no time-"

Naruto's glowing report of Konoha's medic nins was cut off by a shrill scream. "Hokage-sama!" someone shrieked. Naruto and Gaara immediately turned back to the stands, their eyes wide. They heard a loud explosion off of to the distance and, without warning, Oto nins were everywhere.

Gaara sighed, glancing over at Naruto's shocked face. He felt a twinge of guilt, an emotion he would not have felt before Naruto literally cleared his head. "So, the invasion has begun..."

---

No one up in the Hokage section noticed the end of Naruto's match. All of the tension and drama right there seemed much more important than a couple of kids fighting. Without saying a word, the Kazekage, the Hokage, and his two students kept raising their respective chakras. The jonins on guard behind and around them all looked a little ill, none of them used to being around such humongous chakras.

Kakashi himself was feeling a little ill too, but that was more from the stress of knowing that the Kazekage knew that he wasn't the Hokage. Even with two powerhouses of chakra and energy sitting on either side of him as protection, he couldn't help but feel as if the proverbial ax was about to fall on his unprotected neck.

Kakashi had nowhere _near_ the power that the Kazekage was emitting. He didn't need his sharingan to tell him that. He also didn't need his sharingan to tell him that, if he wanted to live to tell the tale of his one day as Hokage, he needed to get as far away from the Kazekage as possible.

"Kazekage-sama!" Suddenly, a sand nin appeared at the Kazekage's shoulder. Though he was thankful that the Kage's attention was diverted, he couldn't help but frown at the ninja. Why was he reporting to the Kage? The boy had gray hair and what looked like an odd growth on the back on his head. He was clutching what, to Kakashi's complete surprise, appeared to be a bloody stump of an arm.

"What?" the Kazekage grounded out. He noticed the blood dripping down to the ground. His eyes narrowed. "You're supposed to be in your position."

The boy looked completely unaffected by the amount of chakra that the Kazekage was letting out, but Kakashi expected it was only because he had something far more terrifying plaguing him. _ANBU corps works _fast. Kakashi thought with a bit of admiration. _I guess he's a Oto nin in disguise. Too bad that he's just a kid._

"Kazekage-sama..." The boy was extremely pale and shaking like a leaf. "There's a demon on the loose, it's killing everybody! It's already killed Tayuya and Jiroubou!"

"Well well well..." the Kazekage turned back to Kakashi, Tsunade, and Jiraiya, who watched this without a word. Jiraiya had a pinched look on his face when he looked at the Oto nin in disguise, clearly caught between wanting to help the ninja and wanting to kill him for the safety of the village. Tsunade's gaze was irresistibly captured by the blood. She was almost as pale as the boy. "Dispatching the ANBU already, Hokage-sama?"

Kakashi answered automatically. "The ANBU are always on patrol around Konoha. They are our security forces, our retrieval forces, and our assassination forces. If your people are being targeted by our men, then they must be involved in something nefarious," Kakashi tilted his head, adjusting the Hokage hat. This farce would have been fun if only Kakashi's livelihood wasn't being put on the line. "Now what could your men possibly be involved in, I ask of you?"

Before the other Kage could form a response, the boy lunged forward, grabbing at his leader's arm daringly. "No, my lord, it's not ANBU! It's a-" All attention in the Hokage suddenly sharpened at the arrival of another ninja, this one with energy far more powerful than that of the Oto kid.

The ninja appeared right on top of the railing looking into the ring, right in front of the Kages and their company. He was tall, with a long black cloak and a white ANBU mask. A drawn sword was seen in the parting of the robe. He was like a specter, a dark creature with energy that was both familiar and not. Kakashi especially felt as if he should know the name of the person behind the mask, but, for the life of him, he could not think of one. There was so many things wrong with the situation, Kakashi couldn't figure _anything_ out.

"Ah, my dear Sakon..." The voice was like velvet. Again, Kakashi felt like he should have known the voice. Tsunade and Jiraiya were in the same position. _It's... too low?_ Kakashi tried to figure out what was wrong with the voice he was hearing. _Too sadistic?_ "You weren't running away from me now, were you?"

Sakon, which appeared to be the boy's name, actually whimpered and started backing up. "Kazekage-sama!" he breathed as a plea. He backed up several paces, wide eyes staring at the masked ANBU. The Kage was not moved.

"My my, your ANBU are quite forward today," the man said without pity.

Tsunade stared at the man in the cloak. She voiced one of the problems that Kakashi was just figuring out. "That isn't an ANBU," she whispered.

As if her sentence was the spark to the masked man's fire, he suddenly lunged forward, forcefully slicing his katana across Sakon's neck. The boy's head went one way, his body went another. Blood went everywhere. Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kakashi immediately stood. Their guard jonins went for the fake ANBU but before they could land a blow, the man had disappeared and reappeared back on the railing. 

"You..!" Kakashi clamped a hand on one of the jonin's shoulders before he could move forward.

"Misplaced rage," he muttered quietly to the man, ignoring the jonin's exhaled 'Hokage-sama!'. Kakashi turned to the man on the railing, immediately questioning the fake ANBU. "Who are you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the cloaked man replied, his head tilting slightly. "Fear not, Mr. Hokage-for-a-day." Kakashi's eyes widened. How had he known? "I harbor no grudge against you, or your people, for now. However..." the assassin pointed his blade at the silent Kazekage. "I... and my beloved associate, of course... bear a grudge of enormous proportions against him." There was no visible indication but the sudden change in the man's voice gave everyone in earshot the mental visual of a nasty smile. "Your subordinates' blood was sweet. The medic nin, _and_ those cursed kids..."

The Kazekage leaned back in his chair, looking faintly amused. Inwardly, he was twitching. He had to change so much of his plans if even_ one _of the Sound Four was destroyed. And he knew at least one was. The Kazekage turned to address the leaf nins in earshot. "Suna has pests like these all over, those who cry revenge and attempt to right the so called wrongs that we have dealt them," the man said without care. "They are weak hearted fools with little intelligence and, coincidentally, much smaller life spans."

The masked man laughed. "Suna, Konoha... villages of little importance, save to the select few," he said sharply. "Vengeance against a village... it is a silly thing, isn't it, _Orochimaru_?" Suddenly, with a well placed jib, all killer intent shifted from the man with the bloody sword over to the Kazekage. Instead of staring accusingly at the ninja, all the leaf nins there glared at the Kazekage.

"You know not of which you speak," the Kazekage said quietly, mentally going backwards through his plans. No barrier to make, no real Hokage in sight, the killer intent of his two admittedly powerful teammates pounding in his head... the whole situation had gone downhill fast. Frustration built up deep in his gut as his perfect plan to invade Konoha fell around his ears.

Orochimaru looked at the masked man, who he knew was responsible for killing the Sound Four and his loyal Kabuto, and who glowed with strange red energy, chuckling darkly as he tossed his katana from hand to hand. He looked at Jiraiya, who he hated because he was Jiraiya, and who was thrumming with rage and with chakra, his face slightly red. He looked at Tsunade, who he despised because of her weak heart and, who, for the first time in decades, was letting out her chakra in heavy waves, her brown eyes staring him down. 

Then he looked at the Hokage. The fake Hokage who stood there calmly despite so much energy being tossed around. He loathed the fake Hokage because, had he been Sarutobi-sensei, then what he was about to do would have been worth his plans failing and would have even been worth Kabuto (since Orochimaru now knew there was no way he was getting Tsunade) being killed.

----

Apologizing quickly to Gaara, Naruto bolted to the stands, dodging Hayate's attempt to keep him back. Using Shunshin and chakra, Naruto covered quite a bit of distance in seconds, jumping over the shocked spectators and leaping over empty and occupied seats. He was about to jump up into the box when, without warning, Gai suddenly grabbed him and picked him up, keeping him from continuing forward.

He kicked his legs out uselessly. "What the hell!" he yelled, struggling in the jonin's grip. "Let me-" His voice died in his throat. Because he was higher up, Naruto could see clearly into the box. Several people were standing up and facing each other. The trademark Kage robes made the two most important figures stand out.

The white of the robes also made it hauntingly clear that the Kazekage had just shoved his hand through the Hokage's torso. The blood spread quickly, especially as the Kazekage jerked his hand back. The Hokage fell to the ground and out of sight.

Naruto found his voice and, with it, a new strength. "No!" He slammed his elbows back into Gai. Grunting slightly, Gai dropped him on the ground. Once he was free, it took Naruto only two seconds to make it over to the Hokage second.

Ignoring everyone else, he dropped to his knees by the Hokage, turning the fallen ninja over on to his back. Although he knew Tsunade would make a better Hokage against Orochimaru, since she didn't have the same sentimentalities towards the Oto nin that the old man still harbored, the last thing Naruto wanted was for Sarutobi to die. "Hokage-sama!" he called out softly. 

The old man coughed with a tired smile. "That must be... the first time you've ever shown anyone their proper respect... Naruto," the Hokage said, his hand raising over the gaping wound in his torso. To Naruto's surprise, the face suddenly changed as a genjutsu dropped. A wrinkled and kind face suddenly had a mask. What was not covered by the mask was suddenly decades younger and what had been two dark eyes were now one dark eye and a blood red sharingan.

Naruto's horror increased when he realized that it was Kakashi who was so grievously injured. He started shaking softly, his eyes wide in disbelief. Was Kakashi supposed to die now? What had he done wrong? What change did he make to cause this horrible fate?

Kakashi smiled at him painfully, grabbing Naruto's hand and putting it over his wound, making Naruto look down at it. "Ow, my spleen," Kakashi said with some humor. Naruto's eyes widened, realizing what Kakashi had pointed out. The wound wasn't fatal. "Don't worry... He was aiming for my heart but he missed. Lucky..." He mumbled something about how the Kazekage moving too fast for him to keep up with.

Naruto choked out a broken laugh, thinking that it was only Kakashi's skill that allowed him to evade a lethal injury. There was a reason why Kakashi was considered one of the best. But there was still too much blood. The injury was bad and Kakashi needed medical attention immediately.

In the standoff around them, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru made a fierce triad, none of them wanting to make a move that would set off the others. The man on the railing was still chuckling softly while the guard jonins stood on the background, their defenses up and ready even though they wouldn't stand a chance in the fight to come. Outside of the powerful trio, none of them moved to help Kakashi, the jonins because it would mean catching Orochimaru's attention and everything in their training was against gaining the attention of such a powerful foe, and the fake ANBU because he just didn't care.

In the stadium itself, Oto nins were appearing out of nowhere. The once kind neighbor of a spectator suddenly morphed into their assassin, jumping out of their disguises to reveal themselves in their full Oto nin glory. People ran, attempting to get out of the stadium and away from the attacking ninjas, only to be stopped by a terrifying sight: a three story high summon snake that smashed buildings and periodically dipped its head to snatch up a person or two.

It was utter chaos, even amongst the Oto nins, who had expected Suna aid, only get get stabbed in the back. Even for the allied ninjas, there was still a lot of Oto nins around, cannon fodder ninjas that added to the danger of the situation simply because there was so many of them. Having no leadership (since the ANBU and Kyuubi had already taken out most of the higher leveled Oto nins), the ninjas resorted simply to senseless violence, killing any and all near them. Since most of the people in the city were unarmed civilians, this meant a lot of people were dying, regardless of the fact that most of the Oto nins were barely chuunin level or higher.

Orochimaru pulled at his robes, taking them off and revealing his true self. Although they had already established his identity, he still glorified in their shocked faces at his appearance. "Hm... I think it's summon time," he said idly, tilting his head to the side. Another explosion went off, one of the many. Screams suddenly rose in volume and, towering over the buildings, a big summon snake appeared, even bigger than the ones already roaming around. It had three heads, and destroyed and crushed everything in its path.

Jiraiya took a step forward. "You!" he growled angrily, throwing out an arm towards the damage. "You are doing this!"

Orochimaru smirked. "I see your observational skills have not decayed since we've last met, _Jir-ai-ya_," he said with practiced ease, his gold eyes narrowing maliciously. "I would think that you would be used to such sorrow, no? Such is the fate of sentimental fools. At least Tsunade was smart enough to shed her roots and go else... though it seems she was not smart enough to stay away." He glanced at Tsunade. The woman's eyes were cold. She wanted to heal Kakashi but she knew the second she bent down, Orochimaru would attack.

Naruto hovered over Kakashi, his eyes wide and panicked. Mentally, he was ready to fight and kill Orochimaru and end all of Konoha's suffering before it even started. He had enough chakra to challenge the Oto nin, he had enough knowledge to apply it, and he had enough courage to carry it out. But why couldn't he move? Why did it feel like his muscles had been frozen and his heart had just stopped? Why couldn't he breathe?

Orochimaru's eyes fell down to Naruto, recognizing the signs of chakra paralysis. It was just one of the many ways a stronger ninja beat down a weaker one: by shoving his chakra down upon the weaker person so that they could hardly think, let alone move. A stronger ninja could push it off if, one, he recognized what was happening, and two, he had enough chakra to push back the foreign chakra, and three, if his body could handle it. The poor little genin didn't even know what hit him.

Orochimaru smirked, feeling much amusement in causing such distress in someone who looked so much like a kid version Fourth. "You didn't cry at the Yondaime's funeral, Jiraiya," he murmured, his eyes still focused on Naruto. The boy's wide eyes seemed to grow even wider. "Would you cry at his?"

The masked figure on the railing looked between Naruto and Orochimaru several times before he made a decision. He was not pleased with what he saw but he knew how to fix it. "Okay, this is where we take our leave," he said lightly, appearing on the other side of Kakashi. "When I say move, you _move_, you got it, brat?" He hauled one of Kakashi's arms around his shoulder. Naruto did the same, though far more sluggishly.

"I don't think so," Orochimaru murmured, lunging forward. Tsunade yelled Naruto's name, just barely missing Orochimaru as he disappeared, appearing right behind Naruto. The boy's back stiffened and his eyes widened, but before Orochimaru could land a blow, the fake ANBU dropped Kakashi and shoved Orochimaru off of the side of the balcony, going down with him when the Oto leader grabbed on his cloak.

As they fell, Orochimaru bared his teeth and knocked the mask off of the ANBU. He was shocked at the face revealed to have been underneath. It was the face of Uzumaki Naruto. Grinning widely at the surprise on the man's face, Kyuubi winked, then opened his mouth wide and clamped down, digging his fangs into Orochimaru's shoulder.

As they landed on the ground, Kyuubi pumped in a large amount of youki into Orochimaru's body. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Orochimaru slammed his fist into Kyuubi's head as hard as he could. Kyuubi's clone disappeared in a poof of red tinged smoke, leaving behind only the faint echo of Kyuubi's laughter.

Orochimaru pressed his hand over the injury, cringing at the burning sensation that seemed to creep right down to his bones. He started sweating and feeling ill. What was this? He was usually immune to sicknesses. Why did it feel like the damage went down to his very soul?

Orochimaru's eyes widened. _Youki!_ he realized quickly. It had the power to completely destroy the human body as well as warp the chakra within. _That kid and his demon_! There was no way he could fight Jiraiya or Tsunade (or even Sarutobi if he could find the slippery old man) for a prolonged period of time. His condition would worsen by the hour until the youki eventually left. The body he was in at the moment was already starting to decay a little faster.

Enraged like never before as his perfect plan collapsed entirely, he roared. "_Uzumaki Naruto!_" It was a yell imbued with the power of killing intent. It echoed through the stadium like a sudden gale. Those who heard paused for a moment, wondering either what had made Orochimaru so angry or what Naruto had done to warrant such anger, depending on which side they were on.

Naruto, still twitching slightly and feeling just as ill as Orochimaru, automatically moved towards the railing before he was yanked back by Tsunade. The older woman was furious. "Where do you think you're going?" she snapped. "You can't possibly be thinking about fighting him!" Jiraiya was already up and over the railing, moving remarkably fast for someone his age. Almost immediately, Orochimaru and Jiraiya started fighting.

Closing her eyes with a heavy sigh, Tsunade slowly sank to her knees in front of Kakashi, reluctant hands reaching out for his wound. The man was intelligent enough to force a stasis on his injuries (a chuunin level medical jutsu that simply covered the injuries with a layer of chakra) but he couldn't heal himself fully. Her eyes half-closed and her hands shaking, she strengthened the jutsu that Kakashi had already used. "He's going to need special medical attention. Why don't you make yourself useful and take him to the infirmary?" 

Tsunade leaned back on her heels, reaching in one pocket to pull out a slim case. She flicked it open with her thumb, revealing several different type of pills lined up. She slid out a red and blue one, handing it to Kakashi. "This will help you replenish your blood," she told him mechanically, looking anywhere but at the blood itself. He took it without question, pulling his mask down to swallow it. She addressed Naruto. "If I'm not mistaken, they have at least one room prepared for an injury such as this.

Now's not the time to try and be a hero. You're a genin. You're insignificant. Stay out of the adults' way. "

Naruto, watching the battle below with deep set worry, turned to her abruptly, his anger fueled by the sudden return of Kyuubi's consciousness at the back of his mind. "Well, it's not like _you're_ going to do it!" he roared, his eyes blazing red. Tsunade's eyes widened, not expecting that his demon would be so close to the surface. His gaze was dark and accusing and, worst of all, betrayed. "_You're_ still afraid of blood!"

"Naruto..." Kakashi said warningly, already pulling up his mask. Automatically, Naruto looked at Kakashi, his eyes turning back to blue as his rage died down. "Don't get mad at her... It's a personal thing, memories that stick with us as ninjas that we can't deal with..."

"Then get a psychiatrist," he snapped callously. He looked at Tsunade angrily. Jiraiya was already gone, down in the ring and, from the noises that Naruto could hear behind him, fiercely battling his former teammate to keep the enraged Oto leader from attacking Naruto. It angered Naruto, seeing the only one who could beat Orochimaru just standing there, watching as Jiraiya tried to do what she was supposed to do. Jiraiya was powerful but he was already losing.

"You... you're the only one who is strong enough, both mentally and physically, to fight him," Naruto announced this to Tsunade in a world weary voice. He looked over the railing, wanting to fight Orochimaru but knowing that he'd just freeze up again. The power of the mind was always limited by the power of the body.

He turned abruptly towards the silent medic nin, who by this time had adapted a impassive look on her face. "How about a game, Tsunade?" he asked softly. There was a barely a twitch of curiosity but he saw it easily. Knowingly, he fished out the necklace underneath his shirt, baring it to her vision. Her eyes widened slightly. "Do you wanna bet to see how long I'll last against both Orochimaru _and_ this curse's bad luck?"

"That's... not funny," Tsunade said softly. Naruto looked half-dead as he was. He was hardly in any condition to fight anyone, let alone Orochimaru. He tilted his head up slightly and smirked, tangling his fingers through the string of his necklace. "I said it's _not_ funny!"

"Death is never amusing," Naruto said, that strange half-smug, half-sad smirk on his face. "But your cowardice is a _riot_." Contrary to his words, Naruto no longer looked amused. It had abruptly dissolved in a dark glare and a near snarl of anger. His emotions were fluctuating rapidly, a side effect of suddenly getting Kyuubi back. The youki screwed with his emotions and his mind.

Half of him wanted to retreat, as Kyuubi kept insistently poking him to do. Naruto wanted to wait until his body got used to the extreme pressure of Orochimaru's chakra at full force and, at which time, he would commence to kill Orochimaru in the swiftest way possible. It was this later staged attack that Kyuubi found himself arguing with the most. He had been there, he knew Naruto wasn't ready to butt heads with Orochimaru. Maybe he'd never be ready.

As insane as Kyuubi thought Naruto's 'logical' side was, what was far worse was Naruto's burning desire to yank up all of his youki and charge Orochimaru head on as a crazed demon host running only on youki and rage. Kyuubi yanked back his own youki, pulling it until it was as far behind the seal as he could put it. Naruto would never survive going all out, mentally or physically.

His human boy body would burn, his human adult mind would be melted, and even his eternal soul would be caught in the uncontrollable inferno that would follow. Such a loss of control would make Shukaku's efforts look like child's play. Yes, Orochimaru would be killed, and rather messily too. But no one else in Konoha would survive it either. Naruto would never sacrifice anyone just to kill an enemy, let alone his loved ones but the youki poisoning his logic made him consider it. 

Tsunade stared at Naruto, her eyes dark and her expression fierce. Her frown indicated that she had not appreciated being called a coward but her closed mouth also told of her reluctant agreement with his assessment. Or at least her lack of desire of getting in a verbal fight with Naruto. The sight of her face though, that painfully familiar expression of anger and power, calmed Naruto enough for him to think more rationally. Tsunade needed to fight Orochimaru. He decided that a little farce was in order.

Huffing a little with a muttered curse, Naruto made as if to jump over the railing. His hand curled around the metal, and crouched slightly before springing up. He almost made it over but his motion was abruptly put to an end as he was yanked by the back of his vest. Tsunade's brute strength knocked him back into one of the chairs. The motion wasn't good for his injuries but Naruto was elated by the medic nin's rapid and angry response.

For a second, the woman had nothing to say. She had a perplexed look on her face, staring at her fingers as if she was surprised that she had moved. Suddenly, her hand closed into a fist and she snapped her head up to look at him. For the first time since he had met back up with her, he saw the great Godaime in her full glory.

"This is our generation's problem, not yours, you stupid brat!" she snapped, her eyes like daggers. After glaring at him angrily for a few seconds, Tsunade jumped over the railing to join Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Naruto scrambled out of the seat and ran over to the railing. Tsunade looked back at him one last time. She yelled up to him, still looking very angry. "This conversation isn't over! You better still be alive when I'm done!"

Naruto grinned widely at her, his affection for her far outstripping his disappointment that he couldn't beat Orochimaru himself. "Same with you, you old bat!" he said, formally saluting Tsunade. The woman briefly looked surprised, then put out as she realized that she had been duped. Nonetheless, she turned her attention towards her old teammates, one very pleased pervert and one very annoyed traitor.

Back up in the stands, Naruto turned to his own problems, which was bleeding all over the floor. Kakashi groaned at Naruto's words, wondering how long Naruto expected to be a ninja if he kept on pissing so many people off. "You live to kill yourself, don't you?" he asked, struggling to stand. He looked ill and the hole through his torso looked painful. Naruto winced in empathy, having experienced a similar injury once, and rushed over to him.

"Oh no, your injuries!" he exclaimed, helping his teacher stand. They both tensed and winced as a loud boom went through the arena, originating from the ring itself. _There's Tsunade_, Naruto thought with a faint smile. For the first time that day, Naruto felt truly optimistic. Tsunade would wear and tear at Orochimaru's defenses, making him just weak enough for Naruto's final and fatal assault. Naruto felt deathly terrified and horribly elated at the same time.

"I was dropped, _twice,_" Kakashi complained. The white and red of his robes contrasted with the blue mask that he still wore. Naruto wanted to point out that using a Henge would have been better than using an elaborate genjutsu but he decided to hold the criticisms until Kakashi was healed up. "You have a _terrible_ bedside manner, Naruto. You simply _do not_ drop injured people."

"You must be okay, if you can complain so much," Naruto said absently, mentally going over Kakashi's injuries. With the medical jutsu, they had bought as much as an hour before Kakashi absolutely had to go into surgery or emergency healing if he wished to continue being a fully functioning ninja. Though Kakashi might have been accustomed to waiting such long periods of time before getting medical help, Naruto wasn't about to let Kakashi go on in pain.

With a mental apology to his teacher, Naruto took a deep breath and then bellowed, "Gai-sensei! Help!" Kakashi looked startled at his sudden raise of volume, and then alarmed at what such a call would bring. Before he could protest, Naruto had a reply. Gai had arrived in a flash of green, striking an awkward looking pose.

"Such youthful lungs and bony elbows, such are the signs of- Rival Kakashi?" Whatever Gai was about to say to Naruto was cut off by Gai's sudden observation of Kakashi's injuries. For a second, Gai's face was completely serious, betraying his real thoughts. And then he leaned forward, big tears in his eyes. "Oh, my greatest rival! Wounded were you in the great battle of-"

"Wasn't much of a battle or anything," Kakashi cut in, looking annoyed. He shot a betrayed look over at Naruto, making sure to squeeze the boy's shoulders extra hard. Naruto just gave him a look that said that the boy couldn't believe how childish his teacher was acting. "Just 'pow' and then blood. Nothing _great_ about it."

"And there you go!" Gai said, his eyes suspiciously shiny. He randomly flung out an arm, breaking the nose of an Oto nin who had snuck up on him. Not even seeming to notice, Gai continued enthusiastically, holding a hand over his chest. "Such heroism and modesty... Standing in for our Hokage so that he might help diffuse some of the worst situations out in our humble home-"

"Um, Gai-sensei?" Naruto quickly cut into what seemed like what could be a long soliloquy. Although Gai was usually good for a startled laugh, he was much too anxious to appreciate Gai's attempt at diffusing the situation. Naruto knew Gai was trying to make light of Kakashi's injuries (as Kakashi was) so that Naruto wouldn't be too traumatized. He just wasn't aware that Naruto was well acquainted with blood and wasn't going to faint like a damsel in distress. "Kakashi-sensei needs to get to the infirmary before he bleeds to death."

Gai blinked several times. Then, as if a light bulb went off above his head, he understood. "My rival!" he announced, lunging towards Kakashi. The expression on Kakashi's face was identical to that of Tora, the Fire Lady's cat after it had just been recaptured and hugged by her overzealous owner. "I'll save you!" Gai picked Kakashi up and, in a cloud of dust, ran off towards the infirmary. 

With a sigh and a groan, Naruto heaved himself to his feet and began to run after them, his pace much slower and more clumsy than Gai's gait. He was very tired, both physically and mentally. Behind him and around him, the war waged on but Naruto had yet to figure out what he was meant to do.

It had become startlingly obvious in one encounter that he simply wasn't ready to fight Orochimaru. Gaara was already defeated and at least somewhat docile. Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru were already fighting each other. Sarutobi was who knows where. Burns were already starting to appear on his body, which meant he _really_ couldn't fight or heal for another thirty minutes. Naruto could feel no purpose in front of him, no goal to achieve. He felt like a chicken running around with its head cut off. He hated that feeling, the feeling of absolute uselessness.

_I was stupid, _he admitted to himself. _I only thought of beating Orochimaru. Now that I know that I can't right now, just what the hell am I supposed to do until Tsunade beats him to a bloody pulp?_ He hurried up a little faster to the infirmary, figuring he could just go back towards the source of most of his problems. _I'll see how Sasuke is, and then figure out what to do next._

----

Naruto walked into a standoff. The door to the infirmary was crowded with people. He recognized Kankurou by his puppet, Temari by her hair, and Shikamaru by his not being in the crowd, since he chose to lean against the opposite wall instead of trying to squeeze past the sand nins. He muttered 'troublesome' and wordlessly waved at Naruto, who returned the gesture. Naruto squeezed by Kankurou with a quick apology and almost stepped on Gaara, who was standing in the room itself, his arms crossed over his chest and his face blank.

Across from him stood an angry Sakura, who threateningly bared a sharp kunai at the impassive sand nin. "If you even dare to try and-" she was saying in a harsh voice, her green eyes hard and determined but her body trembling in fear. Lee sat behind her in a chair, trying to stand but failing every time. Shino and Neji sat very tensely in their beds while Tenten and Hinata hovered awkwardly in the background.

"Yipes, Sakura-chan, you look like you're gonna cut someone," Naruto said lightly, moving around Gaara. The rest of the people in the room stared at him as if he had grown a second head. "Yeesh, tough crowd..."

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata exclaimed with a smile, breaking the tense silence. She hurried over to him, looking him over as if she expected him to come back with a missing limb. "You're alright!" she concluded, looking pleased.

Naruto grinned at her. "Of course I am!" he said, crossing his arms over his chest. He closed his eyes, nodding self-importantly. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Rokudaime of Konoha! A simple Chuunin Exam is nothing to me!" The two grinned at each other for a moment before Neji dryly interrupted their moment.

"Then what is _he_ to you?" the Hyuuga boy drawled, inclining his head towards Gaara. Naruto glanced over his shoulder at Gaara, who only looked back at him without a word. Naruto smiled brightly and turned back to Neji.

"He's my new friend," Naruto said blithely, missing Gaara's look of shock. Naruto's eyes widened as he remembered something. "Oh yeah, you guys haven't met yet, right? Everyone, this is Gaara of the Sand and his two siblings, Temari and Kankurou. Gaara, Temari, Kankurou-" Temari and Kankurou were a little surprised to be included in the greeting but hid their surprise better than Gaara did. "The lazy bastard out in the hall is Shikamaru, the annoying bastard in the bed is Neji, the sleeping bastard is Sasuke, the quiet guy in glasses is Shino, the monster eyebrows boy is Lee, the girl with the buns is Tenten, _this_ girl is Hinata-chan, and the girl with the knife is Sakura-chan!" 

All of the assorted 'bastards' snorted at their classification (except for Sasuke, who was sleeping), Shino merely nodded, Lee pouted, Tenten smiled, Hinata beamed, and Sakura glared. But Sakura's ire had nothing to do with her classification.

"Are you _insane_?" she hissed, shooting a look between Gaara and Naruto. Naruto shrugged.

"Possibly," he answered absently. She started to say something but he interrupted. "No no, I know what you're going to say." He took a deep breath and then started speaking in a high pitched voice. "'_Oh, Naruto! That guy is, like, evil! I mean, look what he did to Sasuke-kun! He's going to finish the job and kill him, I just know it! I have to, like, protect Sasuke-kun!_' Something like that, right?"

Sakura scowled. "I don't talk like that," she snapped. But, other than that, she supposed, that was nearly the exact same thing that she was about to say to Naruto. Her chakra rose slightly and she raised her kunai. Laughing sheepishly, Naruto took a few steps back. He raised his hands in defense.

"You have a distinct lack of self-preservation, Uzumaki Naruto," Gaara observed with a faint roll of his eyes. Temari and Kankurou nodded in agreement. "It makes me wonder how you even managed to stand up to Shukaku."

"I prefer 'enthusiastic optimism'," Naruto muttered in response. He tilted his head up slightly and sent Gaara a sharp sidelong glance. "And, for your information, Shukaku's a moron and I refuse to accept that match as an official fight. I like my opponents sane, thanks."

"Optimism in what?" Gaara asked with a snort, ignoring Naruto's last comment. He figured that it was likely hindsight bias that made Naruto so cocky about fighting Shukaku. Despite thinking that Naruto was underestimating Shukaku's power at his full strength, Gaara couldn't help but be intrigued by the implications of Naruto's last comment. Did that mean Naruto would fight him again? He felt a stirring of anticipation for their next fight, a fight where he refused to be taken over by Shukaku again.

"Well, I'm fairly optimistic that Sakura-chan won't kill me," Naruto said lightly. He smiled lightly, his hands gesturing to himself. "I am, after all, highly lovable and I would be sorely missed. I mean, Konohamaru may be called Naruto Jr. but he's a snot nosed little brat. At least _I'm_ cute."

"Tch, annoying is not _cute_," Temari muttered. Realizing at the last moment that her comment had been overheard, she tilted her head back proudly and finished voicing her opinion in a louder voice. "I'd kill you in a heartbeat, and you don't even annoy me as much as you must annoy her!" Kankurou and Gaara nodded in unison. Naruto pouted, feigning hurt.

Sakura lowered her kunai, really hurt. "Naruto, I wasn't going to kill you," she said, reaching out to him with her other hand. She was still feeling guilty about forgetting that Naruto had to fight Gaara. "I was trying to protect Sasuke."

Naruto's expression suddenly turned serious. Like every other time that his usually cheerful face went dark, Sakura flinched. Naruto took a step forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. He smiled gently at her when she finally looked up.

"And I thank you for that, really," Naruto replied earnestly. "I'm glad that you'd go so far to protect Sasuke. I'd do the same thing if I was in your position." His words only confirmed some of the things that Sakura was told by the others but hearing it from him was much better. Her guilt was almost completely eased, knowing that Naruto approved of her going to Sasuke first.

Naruto turned deadly serious all of a sudden."But if you want to kill Gaara, you'll have to go through me," he said quietly. Sakura backed up, looking betrayed, her eyes going over to lock on Gaara. Gaara merely stared at the back of Naruto's head in confusion as Naruto smiled sadly at her and continued. "When I said that he's my friend, I meant it, Sakura-chan. I protect my friends." 

That being said, he gestured to Gaara. "Besides, we're all on the same side and he's pretty harmless right now," he said lightly. He turned back to Gaara, his mouth opened in a quiet 'oh'. "Hey, it's my fault that you're kinda out of commission now too. Just wait till the invasion blows over and I take you to this guy, my sensei. He's a shameless pervert but he can put a better seal on you, I think. Mine sort of sucks, sorry. You probably can't even use chakra right now, huh?"

Gaara lifted up his hand and concentrated. Nothing happened. Gaara sighed and closed his eyes, letting his hand drop down to his side. _No chakra at all_, he thought. _Is this too high of a price for a little peace and quiet? _He opened his eyes and gazed at Sakura. _That depends on whether or not someone tries to take advantage of the situation to kill me_. Biting her lip, Sakura met his gaze. After a moment, her kunai dropped to her side and she smiled sheepishly as she pocketed it. 

Gaara felt oddly relieved but, at the same time, his siblings behind him looked stunned. They gave each other a look and, in unison, suddenly took a step closer to Gaara. Gaara noted the movement but couldn't figure out the reasoning behind it. His shoulders tensed for a moment, automatically expecting a knife in the back but nothing happened.

"Invasion?" Shino echoed quietly. He, as usual, picked up on the most important part of the conversation. The others perked up at it, all of them suddenly curious. "What are you talking about?"

"Oto is attacking Konoha," Temari replied blandly. She was so close to her little brother that their arms nearly touched each other. She had an insane urge to just wrap an arm around his shoulders but she knew she would be killed for it, with or without the sand. "Why, I don't know, but Suna was a part of it until we found out someone killed our Kage."

"I-it's happening right now?" Tenten stuttered, taking two steps forward. The normally calm girl looked completely stunned, her brown eyes wide. It was an expression that most of the other genins in the room sported as well. Temari wordlessly nodded in response. "We have to do something!"

"Like what?" Shikamaru edged in through the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest. "We're genins and to make it worse, most of us are either weak or injured." He gestured to the sand siblings. "I don't know about you guys, but, out of us, only Tenten, Sakura, and Hinata are well enough to fight. See the pattern?"

"Are you saying something bad about girls, _Shikamaru_?" someone hissed in a low and dangerous voice. Shikamaru flinched, frowning and looking who was now standing in the doorway. The rest of the genins, Kiba, Ino, and Chouji, walked into the room. Ino was the one who asked the question and was staring Shikamaru down with a very acid expression on her face.

"We were ordered to come here," Kiba said as an explanation for their presence. He lifted his right hand. "Yo Shino, Hinata." Akamaru barked his greeting as well. "You two missed some interesting fights." Hinata smiled at her teammate while Shino just nodded.

Ino tapped her foot impatiently against the ground, her hands on her hips and her eyes on Shikamaru. "Well?" she demanded. Chouji hovered awkwardly behind her, looking sheepish, one hand clasped around an unopened bag of chips. "Were you?"

"No," Shikamaru said immediately, waving his hands up in defense. He backed up a little for good measure. "I'm just saying that we have a real problem if the only healthy people are the girls. And Chouji. And Kiba." This only seemed to piss Ino off more, who was sure that Shikamaru was pulling up some female inferiority issue.

"Hey!" Kiba exclaimed, looking pissed off as well. His anger was more do to the fact that he was being grouped with girls and Chouji. "What the hell does that mean, you lazy asshole!" Akamaru barked his agreement, baring his tiny but sharp teeth. Ino's acid expression melted away, revealing a tiny smile.

"Well, you _did_ get beaten up by a _girl_-" Ino started to say with a smirk and a singsong voice. Kiba quickly cut her off, stomping one of his feet against the ground.

"It was a freaking tie, damn it!" he snapped at her. Ino covered her ears, saying 'That's not what I saw!'. Kiba looked towards Sakura, his former opponent, beseechingly, expecting a little rationality on her part. "That's how it was, right Sakura?"

Sakura turned away, idly straighting the wrinkles out of her dress. "I don't know, you _did_ look pretty beaten up. And I _am_ a girl, no less..." she said coyly, adopting the same singsong voice as Ino. Chouji quickly cut in before the line of conversation could turn into a full blown fight.

"He's saying that we have no real trump card. We're all... you know, _average_," the boy quickly translated. He was frowning, gesturing to them all as he spoke. "It's not anything demeaning or insulting, it's just the way it is." Shikamaru, nodding at Chouji's explanation, picked up the conversation.

"All of our usual tanks- Neji, Shino, Sasuke, Lee, _Naruto_..." Shikamaru put specific emphasis on Naruto's name. Naruto winced. "They're injured and exhausted. They're the people who usually make a difference in situations like this. We're just... those people in the background, you know? We're not going to change much."

Kiba scowled at this, thinking that he was as much of a 'tank' as stupid Naruto was. He then brightened up. "Maybe if we worked together!" he said excitedly. "Like a... I don't know... A Ino-Chou-Shika-Kiba-Saku-Ten-Hina formation!"

Shikamaru blinked at him. After a moment, he pieced together the right response. "That's... not going to happen," he said conclusively, crossing his arms over his chest and shaking his head. "Just... no."

"Why not?" Kiba complained. Akamaru whined his agreement, his ears pressed flat against his head.

"First of all," Shikamaru replied seriously "The name's too long. It's not going to work." Chouji and Ino both nodded to this conclusion, both knowing how much Shikamaru hated long names for strategies, part due to his lazy nature. He was even about to call their own formation the ISC formation, but was talked out of it by his dad. "And second... just _no_." The rest of the people, not understanding Shikamaru's motivation or lack thereof, just stared at him. Even Naruto was perplexed.

"...o-kay," Tenten said eventually. "Moving on..."

"Hey, anyone know what happened to Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said, absently tugging on his necklace. Having had an epiphany, he realized what he should do, all thanks to Shikamaru's words on how he was supposed to be one of those people who _changed_ things. That was true, of course. After all, wasn't _changing thing_s his sole purpose in coming back to the past? "He was carried here by Gai-sensei..."

"They took him to a different room, one of those ones with the seals and stuff on the walls," Shikamaru answered, having been in the hallway just as Gai zoomed past him. Naruto looked relieved, knowing that Kakashi was going to be healed fairly quickly. Such rooms were constructed to stimulate the healing process while a patient was worked on. "He's pretty badly injured but I overheard the lady say that it wasn't as bad as it looked."

Naruto turned away from him, pivoting quickly on his heel. "And Sasuke's fine?" he directed the question to Sakura, who still looked surprised to hear of Kakashi's injury. Kakashi, in her mind, was still one of the most powerful ninjas that she had ever met. The idea of him having an injury, let alone one that would require that medical attention, seemed almost ludicrous.

"Y-yes," she answered slowly, unable to resist looking at Gaara. The redhead didn't notice, as he was examining the fluorescent lighting on the ceiling. She looked back at Naruto. "No broken bones or anything. He's just battered and bruised. Oh, and she put him in a healing sleep so that he'd recover his chakra faster."

"Okay, good," Naruto replied, swiftly pivoting once more, this time for the door. He raised his hand in Sasuke's signature silent farewell. "Play nicely, kiddies. I'm not going to babysit you."

"What?" Ino grabbed his arm just as he was about to pass her. He was briefly distracted by her bracelet, which seemed to be constructed with some chakra purpose. He looked up at her after a moment, surprised to see the blonde looking so concerned for his sake. He had gotten the impression that Ino really didn't like him at this point in time. "Where are you going?"

Naruto smiled proudly. "I'm gonna go and make a difference."

---

Iruka pasted a plastic smile on his face. He consciously constructed his entire posture to scream his relaxation and peace with the situation. The students were sitting just far enough away so that they couldn't see how Iruka lightly trembled behind his desk.

The quiet murmur of childish voices, usually relaxing and familiar, only made him more tense. It reminded him of how many young lives were in his hands. Never before had he been in such a situation where so many lives were riding on his protection and aid. The situation with Naruto and Mizuki had never come this close. Naruto, even then, had been an accomplished expert at escape and stealth, if only to keep his own hide out of trouble.

The children in front of him, even Konohamaru's delinquent trio, were not as adaptive as Naruto, nor as skilled. They did not have the acquired skills, not even the back up of a monster. They were lambs, completely unaware of what was going around them outside. Listening intently, he could hear talk of families, of friends, and of broken crayons. They were so achingly _innocent_.

"Iruka-sensei." The call was soft and tentative but Iruka found himself armed and ready for an attack. A kunai in hand, he turned to face the door. Seeing who it was, he swallowed and lowered his kunai, glad that no one had noticed.

"S-sorry," he said, standing up and walking over to the other chuunin teacher. He smiled sheepishly at the short woman. "Suzume-san, you wanted me?"

The woman adjusted her glasses, her gaze sweeping over the children in the classroom. She looked at Iruka, the worry that he felt reflected in her gaze. "Yukio hasn't returned," she said, referring to the chuunin teacher who was on the roofs, looking for the signal that would indicate that it was safe for them to transport the children to the Hokage monument tunnels. "It's been thirty minutes... at most, the jonins would have cleared way in about ten minutes. Do you think there's something wrong?"

Iruka closed his eyes with a sigh. He opened them slowly. "There might have been some difficulties. Perhaps a summon is stopping them from sending the signal?" he hypothesized, rubbing his scar. He knew that summons were being used. He had seen the faint shadow of a humongous snake out of one of the windows. "I'll go and talk to Yukio. Watch my class, will you?"

Suzume nodded quickly. "Another teacher is watching my class. I'll watch yours... come back quickly." she said, clearly nervous. Iruka smiled, touching her shoulder.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine," he said with a confidence that he just didn't feel. "Our ninjas are the best on the continent. No matter which nation attacks us, we'll always beat them in the end." Suzume smiled at his attempt at reassurance, then walked into the classroom, calling for order when several children demanded where Iruka was going.

Iruka left quietly, Konohamaru's voice echoing in his ears. He smiled at the boy's clear annoyance. The class that he taught at the moment was much better than the class Naruto had been in. Between Kiba, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji, Iruka had been worn out until he simply learned to accept that Naruto and Kiba talked back and started fights, and that Shikamaru slept and Chouji ate during class.

He walked through the Academy with much ease, remembering the layout like it was the back of his hand. He quickly reached the door that led to the staircase to the roof. He opened the heavy door, his feet tapping loudly against the stairs as he made his way up.

The sound of the village, now sadly accompanied by the faint sounds of far off explosions and yelling, met his ears as he opened the door. Automatically, Iruka took a deep breath. Remembering himself, he looked around for his fellow chuunin.

"Hey, Yukio, what gives?" he said loudly, looking around for the man. He couldn't see the other chuunin anywhere on the roof, nor did he hear a response. Only when he made a one-eighty degree turn did he see the chuunin.

Over the door, an arm hung lax and motionless. Iruka's eyes widened in alarm and he jumped up on the higher part of the roof, landing next to Yukio's body. The chuunin's eyes were still open, as was his mouth. His blood laid in a big puddle around him, the origin being a deep puncture through the middle of his chest.

Iruka covered his mouth with a hand, sorrow for his fellow teacher making his chest tighten painfully. Dead... twenty minutes ago? Mechanically, he looked over the corpse. Remembering the dead chuunin's duty, he looked off towards the Hokage Monument, seeing no signal. 

"Too close. Much too close..." Iruka muttered, his eyes falling back down to the dead ninja. He laid a hand on the chuunin's shoulder. "You'll be avenged, friend, by one person or another. I'm sorry, I can't take back your body. But I must take care of the children, you see?" Iruka's eyes dropped and he sighed sorrowfully. "Of course you do. It's why you died." Iruka's hand tightened in a fist and he stood.

He jumped down and went through the door. Running once he had got past the stairs, he was almost immediately back in front of his classroom. Before entering, he took a deep breath and composed himself. A calm look on his face, he walked through the door, nodding at some of the children's greetings.

He stopped by Suzume, who was sitting at his desk and looking at him questioningly. He braced his hand against the table and leaned close to her ear, knowing the heightened hearing of some of the children. "Yukio's dead," he said softly. He admired Suzume's reaction. There was not a single twitch on her smiling face. The only dead giveaway was the soft gasp that escaped between her parted lips.

"They're right on top of us, Iruka," she said, a pleasant expression on her face. Her voice strained. She took off her glasses and rubbed them clean with the fabric of her vest. Such a gesture was meant so that none of the children could see her expression, which suddenly changed from happy to anguished. "Too close, what do we do? Do we wait?" 

"We leave. _Now_, all of us. Not in groups." Iruka said, his voice rising slightly in determination. "Signal or no signal. For all we know, the enemy could have the Academy surrounded and rigged. Our chances are better if we leave now, and together, where our forces are more concentrated and better equipped to fight back."

Suzume looked up at him, her lips pressed together in a thin line. She nodded slowly. "My room's closest to the back exit," she offered, standing up from his chair. "I'll tell the other teachers that we're leaving. We'll meet by my room and then leave."

Iruka nodded his agreement to her plan and, with a nod in return, the woman left. The chuunin teacher pinched his nose for a moment before he turned to his students with a cheerful smile. "Everyone, listen up!" he said in an even cheerful tone. "Pack up! We're going on a field trip..."

---

There was little time to think when the Oto nins charged the walls. Thanks to some preparations, many of them died before they could touch the wall with their bare hands. The ones who survived, through luck or through skill, had to face the chuunins on duty.

"Dammit, Haku," the man next to the boy muttered as he dodged a tossed kunai. A loud explosion somewhere behind them revealed that the kunai had been tagged. "You fight like an ANBU!"

Haku jumped up, then threw several needles at the incoming group of Oto nins. All of them hit a lethal pressure point. The ninjas who were hit fell where they stood and never stood again. Haku landed lightly on the ground, ducking under three shurikens. 

"And that's a bad thing?" he questioned softly, wincing when his leg seized up and refused to move for a moment. Luckily, the ninja who charged him next was so extraordinarily bad that even the convenient handicap didn't save him from being killed. 

"Hell no," the older chuunin replied with a laugh before forgoing the use of a knife, slamming his fist into a ninja's face. "Just glad you're on my side, is all."

Haku, despite the situation, smiled. For the longest time, his only ally had been Zabuza. Although suddenly having new allies often made Haku suspicious and always questioning their true intentions, he enjoyed the sense of community that Konoha ninjas shared, even in the worst of times. In Zabuza's old village, there wasn't the same camaraderie. Fellow ninjas were just as likely to kill each other as they were to save each other. In Konoha, when the Hokage said that all of the villagers were family, Haku got the feeling that he really meant it.

Haku had always wanted to belong to a family.

"Who the hell is that?" someone voiced behind him, sounding panicked. "Shit, he's killing people left and right!" Frowning, Haku turned, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of a pale haired ninja systemically slaughtering every Konoha or Suna ninja that came too close. His weapon, as it would seem, appeared to be made out of a thin but sharp material. With a start, Haku recognized the ninja.

The ninja paused after slicing through another ninja, right at the side of a wounded Oto nin. "O-oh, thank you..." the wounded man said, struggling to his feet. He sent a nasty glare over at the collected group of Konoha ninjas before turning to the younger ninja. "Weren't you just supposed to observe, Kimimaro-san?"

The young ninja turned his head slightly to look at the wounded ninja, his aqua colored eyes narrowing in dislike. "You..." he said softly, a gust of wind making his pale hair move around his face. "You are pathetic. You are not good enough for Orochimaru-sama." And with that, he killed his own ally.

"What the-" one of the chuunins gasped, taking a step forward before being yanked back by Haku. "He killed his friend! In cold blood!"

"He was no friend of mine," Kimimaro reported coldly, tilting his head to the side. "Nor are you."

Haku could feel the agitation of the group around him. It was one of the many great things about Konoha, their ability to feel sympathy for the enemy that they would have killed themselves. But such a fiery response would only succeed in demolishing their own ranks.

"Stop," Haku said at once, sharply. His fellow chuunins turned to look at him. Coincidentally, Kimimaro's attention turned to him as well. Haku met his blank gaze calmly. "He's my opponent. Please do not interfere."

Kimimaro frowned. "You..." he said quietly, in contemplation. His eyes narrowed and he leaned slightly forward. "I've seen your face before." He shifted the weapon in his hand as he tried to place Haku's face.

"Yes, and I've seen you," Haku acknowledged with a nod. "You were a polite little killer, who asked Zabuza-san if we were from the mist village. At his negative response, you headed down to the village, no doubt to try and start a massacre." Haku tilted his head to the side. "And did it work?"

Kimimaro's expression shifted as he remembered who Haku was. "No," he said impassively. "It failed dismally."

Haku smiled vaguely. "Too bad. You looked so determined too..." he said quietly, remembering the boy from his past. He lifted up his needles suddenly, his expression hardening into a cold mask. "I apologize but I will not let you pass. You should leave now if you wish to survive."

Kimimaro lifted his weapon up in response. "It pains me but I must kill you," he said without emotion. "For the man who took care of me after I lost everything, I will kill even you." His gaze flicked over to the other assembled chuunins. His eyes narrowed. "I will kill all of you."

"I'm afraid that you have stolen the words right out of my mouth," Haku said formally, his chakra already steadily raising to clash against Kimimaro's heightened chakra. He gestured for the other chuunins to back off and, slowly but surely, they did. Haku turned back to the fifth member of the Sound Five."For Zabuza-san and for the people of this village, you will die."

For a moment, the two stared at each other, neither backing down. Then, at the sudden explosion off in the distance, the two sprang forward and clashed.

---

Tazuna ran through the crowd, his hand tightly clasped around the arm of his grandson. Inari was forced to keep up with his grandfather's quick pace or be dragged. His mom was missing, people were screaming, humongous snakes swayed in the streets... He could honestly say that he had never been so scared before in his entire life.

Tazuna was a survivor, the sort of person who learned how to sense danger before it happened almost as a sixth sense. This adaptation was what kept him alive against Gatou, and he used this skill to keep himself and his grandson alive. They had yet to see a single enemy ninja, thanks to Tazuna's acquired skill. He prayed that Tsunami was safe but did not stop running.

Inari recognized the street that they were on. It was the street of the ramen shop, Ichiraku's. Even as he realized this, the owner of Ichiraku was suddenly out on the street, hurriedly pushing his daughter along. The girl was complaining.

"What about the pictures? Ooh, and Mother's things! We can't leave now!" Ayame still had her apron on and was pleading with her father to hold on as he hurriedly scurried out of the door, his hat falling off his head.

"The enemy waits for no one!" Ichiraku said nervously, not even closing the door behind them. He nearly tripped over the wooden advertisement outside of the stand, but quickly stood back up again. "Our lives mean more than a few worthless baubles."

"'Worthless baubles'? What of the shop!" Ayame said next, resisting being pulled around. She turned her head, seeing Tazuna and Inari. Her eyes widened and she yanked her arm out of her father's grip. "Look, we even have customers!"

The older man turned, seeing them as well. "You two," Ichiraku said, recognizing them as recent customers. He had always had a good memory for faces and this time was no different. He gestured for them to move closer. "Follow us! We must get to the monument, hurry!"

"Our ninjas will take out the invading nation, no problem!" Ayame said, believing in the strength of their village's ninjas. She stomped her foot on the ground, looking furious. "This'll be like that thing a couple of years ago with those stupid thunder ninjas! We'll be in the tunnels for two days and find out that nothing has happened after all! I won't do that again!"

His eyes wide, Inari pointed at a place somewhere far above her head. "You call that nothing?" he asked breathlessly. His grandfather was frozen in shock next to him. Ayame and her father turned, watching in sudden horror as a snake summon slithered down the empty street. It was one of the larger varieties, with brown and black skin and yellow eyes.

Its tongue flicked out several times before it rose up until its head was in line with the top of the buildings. The summon opened its mouth and revealed long fangs. It hissed and idly flicked a tail, knocking one of the balconies off of a nearby building. The yellow slitted eyes focused on them steadily even as the snake swayed from side to side.

The summon was right in the path of the most direct route to the monument. There was certainly enough room to go around it but the snake, from what Tazuna could guess from its hostile gaze, wouldn't even let them that close. Tazuna quickly made a decision.

Tazuna shoved Inari forward. Startled, Inari went head first into Ichiraku's owner, halted only by the man's hands on his shoulders. He turned around, watching as his grandfather picked up the wooden advertisement and walked in the middle of the street. The summon, still swaying, kept on flicking its gaze from the trio off to the side of the street to the one man in the middle of the street.

"Hey..." Inari stared at his grandfather with large scared eyes. "What are you doing, old man?" The man behind him suddenly wrapped an arm around Inari's waist and hauled him up and off his feet. Inari instantly knew something was horribly wrong.

Tazuna grinned. "Take care of my grandson," he said lightly. With a set expression, he turned to the summon, hurling the advertisement at the snake. The summon, having had directed his attention at the trio at that exact moment (having decided that they would be the tastier meal), was hit right on his nose. The snake jerked back, enraged.

Tazuna started yelling. "Bet you can't eat me, you ugly brute!" The summon's head snapped down, barely missing the old man as he jumped back with surprising agility. "I've seen prettier warts on Gatou's ass!" The summon didn't notice Ayame and her father, with Inari in tow, sliding past it. Once they got out of the snake's peripheral vision, they started running. 

Inari wiggled and fought until he could see over the man's shoulder as he ran. He watched in horror as the snake kept snapping down, trying to catch an elusive prey. Without noticing it, he began to cry, sobbing against Ichiraku's hand, which was placed there to keep him from making too much noise and catching the summon's attention.

For a moment, Ichiraku tightened his arm around the crying boy. As the boy completely broke down and started softly crying for his grandfather, Ichiraku took his hand away, trying to reassure Inari. But nothing could reassure Inari when he saw the snake suddenly stop snapping it head down.

A hysterical scream passed his lips when the snake lowered its body to the ground and started slithering farther down the street. By that time, Ichiraku and Ayame had made it to a narrow alley, which they turned into to avoid running into another snake summon. Inari's loud cries persisted as he lamented the certain death of his grandfather. 

Ichiraku apologized softly before he pinched a nerve in Inari's neck. The boy's cries quieted and he relaxed against Ichiraku's shoulder, falling unconscious. Chancing a glance at his daughter, Ichiraku's chest tightened as he saw that Ayame wasn't in much better shape. Her eyes were wide and terrified. Tears silently rolled down her cheeks.

Ichiraku shifted Inari in his grasp and took her hand. "We're almost there," he said soothingly. "We'll be safe." Ayame nodded several times, sniffling and wiping off her tears with her free hand. "We're going to be safe. He saved us, you know? He saved us..."

Ayame looked at Inari who, even in unconsciousness, looked upset. Impossibly, the boy was still crying, tears running silently down his face while his lips twitched and moved. She had a feeling that even being safe would not make up for the loss of the boy's beloved grandfather.

----

TBC


	56. The Fourth Wall

AN: I have written and rewritten this chapter a dozen times. I literally have six different files on my computer devoted to this chapter. Twice, the file containing a large portion of the chapter had an error so odd that I had to manually retype much of the chapter again, because cut and paste just transferred the error right over to the new document.  
I give up now. This is the result. It may not be the best of chapters but I feel that if I can get this one out, then I can get back into the swing of updating regularly.  
This story is rated R(or M, as FFNet does it now) for a reason.  
Isamu is an OC(because I wanted another Akimichi but couldn't find one in the manga) but Tonbo is not.  
This jumps a lot between POVs. Timeline goes like this: At the beginning of the chapter(after the first section), it's just a couple of minutes after the end of the last chapter. At the end of the chapter, three hours have passed. So much seems happens so quickly in the beginning because the leaf ninjas already started moving to attack and intercept even before the Chuunin Exam's abrupt end.

---

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Fifty-Six: The Fourth Wall

by Foxie

---

The original plan of invasion was to have all four walls of Konoha breached by a simultaneous attack from the outside. All of the walls were to be damaged, if not completely destroyed. This would allow the Oto nins outside of the walls to come in to slowly start securing parts of Konoha as Oto territory. Summons would pave a destruction ridden path through a vulnerable and thinly guarded Konoha, leaving nothing safe or untouched.

Through two walls, the neighborhoods would be invaded, through one wall, the training areas, and through the last, the one of the many industrial areas. Even if, through some miracle, the Oto nins were stopped, their legacy would live on, haunting the nightmares of Konoha residents for years to come as well as severely damaging what little bit of local economy Konoha did have.

While the ninjas under Orochimaru's command were told to cause as much damage and secure as much of Konoha as they could until the center of the city was reached(which, theoretically, would mean that they would have Konoha completely under their control by this time), Orochimaru really didn't expect to be able to capture Konoha. Not only did Konoha have vast resources of powerful ninjas, but also the village has vast resources of _loyal_ ninjas, meaning that even if most of Konoha fell, many Konoha ninjas would fight to their death to recapture it.

But, in his typical way, Orochimaru didn't pass this information on to his underlings, letting them believe that total victory was possible where, in reality, it was not. Believing in this total victory led to many of his ninjas becoming overconfident in themselves, a confidence that should have faltered(and, largely, _did _end up faltering) when the ninjas outside of the walls came face to face with the reality of Konoha's defenses. The walls were only a mere surface of the defense.

The four "walls"(called as such by everyone) weren't really so much as walls as they were four gates connected by tall barriers. Standing tall and massive in size, the walls kept out most intruders. Even the most talented of ninjas had trouble scaling something of that size, unless they had some sort of power of flight.

The walls, however, were nearly always open, making such an attempt wasteful and not to mention impossible, as there were many different jutsus on the walls to prevent chakra from being applied to them in any way.

Ninjas, chuunins mostly, were usually stationed at its entrance in order to make sure that only the right sort of person entered. Foreign ninjas, people not native to the village, and people who did not have ready and approved paperwork on hand, were usually spotted, stopped, and made to fill out a ridiculous amount of paperwork that, while the person hurried away and went through it all, usually gave one of the officials enough time to get some sort of detailed background information on the person.

If the person refused to fill out paperwork or tried to force his or her way inside, the ANBU took over and "escorted" them out. The ninjas in charge of the gates were very serious about their job and didn't cut anyone any slack, be it a simple farmer or the Fire Lord himself.

All in all, it was an efficient system, one that had been in place since the walls had been put up in the first place and, because of its success, the doors nearly always remained opened. Unless, of course, Konoha was expecting some sort of attack or disaster. In such a rare case, the gates remained firmly closed.

This fact alone should have warned Orochimaru. Even though he had low expectations of the invasion(his only true objectives being to kill his sensei and to initiate communication with Sasuke), he would have instantly been alerted that something was wrong, simply by the fact that the walls were, as of the beginning of the Chuunin Final Exam, all shut save for one.

Such an action was only committed once in all the history of Konoha but, whereas any ninja over the age of twenty remembered the Fourth making the unprecedented move of closing the gates (a controversy that the Elder Council still grumbled about in the present day), Orochimaru hadn't been in Konoha at the time of Kyuubi's rise.

But if he had been, he might have recognized the sign that something was wrong. He might have told his troops to call off an attack on the walls. He would have known that attacking the walls would be a futile and fruitless effort. He might have even called off the invasion, knowing that what forces that were stationed in Konoha were of little opposition to the Konoha elite, not without the backup of the others outside.

As it was, he didn't know so his troops didn't know. They went on with the attack as they were ordered, surprised when what their leader had told them would be an easy task turned out to be an extremely difficult one.

How strange is it that one event, one that happened nearly a decade and a half in the past, could influence the outcome of an entire invasion? Had Orochimaru known the history behind the gates or even had remembered that the Fourth himself had closed them to ready Konoha for an attack, perhaps the invasion might not have had such a messy and bloody end, Oto nins being as outnumbered and as outsmarted as they were.

When Iruka would later realize the significance of this, he would happily tell his class, "And _that's_ why you study history. The past will _always_ effect the future."

----

At the height of the invasion, only one wall had fallen. The other three, to the invasion force's horror, had unusually powerful protection, making any sort of advance towards the heart of Konoha completely impossible.

Who would have expected that the Hokage himself would have been defending a wall, especially when he was supposed to be sitting on his ass and watching some kiddy exam? No one, Sarutobi himself acknowledged. Not even Orochimaru. Sarutobi supposed he should be a little proud that he could still pull the wool over Orochimaru's eyes even now but somehow he just couldn't muster up the emotion.

War drained Sarutobi faster than the desert drained one of water. Though the Hokage was a master at most types of jutsus as well as being somewhat of a tactical genius, he felt deep sorrow when he had to witness international conflicts or widespread destruction. It wasn't in his nature to initiate or even desire conflicts. And no amount of exposure would desensitize him to it.

There was a reason why he was known to pursue diplomacy before violence, and that was it. He hated suffering and sadness. But sometimes, despite a person's best attempts to avoid it, one had to go against their own beliefs in order to make the world around them right again.

Sarutobi stood quietly on top of the wall, somber eyes taking in the destruction outside the wall. The Oto nins in his sight were dead or retreating as fast as they could. Instruments of war and what looked like crude machines meant to bring down the wall laid smoldering. Any summon that had appeared had been swiftly brought down, bursting into smoke just moments after their bodies had been torn asunder. The unlucky Oto ninjas had faced similar fates but their corpses lingered.

They were all children, in his eyes. Horribly misguided children swaying to the tune of the snake charmer, Orochimaru. Whether it was loyalty to Orochimaru or ambition for power that kept them by Orochimaru's side, it didn't matter. Children were children in Sarutobi's mind and he hated the thought of having to kill them.

But Sarutobi's children came before them always. Sarutobi would help an enemy's child if he could but not if it meant the life of one of his villagers. The lives of the people who wore the insignia of the leaf always weighed heavier than those who did not. They trusted him to protect them as he trusted them to nurture and protect the village. Logic told him that _his _ninjas should mean more to him than anyone else's ninjas.

Mercy could not be allowed to overshadow rationality. That was his mistake with Orochimaru. His student had made an enemy of all of humanity with his horrifying deeds, but silly sentimentality had stayed Sarutobi's hand.

_And now look what has happened_, Sarutobi mused quietly. _All because of a little misplaced mercy. All because of my past mistakes. No more_. He repeated it several times to himself, strengthening his resolve as he looked out on the destruction just outside of the wall. _No more_.

His hands tucked behind his back, he turned just as two ANBU appeared on the wall next to him. They automatically dropped to a knee, the masked faces dipping. Sarutobi's memory of their true identities wasn't hampered by their masks. He knew them well, just as he knew every ninja of his village. What he considered to be his family, after all, far extended the limitations of inherited blood.

It was this sense of empathy and belonging and community that he had and felt with the village... This was what decided for Sarutobi that Orochimaru wasn't the right person to become the Hokage. His student was far too ambitious and far too focused on the achievements of himself.

Orochimaru had never understood that to be Hokage is to belong to the village and its people, not to belong only to yourself. To be a Hokage, you had to drop everything that defined and labeled who you are, what you want, and how to get, especially if it didn't coincide with the village's identity, needs, and means to get them.

The Yondaime had portrayed that important understanding quite extraordinarily, from early on in his ninja career to his very last moments. On the other hand, Orochimaru held no sympathy for people who weaker than him.

Sarutobi dreaded what the Kyuubi's attack could have been like under Orochimaru's command. He would not be surprised if Orochimaru would have just ordered the ninjas to fend for themselves.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Sarutobi focused on the ANBU duo. "So?" he asked quietly, commanding their attention with a single spoken word. Sarutobi's chakra was still tingling powerfully around him, which probably explained some of their unusual anxiety. Sarutobi attempted to dampen the feel of it a little bit but manipulation of chakra proved to be harder in his old age than it had been when he was a more springy lad. "What do you report?"

The ANBU with the mask of a tiger answered. "This wall is free from attack, Hokage-sama." he said submissively, stating the obvious. "Your appearance terrified the invasion force, as did your various techniques." Sarutobi simply nodded, though he wasn't really interested in what he had just done compared to the things that he felt he must do. What he _had_ to do, as Hokage.

The ninjas honored with the task of being in the Hokage's platoon hadn't even had the chance to move before Sarutobi singlehandedly took out and destroyed the spirit of the invasion force. It was a feat worthy of retelling and rehashing for at least a good three months.

The ANBU continued, still in awe of the Hokage. "The ones who survived retreated from the area, either running away or rejoining the other groups. The defense was a complete success." he said quickly.

"And of the other walls?" Sarutobi turned his somber gaze towards the other ANBU. There was a bit of annoyed anticipation in his voice, which probably explained the sudden anxiety of the other ANBU, who was put on the spot. The ANBU tensed under the Hokage's gaze, looking down.

"The ANBU were dispatched to take care of the defense of the other walls, as you ordered," the other ANBU, with the mask of an ox, said quickly. "The north and east walls are safe and the invasion forces in those areas have been significantly decreased. Those areas have also been completely evacuated."

Sarutobi immediately picked up on what he didn't say. "What of the west wall?" he asked firmly, his eyes narrowing. The ANBU gulped, feeling like a bug pinned to the wall. The Hokage was the most grandfatherly man that the ANBU had ever known but when the old man got serious, it was almost scary. His chakra levels alone reminded the ninja exactly why Sarutobi was the Hokage.

"The ANBU platoons that were dispatched to the west wall were... intercepted," the ox-masked ninja admitted slowly. Realizing quickly that the information was important, he surged on. "It seems like many Oto nins had entered Konoha _long _before the invasion started. Not only are they an obstacle but, no thanks to their efforts, there's also many of the enemy's summons on the move. We don't know why, exactly, but they're all snakes..."

"It's symbolic," Sarutobi said flatly. He shook his head. "'A snake slithering amongst the leaves', or other such nonsense." His voice suddenly pitched low and turned more introspective, though both ANBUs could still hear his mumbling quite well. "He's always had a bit of a flair for the dramatic." The Hokage shook himself out of his thoughts, realizing the pressing need of time. "How many summon creatures are in Konoha right now?"

"At least one for every district," the tiger-masked ninja answered without hesitation. Sarutobi turned to the burning buildings off in the distance, sighing softly to himself. The ANBU rushed to continue his report, being the type who thought that bad news was best taken all at once. "The forth wall only had a small group of chuunins as defense. Many died on both sides but the wall has completely fallen. I believe that the surviving chuunins are still fighting in that area."

Sarutobi closed his eyes. "Has the neighborhood been evacuated?" he asked quietly. He knew that the fourth wall was practically right on top of a neighborhood. Many families lived in that area. Though the major ninja clans had entire districts closer to the center of the city, many of the civilians and city officials(as well as certain ninja clans, like the Naras) lived on the far outskirts of Konoha. Sarutobi knew of at least one member of the Elder Council who lived in that area.

"No, not yet," the other ANBU said, speaking in a grave voice. "We _can't_ get a group in there to lead them out. Like he said, there are many summons in Konoha at the moment and many of our ninjas, ANBU or otherwise, are being intercepted left and right." Sarutobi turned away for a moment, looking out over the village again but was unable to see any summons from his point of view.

The ANBU continued boldly. "Our first priority should be to destroy the summons. Then we should attempt evacuation of the outer neighborhoods. If we send squads in there with only the intention of rescue, they will be killed. We must destroy, and _then_ attempt to rescue." The other ANBU nodded, in agreement with his plan.

Sarutobi, despite wanting rescue to be the first priority, saw the logic in that. "We will do that then," he said with a final tone. When the ANBUs made a movement as if to leave, Sarutobi gestured for them to wait. "What of the inner city evacuation?"

The tiger-masked ANBU paused before he answered. "Only about forty-five percent completed, Hokage-sama," he said quietly.

Sarutobi looked at him sharply. The ANBUs flinched in unison. Without meaning to, Sarutobi's chakra levels spiked with his agitation. This time, he didn't bother to quell it. "Only forty-five? What is taking so long?" he demanded.

"The Oto nins in that area are erratic and chaotic," the first ANBU reported in a very precise manner. "They have no proper chain of command set up, since we've killed most of the higher ranking ninjas, so they're simply out to cause senseless violence. It's been... problematic, to say in the least."

"Of course. The enemy with the plan can be thwarted. It's the enemy without a plan that is most dangerous," Sarutobi murmured, wondering how Orochimaru himself was feeling at having his plans thwarted. He had never been a patient child, and that attitude hadn't changed as he had grown older.

Sarutobi turned to them with one last set of orders, his mind already quickly going over ways to quickly dispatch summons. "Inform the jonins that, upon fifty percent evacuation of the inner city, they have my permission to use _any and all_ jutsus at their disposal." he said with careful emphasis. "I myself will handle the summons. Send ANBU platoons seven and eleven to join me. Send ANBU platoons three, eight, and nine to make a sweep of the outside perimeter of Konoha. I want no Oto nin left _alive_."

After making that point clear with a steady stare, Sarutobi paced, adding on more orders. "Send ANBU platoon two, four, and ten to the outer city, and have them aid the civilians if at all possible. Inform ANBU platoon five and six that they are to guard the walls from further attack. Send ANBU platoon one to the hospital. Have the staff informed to be on high alert and ready to administer emergency medical care. Inform them to also call every registered medic nin, even those who have retired, and have them tell them that they are ordered, by the Hokage, to lend their aid."

He paused in his pacing, trying to think of something more to say. It was times like these where he wished he was as eloquent and as quick-witted as the Shodaime used to be. "The jonins already have their orders and the chuunins are to follow the jonins' command. Genins and Academy students are required to evacuate along with the civilians. That is all."

At the obvious dismissal, both ANBUs briefly bowed their heads. "Hokage-sama," they said in unison. Then they were gone in two dark flashes that, to an old man's tired eyes, looked as if they had simply dissolved into the ash darkened sky.

---

Hinata sat down heavily on the floor, her eyes downcast and her back to the wall. She felt absolutely miserable and useless, just staying in the infirmary with all of the other genins while Naruto was outside, where it sounded less like the village she knew so well and more like audio footage of a scene of war. She didn't dare to look out the window, knowing that her already frail grip on rationality would slip into hysteria if she saw what was really happening. And if she imagined Naruto being involved in _that_.

Hinata had never felt so grateful to her father for his attempts to shield her from the worst of a ninja's life, even if it had only been because he doubted she would succeed in such an environment. But now, she wished that he had just been a little harsher, so she could have been better prepared for what was happening. So maybe she could have been better prepared to help Naruto.

Hinata thought of Naruto's quick entrance and exit, just barely twenty minutes before. His tattered clothes had been covered in blood and dust. He had had bruises and burns growing on the exposed parts of his arms and legs, the burns themselves looking especially nasty. One side of his head had been no longer a shade of yellow but a brownish red from a wound that extended from under his eye to somewhere on the side of his head.

But he had smiled so easily and talked so engagingly that it was hard to point out the little things. That, and Hinata had been so glad to see him alive that she wouldn't have cared what condition he came back in, just as long as he came back. The fact that he still had all of his limbs was a miracle in itself, from what she had heard of Gaara, his opponent.

_I should have..._ Her shoulders hunched slightly, her eyes clenched shut. _I should have watched Naruto-kun._ Suddenly, Sakura's earlier self-hate became her own. Maybe if she had been there on the sidelines, Naruto wouldn't have been so injured? But then she would have left Shino alone in the hospital, and Hinata knew all too well how the stoic boy hated hospitals, though he would never give voice to his complaints.

_No..._ she realized slowly, logic winning out in the end. _My presence wouldn't have changed anything. But I would have liked to be there anyway, if only to cheer him on. I wonder, do you have to be next to someone... for them to know that you like them and you wish them the best?_ Hinata liked to think that actions spoke just as loudly as words, especially since she wasn't the type to talk too much. But she wasn't sure if Naruto himself understood the extent of her feelings.

_Maybe it was okay that I didn't watch his match._ She thought slowly. _But I should have __**said**__ something. I should have talked to him about his leaving. I should have tried to talk him out of it._

Did he know how much she worried about him? Did he know how much she wished, for all she admired his determined spirit, that he would just step back and let other people handle things? Did he know that she never went through a week without having at least one nightmare where he, being as trouble-prone as he was, died in some horrific way?

She might have said something to Naruto. She might have even expressed her worries and begged for him to stay where she could keep an eye on him. But his smile was too distracting, that cocky and knowing smile that grabbed her attention completely and made her forget what she wanted to say. Hinata allowed herself to wallow in the feelings of unworthiness for a little while longer before she shook her head.

It really wasn't his fault that she worried about him so much or that he was so distracting. Well, yes, it actually _was_ his fault. But it was _her_ fault that she couldn't bear to try and curb his enthusiasm. And now Naruto was out there, somewhere in that _god awful_ place that used to be so peaceful, and she hadn't even been able to muster up a 'good-bye'.

"You're just going to let him go out there?" Hinata looked up sharply, startled, but the question wasn't aimed at her. Ino stood in front of her but was facing Sakura. Hinata could not see the blonde's face but she could tell that the taller girl was mad. The anger seemed to flare out around her like an ominous wave. "Out there, in a _war zone_?"

Sakura laughed without humor. "Do you even _know _Naruto?" she countered snappishly. Almost immediately, her expression eased into weary exhaustion. It was obvious that she couldn't summon up enough spirit for an argument. "He's a stubborn idiot who won't take no for an answer. You_ know_ him, Ino. There's nothing I could do to stop him. There's nothing _anyone_ could do to stop him." Sakura shook her head, an affectionate smile on her face. Temari snorted and shook her head but otherwise kept her opinion to herself.

Kankurou wasn't as kind. "He'll be dead within the hour." he predicted with a shake of his head. He crossed his arms over his chest and leveled a glare back at the genins who glared at him on Naruto's behalf. "Really, how much could a mere genin accomplish anyhow?"

His voice, though harsh, still pressed them to think rationally, to think logically. How much of an impact could a twelve year old make anyway? But of course, he forgot he was in a room filled with twelve and thirteen year olds, all of which were much happier thinking that one of their own would and could jump through the flaming hoop of war and emerge unscathed.

"He won't die." Gaara said quietly, an edge to his voice. Kankurou twitched and suppressed his first three responses, probably remembering belatedly that his brother didn't take kindly to people telling him no. Gaara had a dangerous look on his face but Hinata couldn't tell if it was a glare or simply a deep frown of concentration. It was hard to tell with Gaara. "He _can't_ die."

Hinata agreed too easily with that sentiment. _Naruto-kun can't die, right? He has yet to become Hokage... or make everyone acknowledge him! It's just not his time!_ But it would take an extremely ignorant or incurably dumb person to ignore that many died before their time, and Hinata was neither ignorant nor dumb.

While Hinata was hardly a weak ninja, she wasn't one of the strongest either. She was well aware of the existence of many ninjas well beyond her level, ninjas with powers she couldn't possibly imagine. While it was easy for her to imagine losing(since she did so on a regular basis), she worried for Naruto.  
Though Naruto had been your typical 'bottom of the barrel' ninja in the Academy, he had proved to be extremely skilled while out on the field, easily finding victories where others would have accepted the loss, from his first accidental A rank mission to his victories in the Chuunin Exam. Such a winning streak was bound to pump an ego and boost one's confidence.

Hinata feared that Naruto's newfound confidence would lead him to bite off more than he could chew. In their current situation, attacking a stronger enemy with only confidence as a backup would be extremely dangerous and downright suicidal.Gaara and Kankurou were still arguing. "Gaara, that kid just fought _you_. He's probably low on chakra, tired, and, not to mention, _injured_." Kankurou said to his brother reasonably, ticking off the reasons on his hand. He was obviously ignoring the sullen look on Gaara's face. "The only thing that carried him out of that door was sheer _stupidity_. If the situation outside is as bad as it _sounds_, then that kid isn't going to last for very long unless some jonin decides to protect his ass."

Gaara stared at him blankly. "He's not going to die because _he's not going to die_," the boy said without hesitation. Kankurou twitched in annoyance. Logic had never been one of Gaara's strong points.

Kankurou sighed. "I give up..." he muttered, turning away. He missed the bright smile that Sakura sent to Gaara for that much needed bit of optimism, and the chair the girl offered as a peace offering, but Hinata did not. Gaara accepted the chair after a pause and sat down carefully as Sakura relocated to the edge of Sasuke's bed.

There was several moments of peace where everyone was lost in their own thoughts. Despite the peaceful silence, the only one who was remotely peaceful was Sasuke, who continued to sleep, completely oblivious to the thoughts of those around him. Some trains of thought were more morbid than others, which explained the sudden shattering of the silence.

"...What if one of those summon things swallows him up?" Ino hedged in after a moment's hesitation. Realizing that some of the people in the room didn't know what she was talking about, she elaborated. "There's summon snakes... _huge_ snakes, the size of a building! They're everywhere! What if Naruto gets on the wrong side of one of those?"

"Forget about the snakes," Kiba said with wide eyes. His hand rested over the Akamaru-lump in the front of his coat, where Akamaru was still shaking and shivering. "Did you feel those rising chakra levels? They're from at least _three_ different people, and their chakras are _huge_! What if Naruto pisses off one of those guys?"

The 'what if's went on when Lee picked up the baton. "What if Naruto-kun gets caught in a genjutsu and can't get out?" Lee said with a moan. He _despised_ genjutsus. They were the bane(or, at least, one of the many) of his existence. "He'd be lost in it and vulnerable to attack too!"

"What if Naruto steps on a trap?" Tenten worried, tugging on the material of her shirt with an uncharacteristic show of anxiety. "You're right, you know, puppet guy. He's probably really tired right now! He'll be easy prey for anyone with the most _basic_ knowledge of traps..."

"Forget about snakes, a few strong ninjas, and a couple of traps..." Chouji said suddenly with a groan. "What if Ichiraku is destroyed?" The people in the room stared at him in confusion. "It would be a crisis!" Chouji exclaimed with a flap of his arms. At the continued silence, the boy scowled and looked away. "Well, at least Naruto would have understood..."

To everyone's surprise, Shikamaru laughed. "Buildings can be rebuilt, but humans are notorious for being hard to replace," he explained to Chouji kindly. His light expression faded into a frown. "Naruto _especially_ would be very hard to replace..." he said quietly. The room was quiet for a moment as everyone chewed over that last thought.

"Naruto-kun can summon," Hinata murmured softly, her head lifting. "He has a contract with frogs." Kiba and Shino nodded, having seen Naruto summon Gamakichi during their mission. "And Naruto-kun... he's smart enough to avoid traps and to evade stronger ninjas. And even if he did have to fight one of those stronger ninjas... I think he'd be okay. Especially since he's..." She trailed off, looking at Gaara with a faint frown.

"Since he's... what?" Sakura asked after a moment, when it became obvious that Hinata was reluctant to go on. The smaller girl looked down, avoiding everyone's gaze. With careful precision, Hinata stood up, her hands tangling together in front of her.

When Hinata finally looked up, she was smiling. "Since he's special," she said, her final tone making it obvious that she was not going to explain any further. Very few people in the room knew what she was alluding to. Those who didn't assumed that the girl was just being overly sentimental, which wasn't very far from the truth.

_Everything will be fine_, Hinata told herself firmly. Naruto would save somebody's day, maybe get a couple of scratches in the process, then would come back. Probably dragged by his ear by an irate chuunin, but he'd be fine and with them.

Because he would come back. Because he had to. She didn't want to think of a situation where he wouldn't. And when he did come back, she wanted to make him proud so she had to do more than just sit around and worry about him.

Hinata refused to disappoint Naruto by acting like a helpless bystander. Maybe she couldn't go out and fight, as he was, but... there had to be _something_ she could do. _Every little bit counts_.

---

In the many years between the present and his childhood, Jiraiya had forgotten what it had been like to feel like a third wheel. Living his own life under his own terms had banished his memories of feeling inadequate compared to his two powerful teammates.

Orochimaru, the genius who picked up jutsus with ease and wielded them with such finesse that he was often called the most promising prodigy of their generation. He was the favorite of veteran ninjas and politicians, even Sarutobi himself, with his shrewd intellect and charisma.

Tsunade, the most talented medic nin that Konoha had ever been graced with and who had perfect chakra control. She was the favorite of medic nins and researchers with her creative views and cleverness.

And then him, the occasionally surprising ninja whose best feature was always catching someone off guard with an eccentric deed or action. He was the least favorite of women who frequented the hot springs and he had the scars to prove it.

It had been a painful childhood, growing up with such powerhouses as teammates and being told that he was just as strong and could be stronger, only if '_he applied himself a little more_'. On many occasions, Jiraiya would go home mad, punch out his pillow, and vow to beat Orochimaru into a bloody pulp even if it killed him.

Jiraiya expected to feel that anger and inadequacy again, decades later, while facing Orochimaru. Tsunade at his side, Orochimaru right in front of him... Jiraiya almost expected to think that he should get out of the way. But, oddly enough, he felt like he had the _right_ to stand there, the right he had fought to earn endlessly as a child.

He wasn't sure if that right had come stemmed from the fact that he was much stronger than he had been back when Orochimaru left, or if the right had come because he was _in_ the right and Orochimaru, the perfect prodigy and rival that Jiraiya always sought to impress, was in the wrong.

But one thing that he knew for certain was that Orochimaru _had_ to be stopped, one way or another. His childish ambitions had been indulged for long enough. The way Orochimaru spoke sometimes, honestly! It was as if the man wanted to be a god!

_To know the meaning behind everything, to know every jutsu in the world... You could live till you were a hundred, and still not know a damn thing_! Jiraiya thought. _Total knowledge is not meant for man. _

Orochimaru had stopped exchanging blows with Jiraiya when Tsunade joined in the battle. Despite Jiraiya acknowledging his right, even he knew to back off when she was that angry. Even getting grazed with one of her fists would mean a week in the hospital. Jiraiya was just glad that she was on his side.

And very firmly on his side, if he judged her expression right. She had a fierce but determined look on her face, her brown eyes hard and her lips set in a thin line. It was an expression he hadn't seen on her face for years. He couldn't help but wonder what put that look on her face.

As if she could read his mind, Tsunade solved that mystery. "You know the world has gone to hell when a _twelve _year old decides that its up to him to sacrifice himself, simply because he thinks no one around him would have the balls to fight the enemy." she spat at Orochimaru, her eyes narrowed. "Nawaki died because of that. If I have to fight you for the sake of a like minded brat, then _so be it_."

Jiraiya was affronted for a second. What was he? A slab of meat? He was fighting too! He didn't know whether to feel offended or touched that Naruto had thought that he needed help; offended because the boy thought he couldn't beat Orochimaru on his own, touched because Naruto didn't want him to die. Go figure...

"Oh my." Orochimaru boasted mockingly, his eyes narrowing. "I must be a Yamanaka because I saw that one coming." His lips twisted into a smirk. "Nawaki this, Dan that. They're dead because they were weak. Get over it. There's not much a ninja can do if he's dead, besides making the ones he left behind even weaker than they were when he was alive."

"It is not weak to put another before yourself," Jiraiya snapped quickly, defending Tsunade. He knew by the way her back stiffened how much Dan and Nawaki's deaths still effected her. The emotional and psychological effects had all but handicapped her from medical jutsus. It had only been recently that she had started picking it up again, and she _still_ steered far away from bleeding patients.

Jiraiya understood her completely. There was nothing worse than holding a dying teammate in your arms and knowing that there was nothing you could do to save them. For medic nins, who were taught the belief that they literally held their teammates' lives in their hands, that was difficult, especially when they were trying to save a loved one.

Orochimaru immediately rounded on Jiraiya. "This, of course, is coming from the man who is so _sad_ about his student's untimely _death_ that he just cannot _bear_ staying in Konoha for more than a few weeks at a time," he said mockingly. Jiraiya's eyes widened, surprised for several reasons. One was because of security issues(_Who the __**hell**__ does he does he have __following__ me?_) and another was personal. Not very many people had been able to link those two together.

The twisted smile on Orochimaru's face faded. "You both are pathetic."he said, looking disappointed.

"That is not true," Jiraiya said quietly, his eyes narrowed. It was all he could say. That barb about his student had cut a little too close to home. The Yondaime had practically been his son in all but blood.

"You're the one on this childish crusade. Revenge for not becoming Hokage, perhaps?" Tsunade picked up immediately. She smiled but there was no kindness in it. "My my, the pot calling the kettle black..."

"Whatever the reasons, the end result is the same," Orochimaru said, sweeping his arm out towards Konoha. Buildings were on fire and summons were destroying everything in their path. The sound of cracking wood, occasional explosions, and screaming civilians made a haunting soundtrack for the scene. "Konoha will fall, even if Sarutobi-sensei does not have the courage to face me."

"The old man is in the city right now," Tsunade revealed. "Destroying your little pets and minions. The ANBU have already taken out most of your high ranking leaders, thanks to a little insight given to us by a _Suna_ ninja." Orochimaru's eyes widened slightly. "That odd ANBU character seems to have taken out quite a few ninjas on his own."

"The Sound Four, was it?" Jiraiya questioned, taking the knife and twisting it in deeper. He took several steps forward as he talked. "More like the Sound _Zero_, if he is to be believed. Not much a ninja can do if he's _dead,_ right?"

"The walls are up, your highest ranking ninjas have been killed, and even your precious spy Kabuto has met his end." Tsunade added, disgust coloring her voice at the thought of a traitorous medic nin.

Examining Kabuto's body had brought forth evidence that supported the fact that he worked for Orochimaru. More specifically, he had residue of Orochimaru's chakra on his hands, meaning that he had healed the Oto leader at least once or twice recently. Kabuto's scheduled funeral was abruptly halted and his body confiscated.

"What are you going to do now, Orochimaru?" Tsunade asked, a frown on her face. "It's just you and a score of weak ninjas against _all_ of Konoha, with a few allies on the side. This is not an invasion. This is a suicide mission."

"How do you think you'll survive escaping from here?" Jiraiya added softly. "Because I'm not feeling merciful today." He glanced at Tsunade, then back at Orochimaru. "You should have known that if Sarutobi-sensei didn't kill you, one of us would. You betrayed us... _Konoha_... Everyone who has _ever_ trusted you. It ends here... and now."

"Strong words from a loser, don't you think?" Orochimaru hissed, his eyes flashing. At that moment, any hope that Jiraiya might have foolishly had about Orochimaru eventually turning his life around... they all crumbled into dust. Because the other man's mouth suddenly fell open and out of it came a sword, rushing right at Jiraiya.

And for the life of him, Jiraiya couldn't even _move_, not even when the sword cut deep into his chest. The only reason why it hadn't pierced his lung was because Tsunade had lunged forward at the last possible second and grabbed the hilt in mid-flight.

Still, it hurt, both physically and mentally. Saying something and knowing it were two different things and it hurt Jiraiya to know that he really _did _have to kill the boy he had grown up with.

Orochimaru jumped back when Tsunade hurled the sword at him, jumping once to the side and then up the wall before taking off into the training area beyond it. Jiraiya knew that Orochimaru wasn't retreating or trying to escape. If he was, he'd hide his chakra better. Instead, his chakra was blazing like a bright beacon, taunting Jiraiya. He _wanted_ them to follow. Smug bastard.

Jiraiya flinched when Tsunade suddenly touched his chest, her hand placed gently next to his bleeding wound. She looked at it then at him, a frown on her face. "You were hoping-" she started softly.

"Yeah." Jiraiya said abruptly. He tried to smile but failed. "Silly, huh? After all these years?"

"You were close to him." she said quietly, as if that forgave it all. He snorted because it didn't even start to.

"Close to him, yes. Did I know him? Hell no." he scowled a little bit, annoyed at his younger self's inability to think clearly when it came to Orochimaru. Angered that he held that annoying quirk even in his old age. Then he frowned, realizing what he was looking at. "You... you're not flinching."

And she wasn't. Her hand was held steady, glowing slightly as she healed gushing but mostly superficial wound. Her eyes were clear and as bright as he could ever remember them. Her chakra waves were more steady and calm than they had been since she had come back to the village, a fact that allowed her to heal his wound faster than she would have been able to a week ago. The wound healed but she didn't move her hand.

"I've been working up to this moment." she admitted, a sort of tension on her face. Did she actually think he'd think bad of her for the admission of a weakness? "Working with blood... fighting Orochimaru. I had a feeling that we'd end up doing something like this. It was the only reason I could rationalize Sarutobi-sensei going so far as to bribe me with a way to stay away from this place forever." She looked back at the wound. "But you... didn't know, did you?"

Jiraiya sighed. "Oh, I knew." he admitted ruefully. "But I didn't _want_ to know."

They stared at each other for a long moment. So many years of antagonizing each other had lead them to a deep understanding of one another, even if they didn't always use it in the most noble of fashions. But at that moment, they could read the reluctance the other had at the thought of following Orochimaru, the knowledge of what they would have to do, and the acceptance that they would have to be the ones to do it.

Tsunade suddenly smiled. "Denial." she said, her eyes lighting up.

Jiraiya smiled back. "And we're so good at it too." he said, knowing what she meant.

"Too bad today's not the day for it." she said, finally turning away towards the wall. Towards where Orochimaru's chakra had stopped and was waiting. Jiraiya turned as well, his eyes focused on the distant area. "Do me a favor, old man, and try not to get too injured. Your body doesn't bounce back as well as it used to."

Jiraiya snorted. "Worry more about yourself, you flat-chested hag. Good looking men like me don't die in situations like these." He grinned lecherously, flashing her a big thumbs up. "We always live to get the girl!"

"Ah, so how is it that you've never been married nor been in a committed relationship that's lasted for more than a couple of years?" Tsunade snarked back, shoving him lightly with her shoulder as they moved as one towards the wall.

"My love is something so great and so awe-inspiring that it's only fair that I share it with as many women as possible." Jiraiya said with a casual shrug. "You know me, I aim to please."

They bickered back and forth, growing quieter and quieter the closer they got to Orochimaru, but they still attempted to regain a sense of levity. Because they knew that the second that the joking stopped, reality began, and neither wanted the other to have to deal with the reality so they continued with the humor for as long as they dared.

They were met in a clearing by Orochimaru and a very large snake summon. With a couple of choice words and a couple of seals, the battle began anew.

----

Haku wasn't quite in the condition to be bouncing around from place to place. His leg froze up at the most inopportune times and, while he had managed to stifle the flow of blood from a wound on his side, he was dizzy and almost incoherent at times.

He was in no condition to fight Kimimaro. In hindsight, he realized that he should have made this connection a long time ago by their respective fighting styles alone.

Haku was trained to be a _ninja_ and everything about him reflected this fact. He was fast, stealthy, and capable of pinpointing and landing lethal blows with his needles with deadly accuracy. His chakra control was extremely precise and, while he certainly didn't have as much chakra as certain genins of Konoha, his control made the disparity in levels almost unnoticeable because with every chunk of chakra that they would use for a jutsu, Haku could use a fourth of it and get the same, if not better, results. As an extra plus, his bloodline allowed for more element manipulation than the common ninja could boast of, even if it was mostly limited to ice and water.

His only weakness was, as a bit of a lightweight, Haku could only take so much close quarters combat. But even that was fine. He could usually end a battle before coming within ten feet of his opponent, thanks to his needles. Even if he _did_ have to get a bit closer, his mirrors always made his opponent's defenses mostly obsolete. The speed he could achieve with the mirrors was hard even on stronger jonins. Or at least the ones without sharingans.

Kimimaro, on the other hand, didn't seem to have been trained as a ninja at all. While he was fast and quiet, he didn't seem to care much about stealth. After all, he had just walked _right up _to the fallen gate, even as enemy chuunins were still fighting his allies. Unlike Haku, Kimimaro seemed to have vast resources of chakra and about average control over it. With his own bloodline, Kimimaro could fight both in close quarters and also far away.

To Haku's apprehension, Kimimaro didn't _seem_ to have any weaknesses. Any attempts to disable or cripple the boy with needles were sharply blocked. His heightened speed with his mirrors was only observed with cold teal eyes before abruptly halted when Haku's lightening fast offense was parried with frightening ease, his defense quickly shattering into thousands of tiny shards, just like his ice mirrors.

With all of his usual routes of attack sealed to him, there was nothing left for Haku to do but retreat. It was protocol, after all. It was better to live to tell the tale than die and leave your comrades wide open and oblivious to the dangers.

Haku decided that he would retreat to heal his wounds and to warn a more powerful ally (a still unfamiliar concept, having an ally other than Zabuza) that Kimimaro was coming. Someone else could handle the boy, a jonin or an ANBU perhaps. The best thing Haku could do was to retreat.

Only... Kimimaro wouldn't let him retreat. For every step back that Haku took, Kimimaro took three steps forward, doggedly following his steps with a deadly weapon in hand. Quickly, Haku's mind was shifted from 'retreat' to 'escape'. But it didn't seem likely that Kimimaro was going to let him do that either.

Haku didn't know what bothered him more, the burning reality that he could possibly die at Kimimaro's hands or the knowledge that, with each step back, he was drawing Kimimaro closer and closer to the heart of the village. Closer to the people that Haku wanted to protect.

Damn protocol. Damn _Kimimaro_. He didn't know which one was worse.

He couldn't fight Kimimaro, not if he wanted to stay alive. He couldn't drive him off for that same reason. He couldn't retreat because Kimimaro wouldn't let him go. It seemed like his only options were to stand and fight and die, letting Kimimaro move on forward to kill his friends, or to run and defend and still die, still dooming the people he cared about to die.

His heart thundered heavily in his ears as he darted through buildings and ducked through alleys. Despite evasive maneuvers, he knew Kimimaro was still following him. He knew Kimimaro was still going to kill him. A choking feeling arose in his chest. Haku realized after a moment that it was not a jutsu: it was genuine fear.

As if the almost foreign emotion had been the trigger, Haku's bad leg suddenly seized up. With a muffled curse, Haku threw himself sideways into an short alley with a dead end. He stumbled to the corner, placed his back to the wall, and crouched down as best as he could. He knew better than to cover himself with a mild genjutsu. The last time he tried that, he had gotten sliced across the ribs for his efforts.

As he tried to force feeling back into his leg, he realized that, as much as Zabuza had been heralded as a devil or a demon, Kimimaro was ten times that. It was more than ruthlessness or intention to kill; Zabuza had all of those things. It could have been the other boy's bloodline but Haku thought this demon aspect was more way that Kimimaro killed.

Zabuza killed for a number of reasons. Because he was paid to and because he wanted to were two reasons at the top of his list. But Zabuza rarely killed civilians and he never killed who he viewed to be his allies. Sure, Zabuza didn't kill civilians because he found them to be boring and yes, Haku was the only person Zabuza had viewed as an ally before Konoha but Haku had always thought that Zabuza maintained a certain honor of mercy and respect.

Haku knew well of Zabuza's mercy. Half of Zabuza's scare tactics in Wave Country were aimed solely at getting the genins to leave so that he didn't have to kill them. Hell, when Haku was a kid, Zabuza actually took him in off of the streets, feed him, and nurtured him to the best of his ability. Sure, Zabuza had an ulterior motive but Haku knew that there was genuine concern behind that.

Haku knew well of Zabuza's respect. Zabuza respected anyone with power. He respected Haku for his blood limit. He respected Kakashi for his sharingan ability. He even respected Naruto a bit to have the guts to face a jonin. It was just a coincidence that Zabuza happened to try to kill most of the people he respected. As far as Zabuza(and Haku as well) saw it, it was an honor if he tried to kill someone because it usually meant he respected them and their power and wanted the fight that would result from their powers clashing together.

A beautiful dance, most ninjas would agree. Beautiful, but deadly.

Haku didn't know much about Kimimaro but he picked up several things right away. Kimimaro didn't respect allies. He had killed one of his own right off the bat. He didn't respect enemies. The few people who had gotten in his way were killed while he wore a look that gave Haku a feeling of being part of a cattle at a slaughterhouse. He had no mercy for anyone, no respect, no... nothing.

And he had this _intense_ look in his eyes. Like a zealous follower of some deity, one that would do _anything_ in order to serve his master. A sort of self-righteousness and confidence in himself that seemed to stem solely from his faith in his master. The only sort of respect that Haku imagined that he had was solely for this master of his.

_Right, __**master**_Haku thought, his lips pressing together in a frown. _That's why it looked familiar._ He knew that level of loyalty was only matched by the single minded devotion that he had once had solely for Zabuza.

Of course, it was still there, underneath the surface. But Haku now had other people, other _friends_ at which he could direct his considerable loyalty.

Kimimaro only had one, this master that he thought so highly of that he refused to see the significance of anything or anyone else. It was hard to imagine but Haku knew he had been just like that before Konoha.

Perking up when the tense feeling in his leg eased, Haku pushed himself to his feet again, wincing as the movement pulled on his wounds. The pain was distracting but in a good way. The fact that he was still feeling it meant he wasn't in shock.

If he went into shock, well... He might as well just lie in the middle of the street and wait for Kimimaro to finish the job for him.

So he gritted his teeth, walking to the end of the alleyway to look into a street. It was completely deserted. Unlike some of the other streets that Haku had chanced on, most of the buildings were relatively intact, looking as if their inhabitants were merely on vacation, not that they were trying to avoid the worst of an invasion.

Then, miraculously, Haku heard a voice. "...And everything in that sector has been blown to all hell, a pillar of flame, I tell ya... Fortunately no one was around." Haku heard a noise not unlike metal being dragged across asphalt, and then the voice spoke up again. "Even worst than that, Hokage-sama is incommunicado, AWOL, MIA... whatever you wanna call it, _we_ can't find him."

Haku sighed a little sigh of relief. He was confident in the fact that he could lead Kimimaro around a little while longer but not in his ability to inform other ninjas(ones more equipped to fight one such as Kimimaro) of the Oto nin's progression through the village. If the ninja he heard wasn't strong enough to fight the bone wielding ninja, then he should at least be well enough to be able to pass the message on, unlike Haku.

Haku couldn't even _outrun_ Kimimaro.

While making his way to the voices, he heard another voice address the first. "He's not AWOL, you idiot, he's just-" There was two sudden thumps but Haku didn't think too much about it, too focused on his pain and the effort of just making it to them.

He turned the corner and found the two ninjas. He was unable to keep in his involuntary gasp.

They were lying face down in their own blood, the slowly spreading puddle making it all too clear that they had been alive only seconds before. Both ninjas had been slashed across their backs with a sharp instrument, the cuts deep enough to sever their spines.

Haku felt a sort of choking horror build up in his chest, feeling as if his lungs had been encased in solid ice. It wasn't the fact that they were dead ninjas. He had seen dead ninjas before and it hadn't bothered him. It was the fact that they were dead _Konoha _ninjas, people who lived in the same village as he, people who had, up until that moment, breathed the same air, saw the same things, laughed at the same jokes-

_No, __**stop**__. Dead ninjas, that's all._ Face down, slashed across their backs with a sharp bladed object, attacked from behind... _These are the important things._ Killed instantly, nearly simultaneously. Most likely by a very powerful and a very quiet ninja, but most likely just one ninja. _A strong and silent ninja who had probably been right over me on the roofs as I was- No, not important. Focus on the facts. Think like a __**ninja**_

Haku noted all the facts with a forcefully distant mind, ignoring the tiny voice that recognized the two chuunins as two of the few who had helped Haku feel welcome in Konoha. He focused on the fact that whoever had killed them had done it quickly and efficiently, not that those chuunins had families and friends that they were leaving behind. As much as he tried to ignore certain things, they still lingered in the back of his mind.

It was only because Haku was focusing so hard on thinking like a _ninja_ that he even heard the whisper-soft sound of someone landing behind him. He twisted his body, anticipating the same sort of slash that had killed two of his friends. The movement saved him.

Instead of digging evenly into his back, the weapon dug deep into the shoulder closest to the enemy, merely scratching across the rest of his back. Still twisting, Haku hurriedly pushed out chakra, molding ice around the other ninja's feet, momentarily immobilizing the Oto nin as he hurriedly backed away, a hand on his bleeding shoulder.

Kimimaro merely tilted his head, his eyes drifting once to the blood on his bone blade and then back to Haku. The ice didn't hold for very long. Haku was suffering from mild chakra exhaustion and had barely managed to pull up some chakra. Haku was surprised that the ice even formed in the first place.

"You are tenacious." Kimimaro said quietly. There was respect in his voice, for if you were a ninja and you were as wounded as Haku was, how long you could stay out of your enemy's grasp would depend completely on your skills as a ninja. Haku had evaded Kimimaro for a very long time, which said a lot about his skills as a ninja. "I wish I could let you live. But I'd rather kill you myself than have Orochimaru-sama have to."

_Orochimaru._ Suddenly, everything started to make sense. Suddenly, the situation seemed a whole lot worse. If Kimimaro was one of Orochimaru's minions, then Haku simply could not let the boy get any closer to the center of the city, not where the whole chain of command was set up. Forget Konoha's protocol. Forget Zabuza's teachings. He had to kill Kimimaro himself or die trying.

Kimimaro wiped his blade clean on his pants, his eyes briefly drifting over Haku's torn shoulder and his wounded side. Lastly, he focused on the other boy's brown eyes. Yes, he recognized that look. Desperation was an emotion that he knew quite well. It suited Haku as well as it suited himself, which is to say, not at all.

"Why are you so focused on..." Haku bit back what he was going to ask. Kimimaro tilted his head to the side, considering Haku for a moment.

"On you?" Kimimaro finished. Something like a smile briefly twisted his lips before it disappeared. He pointed his weapon at Haku. "You are... a relic of my past, of what I once was before Orochimaru-sama took me under his wing. I have killed the weak person I was then, so that I might make him proud of me. Still..." Kimimaro pressed his free hand over his chest, a frown on his face. "Still... I am not good enough."

Orochimaru was already looking for a different host. When Kimimaro's only meaning in life was to become his host, to be so _useful_ to the person he cared about the most, the fact that Orochimaru was already moving on made Kimimaro feel as if he was already dead. Not dying as he actually was but _dead_. Completely useless and little better than the trash that came crawling to Orochimaru for power.

A pained expression passed over his face. "I will never be good enough." Kimimaro said with a feeling of finality. "But... maybe..." When he was younger and more naive, he had convinced himself that with _just one more_, he could make his clan acknowledge him for who and what he was. _Just one more_ jutsu, one more push up, one more kill... Just one more and then everything would be better.

That dim but futile hope had been tugging at him every since he had seen and recognized Haku's face. Just one more tie to his past... If he severed it, maybe he'd get past his illness. Just one more kill and he'd be useful to Orochimaru again.

_Just one more. I can handle that._

----

Iruka peered out the window, his face pulled in a frown. He couldn't see anyone in the street but that didn't mean that they weren't there. Behind him, Suzume, with a practiced soothing tone, spoke to some of the civilian teachers, gently prying information from them.

They hadn't made it a half mile away from the Academy when they were suddenly accosted by a snake summon. It didn't take very long for Iruka and the others to destroy it but its appearance had done lasting damage to everyone's morale. Iruka had suggested that they stop at the next sturdy building and wait before they tried to reach the monument again.

The other chuunins jumped on the idea, giving Iruka a glimpse of just how much this invasion had rattled them. He also found himself fairly perplexed at the idea of how quickly the other teachers had fallen under his command. Iruka didn't have Mizuki's flair for leadership or even half of his charisma, but he did have something that the other chuunins were craving: a sense of calm.

How they ever got the idea that Iruka was calm was beyond him. Internally, he was a _mess_, alternating between recounting the number of students with him and worrying about the students he didn't have with him, students like Naruto and Chouji and other genins that had barely graduated. Were they okay? Were they safe? Was he missing another Academy student?

As he, once again, recounted the students, he overheard Suzume and the teacher's conversation. Lucky enough for the civilian teachers and their charges, Iruka's promised 'next sturdy building' had been the sister school to the Ninja Academy, the Academy of Learning. In other words, the school for all the children who weren't going to grow up to be ninjas.

Iruka couldn't decide if the kids were extremely lucky or supremely unlucky. Glancing at some of the blank uncomprehending faces of the civilian children, he was leaning towards the latter.

"And he said he was going to check on something and he never came back!" one of the adult civilians said tearfully. A dry eyed teacher at her elbow nodded earnestly. "Do you... Do you think he's...?" The woman suddenly covered her face in her hands, a muffled sob escaping. As Suzume and the other civilian comforted the woman, another civilian snorted in the corner.

"Next month's paycheck says he got his throat ripped out the second he stepped outside of the door. What an idiot." the man said to the person next to him. While he said it quietly and far below the volume of the other conversations going on, Iruka heard him as clear as day.

The civilian man twitched as the scarred chuunin who had yet to say anything suddenly got in his face. He may have not consciously recognized the sudden spike in chakra but he reacted to it, trying to inch away from the very angry ninja that was suddenly all up in his face.

"That was _not_ funny." Iruka said quietly, his eyes blazing. Every ninja in the room, student or teacher, turned towards Iruka. Reacting to their reaction, the others turned that direction as well. Civilians who knew little to nothing about chakra sensing twitched, suddenly uncomfortable in their skin but pretty much clueless as to what was causing it. The ninjas only wondered what had set the teacher off this time.

"Hey, man-" the civilian said defensively, edging off to the side. "It was just a joke!"

"An hour ago, I went on the roof of the Ninja Academy and found the body of a chuunin." Iruka's voice was very cold. Those who knew him knew his anger came in stages of intensity. When his voice became that cold, they knew to cover their vitals, not that it would help them much. "His throat was slashed. He had been dead for a while." There were several gasps accompanying his statement so he turned to the others, raising his voice slightly so they could get the message as well. "This is not a joke. This is reality. We are in a very dangerous situation." He shifted his gaze back to the man, his eyes narrowing slightly. "A situation that can get a lot worse if you keep on acting like this is playtime."

The silence stretched on for a few minutes before it was broken. "Um..." one of the older civilian teachers coughed, wiping her glasses on her shirt so she could avoid looking at Iruka. "Protocol says we should be evacuating?" Her voice was soft and tentative.

Iruka suddenly smiled. "Yes." he said with more warmth. "We should be moving. Please, come with us to the monument. You'll be much safer." He waved his hand to accompany all of the civilians in this. "All of you."

The woman put on her glasses with a faint smile. "We'd like that."

---

Sakura hovered outside of the door, wringing her hands. Her attention was not on Sasuke, who was barely awake and groggily protesting the medic nin picking him up(Sakura could have _sworn_ that Sasuke said, "Just five more minutes, Mom..."), but on another room entirely.

She had not finished her first level of medic nin training(she wasn't even close) but even she knew the purpose of the room that her sensei was practically carried into. The room(which went by several technical names but most commonly as the Seal Room) was only used for serious wounds, ones that usually meant death or a permanent handicap if they weren't healed quickly.

The seals, painted on the ceiling, walls, and ground, were specially designed to heighten the power of medical jutsus while diminishing the strength of the patient's chakra. Thus, it was the best environment to perform medical jutsus, especially ones that required a lot of chakra from the medic personnel.

Medical jutsus were rarely used in the capacity where the patient was harmed from it but, all the same, chakra, especially if it is large or powerful, tends to resist the entrance of foreign chakra into the body. It was the body's natural defense mechanism, it's effectiveness decided by the person's own chakra.

That was why some people, especially ninjas with a lot or particularly volatile chakra, were harder to place under a jutsu(medic jutsu or otherwise) than others. It was also why medic nins had to be very precise with their chakra. They had to manipulate their chakra in such a way that it was unobtrusive, harmless, and almost impossible to detect. People who could manage to do this well enough could perform most medical jutsus, some with a better ability than others.

The Seal Room only made it easier for a medic nin to work, but not only by suppressing the patient's chakra in such a way that they weren't fighting their own healing process, but also by allowing the medic nin to apply more chakra to the jutsu without the fear of wasting most of it in the process of trying to get past the patient's chakra defense.

The great sense of awe Sakura felt at being so close to an actual Seal Room was overshadowed by the sense of fear at the knowledge that her teacher would have a need to use one of them. Sakura might have been the type to ignore the harsher elements of life if they weren't right up in her face, but she knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that ninjas _did_ die eventually.

Ninjas fight and ninjas kill. Occasionally, they fight and kill each other. Kakashi was a ninja but somehow it was hard for Sakura to make the correlation that, as a ninja, Kakashi would be killed one day by another ninja. The elite ninja seemed too far away from such mundane things as dying. He seemed to be the type to rise victoriously from any battle he was engaged in, as did many of the ninjas that Sakura had met.

But even strong ninjas could be killed, Sakura knew. She only had to look up at the monument or gaze at the memorial to confirm that.

Unconsciously sensing someone looking at her, she turned her head. She was surprised to see that Gaara, having had snuck out earlier without anyone noticing, was out in the hallway and looking at her. The genin had his gourd on the ground while he leaned up against the wall. His red hair was dusty, his green eyes were sharp, and his dark clothes were torn and bloody. He looked dangerous. Sakura gulped.

She still couldn't figure the Suna ninja out. While Naruto seemed to have great faith in his character, she wasn't so sure. After all, he had put Sasuke in a hospital bed, and looked very happy while doing it. In any rate, whatever Naruto had done to the boy seemed to have mellowed him out. Gaara no longer had that gleam of insanity in his eyes. If anything, the boy looked tired.

"You're in distress," Gaara said, making a simple observation. He carefully glanced down each end of the hallway, his arms briefly tensing. After he deemed it to be all clear, he turned his head back to her, his expression tiredly troubled. "There is no danger."

Sakura gazed at him before making a quick decision. She leaned up against the wall as well, on the opposite side of the door. It was almost poetic, she thought wryly. Divided they were by the gap of an open door but leaning against the same wall all the same.

She nodded her head towards the room she was watching. "That room is called a Seal Room. It's where people with serious injuries are taken..." Sakura trailed off, wondering if he'd care. Probably not but Sakura had to get her emotions off of her chest. The plant over in the corner would most likely be more sympathetic to her plight but she, like most people, preferred human interaction. Her next sentence came out in a rush. "My teacher was taken in there an hour or so ago."

There was a long pause in which Sakura contemplated her sanity in thinking that the boy would even care, and in which Gaara struggled mentally in the task of trying to find something comforting to say. Gaara wasn't the type to give or receive comfort, but with all the changes that had come in the last few hours, he was willing to make changes in that area as well.

It wasn't as if he had come to some great epiphany about life and nature in general. He still believed that most people were scum and deserved to die. But since Naruto had done... _whatever_... to Shukaku, Gaara had been in a much better mood, without the demon staining and tainting whatever emotions that came to him.

Being in a fairly positive mood made him more willing to accept the irritating idiosyncrasies and negligent nuances of the world around him, at the very least.

And the girl, Sakura... She at least didn't have the inborn fear that other children his age had of him. She didn't even completely understand what he was, no one did. Well, no one but Naruto. And, perhaps, other demon hosts, whose existences were still a novel idea to him. In any case, Sakura would work well as a guinea pig for this thing called 'social interaction'.

His sister would be so proud of him. She had been on his case for years about 'friendliness' and 'diplomacy'.

"I'm... sorry." Gaara said finally, unable to think of anything comforting to say in the end. Sakura tilted her head to the side in confusion, an action that Gaara saw in his peripheral vision.

"Why?" she asked rhetorically. "You didn't hurt him." Gaara's hands twitched in spite of himself. _How irritating._

"I was under the assumption that apologizing was what one does when they hear of someone else's sorrow," Gaara said in an exasperated tone. "So I was not trying to express that I am sorry that I hurt your teacher but that I am sorry that your teacher has been harmed." His words were sharper than he meant them to come out.

Sakura was silent for a moment. She bent slightly at the waist, turning to look at Gaara. Gaara's eyes, slightly narrowed, met hers. She suddenly smiled. "I know." she said impishly. "I was just teasing you." Her smile widened and her eyes became warm. Gaara felt something twist in his chest, an aching feeling that suddenly made him feel pleased and yet very _annoyed_ at the same time.

Embarrassed for some reason, Gaara let out an offended noise but whatever he was about to say was cut off when the medic nin walked through the door, a once again unconscious Sasuke secure in her arms. The other genins, cowed by the medic nin's rather authoritarian ways of manning the infirmary, silently followed her out, crowding up the hallway.

The woman made sure she had everyone's attention before she spoke. Really, she had had it ensnared the entire time. The other genins(ranging from the rather strong minded Kiba to the more timid Hinata) in the room were scared of her temper and were trying to stay quiet. Gaara was worried that the appearance of Sasuke might set Sakura off against him again, so he kept his mouth shut. On the other hand, Sakura was trying hard not to laugh at the sight of Sasuke being carried like a baby, realizing that it wouldn't be appropriate to laugh. It was a strange situation.

"We will be leaving shortly." the woman said sternly. "Our location is not secure. We shall move on to the hospital. It is not very far away but I cannot assure your safety if you do not pay attention to what is in front of you." As if to emphasis her words, something exploded close by. Several of the windows a little farther down the hallway shattered inward, spraying glass fragments all over. Several people yelped in response, jumping back. The medic nin snorted.

"Calm down, ladies." she said, closing her eyes. She mumbled something about the future of Konoha being in the hands of scaredy-cats. "It was just a stray explosive tagged kunai." She said casually it like another person would say 'it was just a stray bird'. More than one person wondered what it would have to take to make the woman flinch.

The door of the Seal Room suddenly banged open. The medic nin's assistant, a small woman with mousy haphazard hair, came out, one of Kakashi's arms around her shoulders. "What was that, Tsubaki-san?" the girl asked, looking frightened.

The medic nin, Tsubaki, let out a low sigh of frustration. "Nothing, Emi." she said shortly.

At the same time, Sakura stepped forward, a pleased look on her face. "Sensei!" she called out, her hands clasped in front of her chest. Kakashi smiled, an expression only seen as the curve of his exposed eye. While he needed help walking until he had shaken off the effects of the Seal Room, Kakashi seemed to be in good health, if one ignored the bloody bandage that peeked through the bottom of Kakashi's shirt and through his open flak jacket.

"Yo." he said, waving his free hand, showing that he had back most, if not all, of the range of movement of his body. He seemed to grow serious at the sight of Sasuke. After a moment, Kakashi's eye widened. "Where's Naruto?"

It was not Sakura who answered but Shikamaru. "He's off to play hero." the genin said lazily. He stuck his hands in his pockets, his eyes irresistibly drawn to the windows. For once, his gaze was fixed on the ground instead of the sky. "No one was well enough nor insane enough to try and stop him."

"Oh." Kakashi said, with a frown made only apparent by the tone of his voice. "This could be troubling..." And it could be, Kakashi thought. But he trusted Naruto to adapt to a dangerous situation better than he trusted Sakura or Sasuke to. It didn't mean that he _liked _it though...

"Stop chitchatting, and get moving!" Tsubaki's harsh bark instinctively made all of them(save for a few exceptions) flinch. She set a quick pace through the hallway and out of the building. Everyone hurried to follow after her. Even Gaara, who was _never _let anyone set his pace, had to hurry a little bit or be left behind.

----

When Kakashi had finally regained his mental and chakra footing, he thanked Emi and hurried up to speak with Tsubaki, nearly wading through the crowd of genins.

She spoke to him in a voice much gentler than the one she had used to the genins. Tsubaki had been one of Rin's contemporaries early on in Rin's studies. "I'm more worried about the whole herd than about a missing lamb. If you have taught him any sense, Hatake-san, then he will hide or evacuate without engaging the enemy. If not..." She trailed off meaningfully.

"That might be a problem." Kakashi said with a sigh. "Naruto's definition of 'being sensible' is different than the average person, and not for the reason you might think." A quick shift and narrow of his eye warned the medic nin that they needed to keep matters as vague as possible because they had genins in earshot. "He is a stubborn child who thinks that every situation that comes our way is a situation that he _must_ get involved in." Kakashi would have liked to say that he thought Naruto had innate personal vendettas against a lot of people but he didn't know how the other ninja would respond to that.

"Stubborn people get themselves killed three times as much as flexible people. We both know this." Tsubaki pointed out, changing their course slightly when she felt a faint burst of chakra out a hundred meters ahead. The genins, like ducklings, followed on her heels, their watchful eyes moving back and forth, searching for an ambush or a trap.

"Not Naruto. He's more flexible than you might think." Kakashi said firmly, dispelling a genjutsu that would have lead the group down the opposite way to the hospital. The Oto nin behind the jutsu, upon seeing Kakashi, fled. Barely three hours into the invasion and the tide was already turning in Konoha's favor. Of course, most of that was thanks to Sarutobi's preemptive orders. Kakashi was grimly pleased.

"For your sake, Hatake-san, I hope you're right." Tsubaki said sincerely. _So do I_, Kakashi thought, suddenly feeling more worry for Naruto when they came across a mutilated corpse. He heard several of the genins behind him get sick. It was the first time that many of them had seen a dead body up close.

Naruto hadn't been _blown_ up as much as he had been blown _up_. The first option was considerably messy and since Naruto could see he still had all ten of his fingers, he knew it was not the case. The second option was far more likely, considering the fact that he had slammed his head into the high ceiling of the building. And he hadn't even been up there in the first place. _Ow..._

The building that he crawled into(through a conveniently open second story window) had been a point on the escape route of an Oto nin that he was tracking. It was one of those older buildings on the edge of the residential areas. It had seen its uses as a school, a community center, and, back when the Uchihas were still around, a military police base. Now, it was just empty. The perfect place for a scared Oto nin to hide.

About three hours into the invasion(Naruto had to be _told _this; he couldn't believe so much time had passed), most of the Oto nins were dead, captured, or fled for their lives. While Naruto's clones were rapidly dwindling in number while spread out around the village, the real Naruto headed straight for the wall that he knew would fall first, picking up some chuunin allies on the way.

Well, if he were to be honest, _they_ had done the picking up. During a rather long battle with one of the medium snake summon(Kyuubi gave the snake points for creativity and a rather interesting use of his tail; Naruto had never had _rocks_ thrown at him by a summon before), two chuunins stepped in and finished the job.

From them, Naruto had learned that teams were being split up left and right. The Oto nins, though there had been a lot of them to start with, weren't nearly as dangerous as the summons moving about. About an hour into the invasion, their infestation problem only grew worse when a snake, apparently a special type of summon that Orochimaru probably had a hand in modifying, spewed out a whole slew of smaller snakes before abruptly blowing up.

These smaller snakes, unlike the regular summons, rapidly grew to the size of the original snake in under thirty minutes. The ANBU platoons were being sorely tested by this menace. The most that people could hope for was that the snake that was responsible was unique and one of a kind.

Naruto already had information from his clones about the state of chaos that was Konoha's chain of command. The Hokage had gone missing about an hour into the invasion. Most of the Elder Council was either in hiding or missing. Jiraiya and Tsunade had yet to come out of the training areas, where the fight with Orochimaru had eventually lead to, but even the weakest of ninjas could feel their chakras still clashing together.

More importantly, the confusion building up around the ANBUs, the jonins, and the chuunins meant that no one really knew what they, or anyone else for that matter, were supposed to be doing. While most of the ANBU platoons _had_ had varying tasks from Sarutobi, when the amount of summons increased dramatically, they made a decision(which was enforced by the only Elder not hiding or missing) to make killing summons their first and only priority. While this strategy worked well in dwindling the summon population, this strategy also left a lot of tasks and duties that still needed to be done.

Now what happened in response to this is nothing short of what Naruto would call the chain of command going to hell in a hand basket. Because the ANBUs felt that they needed to focus on the summons, they counted on the jonins to carry out the other tasks. Because the jonins felt that they needed to focus on the ninjas, they counted on the chuunins to carry out the tasks that the jonins were supposed to. Because chuunins felt that they needed to focus on aiding evacuations, nothing else was getting done.

To make things worse, the places that really needed evacuations, like the neighborhoods by the fourth wall, were so infested with summons and ninjas that the chuunins who did go there ended up being driven off, injured, or even killed. Twenty Naruto clones had met their demise in that area alone.

Because it was the third hour of the invasion and most of the ninjas had already left, died, or were in the process of leaving or dying, Naruto had made a decision to go where he was most needed: the neighborhood by the forth wall. His clones weren't quite as strong as he was, even if he was running a little low on chakra by this point. His presence could make a difference in those areas, so off to those areas he went.

And got himself in a situation that he had avoided for three whole hours: getting caught by chuunins.

While he had worked side by side with some ninjas in varied tasks(including but not limited to putting out fires, ambushing Oto nins, and destroying summons), the two chuunins that he had run into had the proof that he actually existed. Other ninjas accepted his help simply because he had informed them that he was one of many shadow clones stationed throughout the city and there was no point in them trying to shuffle him off to some sort of safe house. Somehow, accepting help from a shadow clone of a genin was better than accepting help from the genin himself.

He would have used this tactic on the two chuunins but then that damn summon nearly squished him, giving away his all too obvious 'realness' when he didn't explode in a cloud of gas. Of course, like most ninjas tended to do, they were all for the bandwagon of 'Let's save this idiot before he hurts himself' until they ran into a bit of trouble that required his aid.

The Oto nin that had attacked them, upon discovering that the ninjas he had crossed paths with were far more capable warriors than he had expected, of course ran and sought a retreat in the old building, thinking to use it as a way to confuse and isolate Naruto from the two chuunins he had teamed up with. It was a tactic that worked rather well, seeing as Naruto was the only one who followed right after him while the other two tried to find a different entrance.

Admittedly, this was not a fine point in Naruto's ninja career, especially in the 'teamwork' category.

Just as the Oto nin had turned around, pleased to see that the weakest looking ninja had been the one to follow him, Naruto had heard a noise not unlike air being released from a pressurized container. And then, with frightening suddenness, the floor underneath his feet had jerked violently upward, sending both Naruto and the Oto nin flying up. Naruto hit the ceiling headfirst while the Oto nin managed to twist and grab onto a ceiling beam with his chakra.

Naruto's trained mind, honed from years of being a ninja, had recognized the sound of a complex explosive tagged trap somewhere underneath them in the story below even as he instinctively grabbed onto the ceiling with his chakra, hanging off of it like an overgrown spider.

Either the constructor of the building knew what he was doing when he put in the floors or the people who set off the explosion set it too low because the floor beneath Naruto's feet, despite the violent jerk, stayed in mostly one piece as it moved upward with him.

The walls were not so sturdy, as the floor was easily ripped from them in a shower of debris and wood splinters. The floor went up as quickly as Naruto and the Oto nin, Naruto just barely avoiding being squeezed into a pancake thanks to a beam on the ceiling keeping the floor just barely a foot from his nose. The Oto nin, trapped between the beam and the floor, was not so lucky.

And then, after just a span of six short seconds, the second floor abruptly became the first floor as gravity yanked it back down, crushing whatever was underneath it. The dust settled and all was quiet but for a steady dripping sound, almost inaudible under Naruto's heavy breathing and the low buzz ringing in his ears.

Natural human curiosity made him turn his head to see the source of the dripping. He wished he hadn't. Even after being a ninja for so long, there were certain sights that made even his stomach quiver with nausea.

The Oto nin didn't even look human any more, just a smashed up mass of bone, blood, and tissue. The bones of his body had been driven into the wood of the beam and had held, even against the force of gravity. They wouldn't hold forever, as Naruto peeked and groaned with realization, seeing a part of the fleshy mass slide off and fall to the ground with a bloody squelch.

For the first time in his life, Naruto realized that he was hoping that the Oto nin had died quickly. There were certain things that you wouldn't even wish on your worst enemy.

After several strengthening breaths, Naruto slowly pulled his chakra back into his body, letting himself drop to the floor. It wasn't a drop that was impressive compared to some of the heights he had leapt from before in his life, but, as he landed, he felt his knees give out on him. He braced himself on the ground with his hands, frowning when he saw how much his arms were shaking.

Maybe Kyuubi did know what he was saying. Maybe his body wasn't ready for the things he was trying to attempt. Maybe a piece of the child that Naruto had replaced lived on somewhere in the back of his mind because everything that he was experiencing now seemed too real and too raw for a veteran who was supposed to be used to these sorts of situations. If anyone _could_ get used to these sorts of situations.

Of course, that meant Naruto would have to play the part of a good twelve year old and actually accept the help, aid, and protection of the adults until such times where Naruto's body finally caught up to his mind. And something inside of him, beyond his experience and beyond his emotional pain, _revolted_ at that idea.

_Just... get up!_ Naruto told his useless limbs. Most of the muffled buzz in his ears was fading away and he could hear and understand that, while the building was standing for now, it wouldn't be standing for long. The creaks and straining of the wood steadily grew louder and sharper in his hearing once he started shaking off the fogginess in his mind. And once he stopped hyper focusing on the blood.

It took several tries but finally Naruto got to his feet, carefully walking over to the half-buried door. He took a moment to shove debris out of the doorway before performing an awkward crawl/slide, managing to give himself several painful splinters in the process.

He told himself not to think too deeply about what had happened in there. Fortunately, a distraction provided itself fairly quickly. A little ways up the street, his chuunins were facing off against a lone ANBU. While no one was throwing any punches, he could tell even from his position that one of his chuunins was yelling at the top of her lungs.

You could tell when a ninja was a sibling or a parent, Naruto mused as he dusted himself off. Something in their manner of addressing people and situations always hinted at it. With some exceptions, it was usually a general rule that the personality revealed before family often appeared in doses as the personality revealed before teammates.

This helped teamwork as much as it hindered it, as ninjas were just as likely as normal people to show a variety of different emotions before families. Rivalry and jealousy as they happen between siblings could show up as often as concern and affection. Most often though, the sense of responsibility was transferred, as teams are like families in the respect that it's your responsibility to keep your teammate safe except in the most extreme of cases.

Naruto thought Team Seven got cheated out of that nice family-to-team transference. From Kakashi to Sakura, they weren't likely to find any common grounds or any way to soften the image of another teammate. Kakashi was an only child and his father died when he was young. Sakura was an only child as well, alienated from her civilian parents who didn't understand her desire to be a ninja. Naruto and Sasuke were orphans and... well, there was enough said about that. They both were cheated out of having a family.

Despite all that, Naruto thought that they had done well but, maybe if Team Seven had more of an understanding about how families worked, Sasuke wouldn't have left. They could have stopped him, somehow. Maybe that responsibility of caring for your other family members would have kicked in, making him realize that, while his ambition was important, his friends were even more so.

But that was the past. A screaming chuunin was the present.

"One of our teammates was in there!" Isamu ranted, advancing on an ANBU. The other chuunin didn't try to stop her. Fearless, she faced down the blank mask and poked the other ninja on the shoulder. _Hard_. _Repeatedly_. "What the _hell_ were you thinking! If he's hurt... if he's _dead._.. You'll _regret_ the day you ever-"

Some people were just too easy to figure out. Isamu was a sibling, alright. An older sibling with a protective streak a mile wide. And a sibling who would get herself hurt if she attempted to take on an ANBU. Naruto came into the girl's line of sight, hoping to distract her.

"So much for the element of surprise." Naruto said with forced laziness. He ran a hand through his hair, forced to yank it out when it got stuck. _Ow, that was unpleasant..._ "You know, they can hear you all the way from Suna."

"Naruto!" she said with heartfelt happiness. Within a second, Naruto was being squeezed hard. He winced. While he had liked her upon first glance(she was an Akimichi, what wasn't there to like about that?), he thought she had more strength than she knew what to do with.

"Spine... breaking." he wheezed, gasping with relief when he was instantly released.

"Tonbo!" she said to the other chuunin excitedly. "It's Naruto!" She said it like the other chuunin wouldn't know who it was but Naruto knew that, despite the bandages over his eyes, Tobitake Tonbo knew damn well where Naruto was at all times, not to mention knowing what gesture that Naruto might have made at his back when Tonbo had made a comment about his competency earlier on.

Kyuubi suspected some sort of bat like sonar. Naruto thought that, with all of the weird bloodlines in that gave some people weird eyes, extra limbs, and strange abilities, Kyuubi's hypothesis could very well be true.

"Fascinating." Tonbo drawled tonelessly. He tilted his head towards the ANBU. "Apologies for Isamu and the genin. She's overly emotional and the genin is an idiot." Naruto knew that the chuunin didn't like him at all. It was overly apparent in the way that Tonbo never called him by name('the genin', 'the boy', and 'you' were the only ways he was addressed) and in the way that Tonbo constantly berated him.

Whereas Isamu was only a couple of years older than Naruto, Tonbo was just at the right age to know about Kyuubi as well as to have actually fought against him. Despite the fact that Tonbo had a distinct anti-Kyuubi attitude, Naruto respected the chuunin because not only did he not even once suggest leaving him to fend for himself, but he also endeavored to keep Naruto safe.

Naruto had felt Tonbo's hand on the back of his vest even before he jumped into the building but Naruto had been moving forward too fast for the chuunin to catch a hold of him. Naruto didn't blame Tonbo for being angry at him at all. Naruto was pretty angry at himself too, surprised at himself that he jumped right in like a green ninja on his first day of the job.

But the _chase_... it was hard to pull back from the chase when every youki heightened instinct in Naruto _burned_ with the need to follow and corner his prey. The blood, the beat of his heart, the smell of sweat and apprehension and fear... For a second, Naruto had forgotten who he was, what he was doing, and why he was doing it.

It scared him a little, knowing how quickly his mind clouded under the power of relentless instinct.

"Ow!" Suddenly, his ear was grasped between two merciless fingers as Isamu's mood veered from joyful relief to angry rage. "I need that!"

"You could have been _hurt_. You could have _died_." she said in an ominous voice before she paused and said with more emphasis, "You could have made me _cry_." Then her face scrunched up, as if she was going to cry anyway. "And if you-"

Naruto managed to move his head out of the way so that, when Isamu threw herself at him once more, he didn't end up getting his face smashed in her chest. He pulled one trapped arm out, awkwardly patting the emotional chuunin on the shoulder.

"Yes, yes... I'm an idiot. Yes, I could have gotten killed. Yes, I'm not the best person to have as a teammate right now. Yes, I'm too impulsive." he murmured quietly, trying to soothe Isamu. The girl(who, like everyone in the damn _village_, was much taller than him and had to kneel to hug him) glanced up at him where she had buried her face on his shoulder.

"And?" she said expectantly, her eyebrow raised. The challenging look in her eyes would allow for no argument. Shifting from foot to foot with a sigh, Naruto looked up briefly in the sky as if begging for divine aid before he looked back down at Isamu.

"And I'm sorry for making you worried." he said, somewhat flatly. With an amused snort, Isamu stood, brushing dirt off of her knees. She pinched his cheek with a grin. Naruto scowled petulantly, rubbing his cheek.

"That's all I wanted to hear." she said smugly, walking towards Tonbo and the ANBU. With a heavy sigh, Naruto followed after her. At something Tonbo said, the ANBU left in a dark flash. "So, what's up?"

Tonbo looked up at the casually drawled question. "The situation is far worse than we first calculated." he said somberly. "Teams are being split up left and right. The chain of command has become blurry. Hokage-sama is missing. The ANBU are trying to focus on destroying the summons and want the _jonins_ to handle the last bit of evacuation. Only the jonins are involved in fighting Oto nins and want the _chuunins_ to handle the last bit of evacuations. Only the chuunins-"

"Are out gunned." Naruto concluded with a sigh. He had come across this information hours ago. The fact that Tonbo was getting it just now made it even worse. Tonbo nodded at Naruto's response, a deep frown on his face.

"In a manner of speaking." the chuunin replied. "To make matters worse, the chuunin population is thinly spread. Most of us were concentrated around the arena while this invasion began and not many have moved from that general area because of the heavy fighting. While that means that the areas of Konoha around that place are already evacuated..."

"The other places haven't." Isamu said, looking horrified. "What about the neighborhoods? The schools?"

"I'm sure the chuunins at the Academy have taken care of the schools." Naruto said, his faith in Iruka unshakable. After all, Iruka and the other chuunins had gotten the children out before without any deaths. What would be different about this time around? "But the neighborhoods... that's a problem. Haven't the walls fallen?" Playing oblivious would work well in this situation.

"Only one." Tonbo corrected. "But, unfortunately, it is the wall right by the neighborhoods." Isamu closed her eyes, her face scrunched up in emotional pain.

That area would, of course, be the absolute worst place for the invading party to enter. While that area had some patrols and guards, they didn't have nowhere near the amount of man power that they would need to both defend and evacuate the villagers. Even after a few hours of invasion, there still had to be some resistance there. The best thing to do, of course, was to weed them out, one by one if need be.

Apparently, Naruto wasn't the only one to think so. "The only thing we can do... the only thing we _should_ do is to go to the neighborhoods and help out the people there!" Isamu said after a moment, expecting Tonbo and Naruto to immediately agree. After a moment of no answer, she took a step back. "...Right?"

"Out gunned, remember?" Naruto said hoarsely. He looked pained for more reasons than one. Gazing off in the direction of the fallen wall(hidden from his direct line of vision by several tall buildings and a tree), he started to shake his head. "I don't know about you but I don't feel like jumping in, all Rambo style."

And, for once, he really didn't. They needed more manpower to do that. He wasn't sure if he could artificially create any more manpower. His last couple attempts at jutsus had only partial successes, almost as if his chakra was rebelling. He had the chakra, he just couldn't _use_ it properly. He didn't have the best of chakra control, yes, but he usually did better than this.

"That knock to the head must have revived what little reason resides in your brain." Tonbo said with a bit of dark humor. When Naruto only blinked at him, the chuunin gently touched the back of Naruto's head. When he pulled his hand back, his fingers were covered in blood. "You split your head open."

Isamu was briefly distracted, hurrying behind Naruto to look at the wound for herself. Mumbling some nonsensical sentence that sounded like some meshed version of 'I can't believe I didn't notice!' and 'What have you done to yourself?', she dabbed at it with her sleeve. Only then, when a sudden flash of pain shocked him, did Naruto realize he was injured.

"Ah!" he pulled himself away from her. "That hurt!" When Isamu took a step towards him, mumbling something about needle and thread, he took several steps back, his hands covering his head protectively. "Stay back, woman. I'm _warning_ you."

"That aside..." Tonbo said. He realized that they weren't listening so he coughed to get their attention. Twice. Isamu and Naruto broke out of their staring contest to look at Tonbo. "That aside, Isamu is correct. We must do our part to protect those in the neighborhoods, even if we must do it without backup." With that, Tonbo tilted his head and seemed to look at Naruto. "Naruto, I must apologize."

Naruto's eyes widened, wondering what the chuunin felt he needed to apologize for. Paranoid, he looked quickly around his surrounding for some sort of trap or prank. It wasn't that he didn't trust Tonbo not to hurt him. It was that Naruto had been through too much to _not_ be paranoid when someone said that out of the blue.

"I had planned to find you somewhere safe to hide." Tonbo said after a moment. "You are a genin, and a young one at that. I had hoped to spare you of the worst that could happen in a situation such as this. Instead... I must ask for your aid."

"My... aid?" Naruto murmured to himself, the words taking time to sink in. When they did, he started to nod his agreement, relieved that he didn't have to twist any arms or, god forbid, _whine_. "Alright, I'll help-"

At the same time, Isamu spoke up. "No no _no_, Tonbo!" she said, moving towards them quickly. "He's a kid, he's a genin, he's already injured-"

"A genin he may be but weak he is not." Tonbo said firmly, already shaking his head. "We don't have the resources to refuse his aid. In fact, we have such a lack of resources right now that we must _demand_ it."

"But still-" she said, a hint of desperation in her voice. Tonbo started pacing.

"We don't even have _time_ to be arguing, Isamu." He said, his voice raising slightly. Isamu looked slightly chastised. "Is there a reason why you won't accept his help? Besides him being a genin."

"A pretty damn good reason." Isamu mumbled. She looked up, a frown creasing her forehead. "I don't want him to die." There was a second where Naruto felt like someone had socked him in the stomach. Why did she care? He wasn't related to her. Then he remembered his whole thought process on 'sisterly-transference', feeling relieved at the easy answer but slightly disappointed as well.

"We don't even have the _luxury_ of trying to protect him from that." Tonbo said, his voice gentler. Isamu only frowned more, hugging herself silently.

Feeling bad for Isamu, Naruto hesitantly touched her shoulder. "I can't promise not to get hurt." he said quietly. "I can't promise to stay in sight or by your side. But I _can_ promise you that I won't die."

Isamu was quiet for a moment, her eyes focused on his face. Finally, she spoke. "Don't break your promise." she said flatly, but it was the sort of flatness that was forced so Naruto didn't take offense.

"I don't make a habit of doing that." Naruto said with a smile. She nodded, still looking reluctant. Knowing that he had done all he could do, Naruto walked up to Tonbo, his hands absently making the seals for his shadow clones.

Again, the success was only partial. Where he meant to make thirty clones, he made only ten. Was it his body that was rebelling? Or was it Kyuubi, whose snarky voice he hadn't heard in over an hour? He poked at the demon but Kyuubi only seemed to curl tighter in on himself, refusing to address Naruto.

_Fine, go ahead and pout._ Naruto projected to the demon, on the verge of pouting himself. He didn't like being ignored.

"Let's go." Naruto said, determined not to point out his problem to his chuunin babysitters. He had worked with far worse handicaps. He was fairly quick with adapting.

Besides, he was with two chuunins. What could possibly go wrong?  
----

TBC

Funny thing is, I actually am having a much easier time writing the next chapter. It won't take as much time to update. It was just _this_ chapter that was killing me.  
And I know it's been long. I own a calendar.


	57. War's End

AN: This chapter was brought to you by... Ainu Laire! Go thank her at... http : // ainulaire . deviantart . co m/

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For the Love of My Friends

Chapter Fifty-Seven: War's End

by Foxie

----

There were few things in the world that Naruto praised more highly then a person's power to repress their own memories. Whether completely aware of it or not, he was very grateful for the ability to go through life without the pain and feeling of each memory bombarding him every minute of every day.

Because of repression, his defense mechanism of choice (as well as rather blatant denial), he had managed to survive and endure where others had opted for the easy way out. And boy did Naruto have many reasons to want to kill himself!

As good as repression was, it tended to have that second shoe/bite you right on the ass aspect that nearly every thing useful tended to have required in its fine print, meaning that when you least expected it, the memories tended to metaphorically, as it were, _bite you right on the ass_.

Like now, he recognized, even as his fingers froze on his kunai. The empty streets (which was supposed to be a good thing!), the silence(even better!), the property damage, the way that the sun, about an hour away from disappearing below the horizon, threw light so it cast long dark shadows everywhere... Naruto knew this place, both in the good and in the bad.

The good, the unrepressed memories... He tried to focus on them. The time when Sakura had finally gotten her license to heal. She had jumped up and down, squealing and abandoning any pretense of maturity. She had jumped up, kissed him, then managed to hug nearly everyone in the vicinity, many of who she did not know at all. Later, she would be embarrassed but at that moment, she was so achingly happy.

The time when Shikamaru had casually (too casually, Ino would irately say later) asked Ino to marry him. Ino had fainted, falling and hitting her head on a wall, which granted her a concussion and two days in the hospital. She would later accuse Shikamaru of trying to kill her and demanded that he make up for it for the rest of his life. Naruto had never seen the two so happy, bickering at each other like that.

The time that Iruka, noticing Naruto's upset at what Naruto thought was his complete inability to be of help to anyone on his team, had simply wrapped an arm around his shoulder and talked to him, like a father would talk to a son. Iruka never knew how much Naruto needed that and Naruto never had the chance to thank him.

So far, so good. Naruto thought from his position behind a house. The bad still had its hold but the good had briefly won out. The brief reprieve was all Naruto needed to be able to focus objectively back on the situation. The street he was overlooking was calm and silent, appearing to be completely empty of any human life. Naruto knew most of all that appearances can be deceiving.

Fortunately, they (meaning Naruto and his two chuunin babysitters, Tonbo and Isamu) had not run into any Oto resistance yet. In fact, barely two blocks into the neighborhood, they had run into something all three of them hoped for but knew not to expect: survivors.

Led by retired (and in some cases, handicapped) ninjas, a small group of twenty people had been stealthily moving from building to building in hopes of coming across some Konoha ninjas. To their great disappointment, all they had found so far was two chuunins and a genin. Namely, Tonbo, Isamu, and Naruto, which didn't say much about what aid that was supposed to be going towards the fallen wall. Or, rather, lack thereof.

Without even needing to confer together, Naruto, Tonbo, and Isamu collectively decided to hand over any unnecessary weapons to the group so that they would have a better chance of making it out. To join the group as protection would only insult those ninjas who had made it to jonin as well as mess up the group's chain of command.

Retired ninjas and active duty ninjas never ever got along, Naruto had noted with a pained smile. Ripping open part of his vest, he had handed over some explosive tags to a man who looked barely twice his age. The man had smiled, somewhat nervously, in thanks. That was an hour ago, yet Naruto was still mourning over his lightened load.

Explosive tags, at best, were luxuries, so Naruto had no trouble handing them over. He had full range of movement and limb while some of the men and women (and children, he saw) did not; they needed the power of an explosive tag more than he did. It might give them the extra advantage needed in combat.

The only ones he kept were the three that were covered in his blood, most likely from a cut he received that was already scabbed over and half healed. Tags covered in blood tended to be a lot more volatile than tags in mint condition. Medic nins would be the first to tell you that chakra tends to leak into blood and that, since tags only needed a minimal amount of chakra to explode, blood covered tags were very dangerous to handle, liable to explode when exposed to even the faintest brush of chakra.

Naruto probably should have disposed of them but years of fighting had taught him the value of an unexpected source of distraction. Not to mention, the value of not tossing aside what can still be used. The war had definitely honed his scavenging skills.

"Eerie." Isamu whispered, peering over his shoulder. For a second, Naruto was struck at how much she looked like Chouji when she was doing that frowny-stare thing that Chouji was so good at. Naruto shook his head, mentally telling himself to focus.

"Indeed." Tonbo murmured, a short sword in one hand and its sheath in another. He had his head tilted towards the street. "I have never seen the streets of Konoha this silent. Not even at night."

Naruto had. It was of the bad memories, the ones he tried to repress. Silent streets, enemies lurking around corners, these had been a reality for him, day in and day out for many years. The sound of silence became something to fear because he learned just what and who could use silence as a cover or sound as a weapon. It had gotten to the point where everyone learned that trusting your senses would get you killed. It had even gotten to a point where it was hard to trust the person next to you, so many deserters and spies were there.

"So..." Naruto tried for a winning smile but only managed to look uneasy. "Let's make it noisy."

---

They might have been a team once, the Legendary Three, but they never really _worked_ as a team. One of them always took to the forefront of the situation, leaving the other two to stand on the sidelines. Usually, it was Orochimaru but Tsunade stepped up to the plate just as often. Jiraiya was known to steal it from right underneath their noses on several occasions.

They all might have taken turns being the main attraction but they never worked well with each other as equals. There was too much potential in them, too much power. There was arrogance there as well, arrogance born of youth and of knowing you're superior.

The Legendary Three (and boy, what an ego booster that title was) just never really _worked_ together. It was like a law of the universe, stating firmly that teamwork was impossible. It just never happened.

Seeing Jiraiya and Tsunade in front of him, so clearly _working together_, made Orochimaru glance briefly up at the sky, almost expecting it to come crashing down. When it did not, he felt vaguely cheated. However, it was no illusion in front of him; they both fought with an absent mindedness awareness of each other's position that hinted at how well they knew each other.

It was shown more obviously when they abruptly switched targets in unison, Tsunade pulling away from the Nindaime to punch her grandfather across the face and Jiraiya twisting around her to block a kick from the darker haired Hokage.

That graceful teamwork irked him, it irked him more than their ease in fighting Hokages. Where was that when they were kids? Something twinged in him (almost hurt even) at the idea that, once he was out of the picture, Jiraiya and Tsunade suddenly fit into a nice and cohesive team. Like he had been some obliviously placed wedge that had weakened the entire team with his existence.

It made him feel left behind, discarded, lost-

No._ He_ was the one who left them behind, it was _they_ who should feel lost. And they _would_ feel lost, once he had destroyed everything that they knew and cared about.

Orochimaru denied that he wished that his old team mates had felt their loss of him forever, like a missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle that is never found. Denying things, however, doesn't necessarily make them not true.

With his teeth grinding together, Orochimaru glanced at the ground just forty yards east of him. There was a deep indention in the ground, a deep chasm that had been so hurriedly made that trees still awkwardly jutted half in and half out of it.

The chasm, of course, had been made by Jiraiya's uncouth summon, the one who acted like a mafia boss. That toad or frog or whatever that hideous thing was, it had slammed its sword through the top and bottom jaws of Manda, keeping the snake summon from doing much more than wiggle like a pinned worm.

Then the coward went and left him before Gamabunta could do worse, mumbling something about retribution- really, did Jiraiya even understand how hard it was to make Manda listen to him? It was hard enough just summoning the surly snake, let alone controlling him. Manda didn't even stick around, despite the fact that he was leaving when there was not one but two powerful summons being stacked against his summoner.

It was only because of some sort of sense of fairness that Orochimaru managed to keep from getting squashed, as Tsunade and Jiraiya had both sent their summons away when they saw that he didn't have one. Really, he could have defeated them anyway, but they wanted to be _fair_. Orochimaru showed them, though. In the time it took for them to convince their summons to go away, Orochimaru managed to do the Resurrection Technique that he had planned to use on Sarutobi.

His choice of the Hokages had been a good one. Tsunade had looked positively shocked at the sight of her grandfather and even Jiraiya looked a little pale. Orochimaru glared at the one coffin that hadn't opened. Now if the Yondaime had just resurrected like a good little boy, Jiraiya would have been reduced to nothing.

If anything, Jiraiya's affection for that foul demon boy proved that he would have been helpless while fighting his much loved student.

Orochimaru rubbed at his face distractedly, feeling an itch burn underneath his skin. He almost felt feverish, sick even. The only logical explanation he could think of was that his body was decaying on him already but that was impossible. His body still had another two or three months before he would have to switch.

As distracted as he was, he was almost caught off guard by Jiraiya, who popped up out of nowhere. Orochimaru jumped back, dodging the kunai strike that would have lodged in his heart. Instead, it sliced open a cut across his arm, each side of the flesh wound parting like an opening flower, and kept opening, the flesh sliding off his arm like melted candle wax. Orochimaru stared down at his arm with mute horror.

The vessel had been corrupted.

"Maybe you should get a doctor to look at that." Jiraiya offered sarcastically before leaning in with a directly aimed punch. Orochimaru moved to parry the obviously telegraphed hit, but realized he was dealing with a clone. Dispatching it with ease, he turned around at the odd sound behind him, managing to deflect most of the power of the rasengan.

However, what he had not been able to deflect had done its damage. More flesh peeled off, falling with a sickening, wet thump.

Orochimaru glared at his arm. The damn host was practically disintegrating on him! He could see the bones in his forearm, a sharp white gleaming against all the dark red.

Only one thing could have corrupted his vessel thing. Only one person. Only one _being_.

Orochimaru's eyes flashed angrily. He would have the boy's head, one way or another. This war wasn't over yet.

---

Kimimaru collapsed against a building, coughing up blood in his hand. He wheezed, pressing his other hand against his chest, almost feeling the palm strike of his enemy searing down right into his soul. Wild eyed, he looked behind his shoulder, searching for that elusive figure. That man. That ninja.

The ninja with those terrible eyes.

He wasn't followed. _This is good._ He thought, even as he sunk to the ground. His knees shook horribly, weakness soaring through his limbs like a bolt of thunder zips through the sky. Kimimaru thought, meditated, and rationalized. The quicker he calmed down, the faster he could push back the pain. Oh the pain... And that man who knew exactly how to and where to trigger it. He knew the name. Hyuuga. Which one, it didn't matter. All of them had the eyes. All of them could see his disease, his illness, his _weakness_. The weakness that he tried so damn hard to hide, to the point where he could ignore even the most agonizing of pains and not even twitch.

He closed his eyes briefly, thinking of the Hyuuga. The man had stood silently, a grim specter, between Kimimaru and the boy from his past. The boy- Haku was his name?- was listless, nearly dead from blood loss. And how sweet their battle had been, how long Haku had lasted, even with his own injuries, _weaknesses_, holding him back.

It was inspiring, Haku's determination to live. But Kimimaru's determination was stronger. He had lived years longer than Kabuto had predicted. His will had been forged in the fires of misery and despair where the only hope, the only beacon of truth was Orochimaru. No, Haku's will, though formidable, could not match his own.

But the Hyuuga had stepped in. And had shattered his will with a single blow to the chest.

Kimimaru tried to rationalize it. It was just one hit, yes, but a hit fused with chakra. Chakra plus his weakening lungs (one of the many victims of his illness) was what made him drop to his knees in front of the Hyuuga. Nothing else, and nothing more.

He was not dead and he refused to die. But, dammit, it hurt so much to live. But he would live. He would continue to live, if only for Orochimaru. His body was too weak for his lord to live off of but he could still use the useless thing to protect him. To get the man what he wanted. And he would do it until the day he finally died.

It was that thought that finally calmed him down. He could breathe now. _How simple it is, to take a breath._ He mused. _But one never truly appreciates it until it is gone_.

He tilted his head, a sound suddenly flitting through his senses. No, not a sound exactly. He realized. More of a feeling. A warmth that has the edge of cold. He glanced down, realizing it came from the seal on his chest. Closing off all other senses, he focused on the feeling. He knew it was important. The seal was a gift from Orochimaru, a gift of power. His power. Whatever the seal was transmitting, it was from Orochimaru.

Anger. Irritation. Confusion. Fear. The last made Kimimaro frown. Why would his lord fear anything? He was great and powerful. Surely no one had as much knowledge or as much genius. Kimimaro instantly hated whoever made Orochimaru feel so... no, he would not shame Orochimaru by calling it fear. Apprehension, yes, that was better.

The emotions searing through his seal(yes, that did hurt but it was a pain he had felt a thousand times before) suddenly stopped. A clear message came through, ringing through Kimimaro's head so loudly that he nearly winced.

_**We leave**_. The message was succinct and was not repeated. Kimimaro straightened, glad he once more had a purpose, a job. Orochimaru knew that Kimimaro was the only one who could 'hear' him through the chakra in the seal. The other four were worthless in this respect. Kimimaro felt his chin raise slightly higher.

Yes, they were so pathetic. But they were Orochimaru's. Therefore, he must collect them, like the children they were. Orochimaru would leave a louder sign of retreat for the other cannon fodder but he would give Kimimaro time to collect the four that were worth a little more than the others.

Kimimaro was moving before he realized that he had risen to his feet. Darting through the shadows like the ninja he was, he felt no pain. The attack was a distant memory already. Kimimaro had a purpose, he had a mission.

Nothing else mattered now.

---

Tonbo made a judgment call when he decided to let Naruto join their little makeshift time. Asami hadn't liked it but Tonbo enjoyed a certain sense of seniority over her- meaning he got to lay down the rules and make the decisions.

His decision was that the well being of the untrained civilians in the invaded sector of the neighborhood took precedence over a trained albeit young ninja. His mission involved rescuing and escorting civilians out of the danger zone, not rescuing and escorting wayward ninjas out of danger. Though he would have tried had the situation been less grave.

Tonbo was prescribed to the general 'if it's there, use it' philosophy that most ninjas tried to adhere to. As long as Naruto was around, then he could help Tonbo and Isamu in the evacuation efforts. No harm done. And if there happened to be harm done, then well... Tonbo would treat Naruto like he did any other teammate- try to treat what injuries he could and, if he could not, move on. The chances that Naruto would get injured or killed were very high, something Isamu held with more priority then Tonbo did.

Tonbo was of the opinion that, if Naruto got hurt, he'd have a good story to tell to go along with the injury. If Naruto died, then Tonbo would graciously spin it in his report so that Naruto would come out smelling like a rose. If Tonbo pressed, he bet he could even get Naruto on the memorial stone.

But these were thoughts at the back of his mind. He was more considered with the result of the mission than the people involved. He was a ninja, that's the way it was.

So he made a judgment call, choosing the lives of a mass of people he had no idea if they were actually there or not over the life of a kid he knew was still alive. And he decided that it wouldn't be his problem if the kid actually got injured or not.

What Tonbo didn't consider happening (an ironic spin of the situation that he might have appreciated if he had a sense of humor) was the very real possibility that he himself could get hurt. Which, about half of a mile into the sector, he did.

He contemplated the gaping hole in his chest vaguely, too far into shock to feel any pain. Too far into shock to feel Isamu wrap her arms around his shoulder. Too far into shock to realize that Naruto was going head to head with the ninja who had injured- with much better results than Tonbo.

He wondered, with unfamiliar fear, how he was going to be remembered. He did not want to die.

---

"Get out of here!" Naruto shouted at Isamu, briefly pulling away from Kidomaru. The chuunin looked at him with tear filled eyes but nodded resolutely. Tonbo needed medical attention now. His injury was severe, a round hole four inches across in his left lung. Too much blood was on the ground. If Isamu didn't go now, Tonbo was dead.

Or, Naruto thought pessimistically, he may be dead already.

But Isamu was gone, Tonbo with her. The only company Naruto had left was Kidomaru, who smirked at him beyond his thick web. A well aimed arrow took out two of the four clones Naruto was able to summon.

_Oh this is going to be a short fight._ Naruto realized grimly. _And not in my favor_. He used up nearly all of his chakra, even the chakra that he had stored away. Kyuubi wasn't answering his calls and his body was being nearly as stubborn as the demon by slowing down on him. Naruto hadn't had this slow of reflexes since he was ten.

He needed to be faster, much faster to win. He needed to be stronger, much stronger. He needed to have all of his chakra... but the days events had taken their toll. He was spent, done for.

Good thing all he really needed to do was buy Isamu more time. He refused to think about what was about to happen to him which, knowing the Sound Four like he did, could be a lot worse than what Tonbo was suffering.

Kyuubi was supposed to have killed them all. Naruto shook his head. He must have missed a few. He knew at least Sakon and his freaky twin were dead. Or wait, he had only seen Sakon die. Would Ukon have ditched the body?

Something zipped by his cheek, tearing a jagged line through it. Naruto flinched and backed off, realizing that the bastard had found his hiding spot. And ow! The injury stung like no other but wasn't too deep. Just deep enough to bleed and deep enough to tell Naruto to keep his eye on the Sound nin.

Naruto walked out of his hiding spot. The arrow had punched through two walls and embedded itself in an iron stove. If Naruto wasn't so tired, he would have seriously been impressed.

"Aw, too bad. I thought that dull thud was my arrow hitting your head."

"No, but pretty damn close though." Naruto said lightly, touching the cut on his cheek. "You have x-ray vision too?"

"What can I say? My aim is fantastic." Kidomaru grinned, pointing his empty bow at Naruto. "I could hit your spleen from here. Or maybe your left kidney. You know, I think you can live without a kidney, how about I take that?"

"I know for a fact that you can't live with a huge gaping hole in you."

"Is that so? Too bad..." Kidomaru's grin took on a sinister edge. "For you."

----

Hanabi knew she was lagging behind the other kids but she really couldn't walk any faster. While exiting the Academy, she had nearly taken a tumble down some stairs but she caught herself with an awkward step. That awkward step, though it saved her from falling, was extremely painful. She tried to shake it off and keep walking but the pain still persisted.

Hanabi ducked her chin close to her chest, her teeth gritted together. Now what was more shameful that a Hyuuga accidentally twisting his or her own ankle? Had Hinata been the one to do, she would doubtlessly be forgiven, as she _always_ was. That was the upside to being viewed as a weakness, Hanabi supposed. No one ever expected much out of you.

Suzume, who stood at the end of the line of Academy students, looked down at Hanabi's bowed head in concern. She, of course, had had the gifted girl as a student once but the only thing she could remember about the Hyuuga was her extremely unfriendly attitude towards other students. It had only been a year or so since she had the girl in her class but it was apparent that her attitude hadn't changed at all.

All the children in front of Suzume walked in pairs of two or groups of three, all quietly chattering about what was going on and what their respective family members or older friends were probably doing at the moment. But Hanabi walked by herself, completely silent and utterly alone.

Suzume, overwhelmed suddenly by pity, was trying to screw up her nerve to talk to Hanabi (because, a third her age or not, Hanabi was _scary_) but someone beat her to it. Another girl that Suzume recognized chose that moment to address Hanabi.

"Boring!" Moegi declared to her two friends, Konohamaru and Udon, before she looked over her shoulder. "Hey, Hanabi-chan! Who do you think will beat more Oto nins, _jonins_ like Kakashi-san or _genins_ like Sasuke-kun?"

"Tch!" Konohamaru folded his arms over his head. The boy had started the conversation in an attempt to get Moegi to stop crying and it was working really well until he had made some comment about how little the genins would be able to do in that sort of situation. "It's only obvious, stupid! Jonins are much better than genins!"

Moegi turned back to him, a pout starting to form on her face. "But I heard that fighting started during the Chuunin Exam! There's a bunch of genins there, right? Including guys like that creepy Gaara kid, his siblings, and Sasuke-kun! Are you saying that you don't think that they're gonna do anything at all?"

This was a fairly upsetting topic for Moegi. She was so used to thinking that, once she turned twelve and passed the Genin Exam, she'd become a much stronger ninja who could better protect her friends and loved ones. Hearing Konohamaru state that the genins, a group of kids who she looked up to and wanted to be like, wouldn't be able to do much more than they, the Academy students, could do... Moegi was becoming very upset and very worried for the older genins.

Unintentionally but fortunately (because Moegi looked like she was going to cry again), Hanabi derailed her train of thought. "Sasuke...?" the girl asked softly. She frowned, trying to remember why the name felt familiar to her. "Who is that?" The topic change was able to calm down Moegi while, at the same time, bring Hanabi a little closer to her classmates. Without thinking about it, Hanabi quickened her pace a little until she was only a couple feet behind them.

Konohamaru's chest puffed out slightly and he grinned, buffing his fingertips on his shirt. He was the eight year old with the 'big kid' connections. "Uchiha Sasuke, of course," he said, like this was obvious. "A cool but grouchy guy. Naruto's better, of course."

Hanabi's reaction to the name was a little too sharp. "Naruto?" she said quietly. The next step she took nearly took her breath away but she bit her lip and kept all the signs of pain down to a minimum. Once she felt like she could talk without gasping, she spoke again. "Uzumaki Naruto?"

Konohamaru, with Moegi and Udon following his lead, lagged behind a little so that he could continue to talk to Hanabi. Moegi dropped back and fell into step with Hanabi while Konohamaru and Udon walked in front of them. Konohamaru confidently walked backwards while Udon, paranoid that he would walk into something, walked normally but kept turning his head back to look at them. Suzume, still walking a bit behind them, beamed at the group.

They didn't notice. "Yeah!" Konohamaru said enthusiastically, flapping his arms a bit. The eight year old's affection for the genin was obvious. Talking about Naruto was enough to put a grin on his face. "Naruto's the best, isn't he?" A thought occurred to Konohamaru. "Hey, how do you know him?"

Hanabi had a twisted look on her face, as if she had sucked on a lemon and had no idea whether she had liked the taste or abhorred it. As a matter of fact, Hanabi was having a hard time deciding whether she liked the fact that someone was talking to her or whether she regretted drawing more attention to herself in the first place.

"Hinata. My sister," the girl finally said, the words climbing out of her mouth in a stunted way. Hanabi looked off to the side, her voice becoming hushed. "She introduced us."

"Oh!" Moegi said, her eyes brightening. "You're related to Hinata-chan, aren't you?" It was a stupid question so Hanabi chose not to answer. Not that Moegi noticed. "Hinata-chan's really nice! Much better than Sakura..."

Konohamaru shivered, a pained look passing over his face. "Sakura _is_ nice but man, is she scary!" The troublesome trio winced in unison, all looking as if someone had just dragged a piece of ice down their spines. He made a face. "Hey... did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Moegi asked, her eyes wide.

Suzume paused, sweeping over her surroundings with her senses. She didn't hear anything- other than the fighting and the fire and the calling that had become like background noise. But then she heard it. It was a low, sobbing cackle, as mournful as it was insane. Knowing she had to find the source of it (what if it was a wounded civilian?), Suzume ordered the children to hurry up behind the other adults. Casting dubious glances in her direction, they nevertheless quickened their pace.

Suzume jumped up on a roof, pulling up her chakra to strengthen her senses. She heard the tail end of the kids' conversation.

"Hanabi." It was Konohomaru. He sounded submissively afraid and defiantly protective at the same time. "Can you...?"

Hanabi's breathed answer was nearly inaudible. "...Yes."

Suzume sought out the source of the noise, nervously chewing on her lip as she triangulated its poisition. Hearing the noise again, louder this time, she dropped down into an alley, darting down the length of it with quick feet and quicker eyes.

There was a dark curled up shape near one of the trash cans. The noise came from him again, half-sob, half-laugh. He clutched at his head, making the mournful sound again. He started whispering faintly, but what he said was inaudible to her. He was just a boy.

Her heart went out to him. Compassionate, she closed the last few steps between them, stopping only when the details of his murmurs became all too clear.

"Die, die, die..." The figure whispered fervently. He gulped a gasping breath and looked up, one small black eye sightless, the other hidden by dark silver hair. His painted mouth pulled in a faint grimacing smile as he saw her. Black marks fluttered over his face like fire.

Suzume opened her mouth, about ready to call for help (he wasn't theirs!) but only a gasp came out. His face was in hers, his almost delicate, feminine looking face. That face slowly changed into something hideous, something monstrous, something... inhuman.

The kunai in her chest twisted to the left, wresting a pained half-choked sound from her.

"Die." he whispered intimately, nothing but disdain for her. The kunai was dragged out of her chest, and blood... there was too much blood. She collapsed slowly to her knees, staring at him with uncomprehending eyes.

The boy was sobbing again, tugging at his hair and turning the silver into red with her blood. The black over his pale face flew faster. He dug his nails into his face, cutting skin, as he bared his teeth and stared at the sky. A wet torn noise escaped his throat just then and he let out a bloodcurdling scream, a name.

"_SAKON!!!_"

Suzume... died.

---

Kidoumaru was unresponsive when Kimimaro found him. Clear of obvious wounds, the boy was nevertheless out for the count, twitching occasionally and moaning. His was not the sleep of peace and happiness. It was hardly a sleep at all.

Kimimaro cast his gaze over the area. Genjutsu. Where was the caster? There was blood on the floor, yes, blood that did not register to his senses as blood of Orochimaru's cursed children. That there was corruption there in the blood was unmistakable, but it was unfamiliar. That the blood on the floor was plentiful was also undeniable, but held little interest for Kimimaro, save for a most minor point.

Where was the body? His sharp eyes quickly picked up a battered and beaten up headband of Konoha lying near the blood, but that told him nothing.

Kimimaro turned his eyes back to his burden, narrowing them. Kidoumaru appeared to be suffering from a type of genjutsu that Kimimaro could not dispel. The binding was powerful. Kidoumaru's anguish was obvious.

Kimimaro didn't care.

A barely audible click sounded behind him. He jerked quickly, a bone sliding into his hand. There was nothing, a tile had fallen and hit the ground. There was no one to be seen or sensed. And yet, there was undeniably a presence of someone.

He stood there stiffly, waiting for an attack. None came. Eyes were on him, curious but not hostile. Watchful but indifferent. They weren't waiting for him to trip up. They were waiting for him to leave. They were not of the Leaf or Sound. They were someone else, someone apart.

Kimimaro relaxed. It was not any of his business.

He tossed Kidoumaru over his shoulder, the action more gentle than he would have usually. Though he wasn't normally the one who was easily frightened, he was ill at ease with the lack of response from the boy. That, as well as the sheer strength of the genjutsu and the complete silence of the street. Those eyes were killer eyes.

He left quickly, trying not think how the only two Sound nins he could find were Kidoumaru and a half-mad Ukon, and how both were unconscious or unresponsive. To think that Orochimaru and his forces could have been hurt so badly by the ninjas of Konoha- it was almost blasphemy. He did not look forward to hearing the fallout of this. He hoped that, at the very least, Orochimaru would have his host in Sasuke. If he did not get the boy, then what was the purpose of this venture?

In his hurry to leave, Kimimaro failed to notice the shadow detaching itself from the wall.

A darkly cloaked figure, his form appearing out of no where, watched the two Sound nins disappear in the distant. A strong wind tossed the outer cloak about, revealing a red and black cloak underneath.

Almost without thought, his gaze dropped down to his left, his eyes drawn beyond the blood to the glinting metal of the abused headband. He bent over at the waist and picked it up, a thumb idly swiping over the engraved leaf. Blood smeared thinly over the etching. He thought it was oddly symbolic, if not morbid. But that was what Konoha was- death, life, hate, love. He wished it wasn't so.

His free hand tightened in a fist. Konoha would always smell like smoke, sakura, and blood to him, and nothing would change that. Considering the etched leaf for one last moment, he pocketed the headband gently and turned around, tipping his straw hat down slightly as he went.

The streets were empty, and the body, where he laid it on a bench, was left untouched. A chest moved up and down slowly. A chakra system struggled to renew itself. Open wounds bled softly and bruises deepened. Breath rattled between a pair of parched lips.

Itachi stared at the still marked face for a while before dropping to one knee. His eyes moved up, the movement almost involuntary, until his red eyes fell upon the last grave face etched in stone, high above the village. He looked back down. The similarities were unmistakable.

With a near silent sigh, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the headband and placed it over the torn, dusty, and blood spattered vest, tucking it under one tanned hand.

What a stupidly brave boy.

He rose to his feet and left.

----

Sakura just about froze when she saw who was brought in next. Her knees locked, her throat tightened, and her vision narrowed on that pale familiar face. He looked dead already. _Oh no oh no_. She mentally gasped, her fist clenching. _Please no, not him_.

Ever since their group had been pushed, prodded, and bullied into the limited sanctuary that was the hospital, Sakura had pushed, prodded, and harassed the nurses and medic nins to allow her to help. She was far from having a legitimate license to work in the hospital but she had training, so she could, at the very least, fetch stuff for people!

Rin, who was one of the medic nins that had been called in, sympathized and did some harassing of her own. Rin was far more successful than Sakura at that and even got the offer extended to the other genins, who, at this point, had nothing better to do than sit in one of the crowded hallways and twiddle their thumbs.

No one was surprised that nearly every one jumped up to help.

Sakura herself was nearly chomping at the bit to do something, anything. The hospital was so overcrowded with the injured and scared. She found just talking to them made her own fears lessen. It wasn't enough to make her forget that Naruto was out there alone, that her teacher was seriously injured, and that Sasuke was in a forced sleep because of the injuries he had sustained. And that was without thinking about where her parents were in this mess of a situation.

No, getting involved didn't ease her fears but the action definitely soothed her, allowing her to move about and through the crowds of the injured without the sort of fearful tension that others like Ino had.

But that was before she saw his face.

Sakura unfroze abruptly but Hinata made it to his side first, on the heels of one of the nurses. The man who had brought him in- _Hey, that's Hinata's dad, _Sakura realized numbly- kneeled down with the boy in his arms. The nurse checked for a pulse, then took a look at one of his more serious injuries.

"Hm... this is a deep cut, several hours old." she said, looking at Hinata. "He must have kept reopening it, probably while running." Hinata nodded seriously. Without seeming to think about it, her eyes suddenly flashed. She looked him over critically, pointing out the gash on his leg.

"This one has something embedded close to the vein, be careful while taking it out." the nurse nodded, signaling to some of the other nurses to bring in a stretcher. Her eyes never left Hinata though. "His heart is beating very slow... he needs blood, now." Hinata's gaze drifted down his torso. "There's also some damage to his left kidney. Two of his ribs are broken."

"I carried him very carefully." Hinata's father said, finally speaking up. His deep voice seemed to shock Hinata out of whatever zone she had gotten in to. She flushed a bright red, looking her father in the face for a half of a second before looking away.

"O-of course you did." she said nervously. The stretcher came just at that moment and the boy was placed on the stretcher. Quickly, he was whisked away, disappearing from Sakura's sight just as suddenly as he appeared.

Hinata turned to her, her eyes open and worried. "You know him, don't you?" she asked softly, her concern obvious to even the casual listener.

"Yes." Sakura said sadly. "That's... Haku. He's a- a friend of ours, Team Seven." She didn't realize that she was crying until the first warm drop hit her clasped hands. She stared down at them like they were some alien thing. Her chest felt tight around her lungs but she labored to get out a strong breath and barely managed, her smile slightly shaky.

"He is a good ninja." Hinata's father said unemotionally. "He fought with honor to protect Konoha. That is all you can ask for." He reached into one of his sleeves and pulled out a bloodied explosive tag. "Do not mourn. Learn. This is what he chose to do and would have done to protect this village."

Sakura stared at the tag in muted horror, realizing what he meant. If he hadn't stepped in, Haku would have... would have killed himself? Tried to take out his enemy and him at the same time? She had to ask herself if she could have done that, performed virtual suicide to save her village. All she could think was an emphatic 'no!'

From a ninja perspective, it was admirable to see how far Haku would go. From a personal perspective, it was absolutely horrible. She looked up at Hiashi. Some of this must have reflected in her expression because he took her hand and put it in her palm. He closed her fingers around it.

"Do not belittle his sacrifice for it was his choice." he said "To him, the people he cared about were worth more than the continuation of his life." With that, he walked away.

Rin rested her hand on Sakura's shoulder suddenly. When she looked up, the woman was gazing at her with gently compassion.

"Sakura... We don't have any medic nins on staff who can treat him fast enough. We're all out of chakra." Rin gestured to the area Haku had been carried off to. "We can do it the normal way, of course. In fact, we're getting some blood set up for a transfusion right now but..." She bit her lip. "It's probably not going to work. I'm sorry, I know he's your friend."

Sakura had a sudden idea. "I heard that there's medic nins outside."

Rin nodded. "Yes, there are."

"How many fights have there been?"

"Few. The ninjas tend to run away when they see that there's more than one team out there."

There was a bluster of commotion from off to the side that took their attention away from each other but, seeing the situation handled, they turned back. Sakura blinked at the sudden addition of Shikamaru to their group, having honestly not noticed his approach.

Shikamaru had a pinched look on his face. "These teams are made up of four people and, considering the layout of this building, there's, what, four of them?"

"Five actually." Rin pointed up. "There's one on the roof."

"So that's twenty medic nins you have out there that are needed in here." Shikamaru, if at all possible, looked even more irritated than before.

Rin sighed and shot the genin a sharp but understanding look. "We need the defense. That's why we're still here, because we're almost safe, with them out there."

"But a four man team is not a team for stealth." he pointed out. He crossed his arms over his chest. "They're working as our eyes right now, aren't they?"

After a moment, Rin nodded. "If they can neutralize the threat, they will. If they can't, then they retreat back here... so, yes, I suppose you could say that." She looked suspicious all of a sudden. "Why are you asking me this?"

Shikamaru had his eyes half-closed in thought. The tips of his fingers pressed together lightly in front of him. "Can we spare at least five ninjas from the defense?"

"I'm not sure." Rin had a troubled look on her face. "I know it's doable, but I'm not sure if it's wise."

"It's unwise to have medic nins outside when we need them in here." Shikamaru pointed out. "We can replace the fourth member with another medic nin or, better yet-" he extended his hand to encompass not only himself and Sakura, but also Kiba and Chouji, who were watching. "One of us."

Emboldened by his strategy, Sakura added in her own two cents. "We need those medic nins, Rin." she said, pleading. "Not just for Haku but for the others as well."

Rin stared at them for a long moment, then a smile lit up her tired face. "You may be on to something here."

---

Back in his younger years, he had been one of the fastest runners in his village, fastest messenger. Tazuna broke records with how easily he could fly across the ground. It had, in fact, been one of the things that initially attracted his late wife to him before they knew and fell in love with one another. Running was something he looked back on fondly as something he did well.

In his old age, he realized he wasn't quite the runner he used to be. He was a little wider around the middle and his knees and back tended to complain under the stress. He got winded quick. Knowing all this didn't stop him from running and trying to lead that damn snake away.

When you grow up, he pondered tiredly, there are certain things that become more meaningful than your own well being. He could think of two people who jumped to mind, his daughter and his grandson. He'd do just about damn near anything to help them, make them happy, or keep them alive. They were the sum of his world. Without them, his world would cease to exist.

He fully expected to die once he started running.

He didn't expect to outrun the snake or to be able to duck and hide in some of the alleys. He didn't expect the cloaked group to come out of nowhere and beat the living hell out of the second snake. He didn't expect for the remains of a bridge to fall on another one. And he sure as hell didn't expect the fourth one to turn its nose up at him, like he wasn't worthy enough prey!

Wait, he was supposed to be happy about that, right?

Yes, he was ecstatic about that, he decided. No need to jinx himself any further.

_Now all I need to do is lie low and avoid the snakes._ Easy. He rapidly reviewed that thought and smacked his forehead. So much for not jinxing himself!

So it was with heavy paranoia and great caution that he glanced around the corner of the building, peering into the alley. The tall buildings, crammed up against each other with no sense of personal space, threw off his sense of direction. For all he knew, he was running around in circles.

There was a clatter and a bang in the alleyway. Tazuna flinched and ducked back, still watching with tired eyes and listening with ears made sharp with stress. He heard something scurry- little tap tap taps against the ground. Tazuna gasped, his heart beating wildly.

It was swift, it was fast, it was turning the corner! He flattened himself against the wall, fearing the sight of another snake, fearing his approaching death...

But it was just a cat.

"Meowr." The cat acknowledged him bad temperedly. Tazuna sagged to the ground in relief.

"Oh, it's just you." he smiled, slightly giddy. The cat continued to give him a gimlet eye. "Don't like this situation either, do you?"

The cat flicked its tail at him disdainfully and sauntered off. Laughing, Tazuna mopped the sweat off of his brow, following it out into the street. Okay, he needed to calm down, just a little bit. He'd never hear the end of it if he died of a heart attack but lived through a ninja invasion. He paused, reconsidering that thought, then started walking again.

Live. Damn. He didn't know he could be that optimistic again. Not after... everything.

The street was empty and quiet. Even the sulky cat was gone. Tazuna frowned each way of the street, unable to sense chakra but straining his senses anyway. There was nothing but...

A shape. A form. A tiny, tiny form. A child's body on a bench.

He took one shaky step towards the bench and shuttered, feeling the blood drain out of his face. His eyes darted over the scene, the torn clothes, the blood, the tattered bit of metal and cloth. A tan arm dangled over the edge and brushed its knuckles against the ground, the body it was connected to as still as death.

Tazuna pressed the heel of his hand to his mouth, nausea rising.

_Naruto..._

----

To be NOT continued.

AN: Seriously, not finishing this, guys. I have a life, and that life does not include Naruto anymore. I was urged to take the bits of chapter 57 I had cluttering my hard drive to give to you as closure. No more will I write this.

I started this when I was fourteen and stupid and while I enjoyed writing this, flying by the seat of my pants as I went, I do not anymore. I'm in college now, and college is rough, and the Naruto fandom is no longer my fandom of choice. Naruto is becoming a little bit too much like DBZ for my tastes.

Will I update ever again? Unlikely. Is Naruto dead? Maybe. Can you continue/rewrite this story? Have at it. I don't care. Am I dead/sick/maimed/eaten by Nargles? No, but thank you for your concern.

You've all been tolerant of my faults and stumbles. Thank you and good bye.


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